Why we are committing to Net Zero Carbon by 2020

On 11th December, we declared a climate emergency with our fellow BCorp members. Along with this declaration, we have also committed to achieve Net Zero Carbon by the end of this year.

We strongly believe that there is indeed an emergency which needs to be urgently addressed. This declaration is strongly aligned to our company vision: To provide solutions for a zero carbon world. Part of our mission statement is to make a material difference to global carbon targets and so it is important to us that we lead by example. We are ‘here to help you achieve zero’ and we strongly believe in doing this ourselves.

Verco is a passionate team of sustainability professionals, committed to reducing the environmental impacts of our clients and within our own business and personal lives. Our commitment is also part of a much wider CSR initiative in Verco. We are extremely proud of our BCorp status and have also been ISO 14001 compliant since 2011. We have a dedicated CSR team across the business, with representatives in each of our three offices. Our team is continuously improving business practices aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals including “Climate Action”, “Responsible Consumption and Production” and “Sustainable Cities and Communities”, which were chosen through employee surveys. The goals are formally included in our company CSR and Environmental strategy. Performance against these is monitored annually .

Activities we undertook in 2019 included:

· Taking part in annual volunteering days

· Sharing and communicating CSR ideas through our innovation boards

· Reducing energy, water and waste consumption at our offices

· Changing our procurement strategies

· Taking part in initiatives such as Bike Weeks and plastic free weeks.

We also have several Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Ambassadors who, with Verco’s support, volunteer through the charity STEM Learning to engage young people with STEM and encourage a passion and career development in these subjects (read more about our STEM Ambassadors here).

As well as committing to meet our Net Zero Carbon target, our CSR team have some other exciting plans for 2020 so watch this space to find out what we get up to!