In 2019, the UK Government amended the Climate Change Act 2008 to introduce a 100% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to 1990 levels by 2050 – otherwise known as the Net Zero Target.
Cantium, and its sole shareholder, Kent County Council, have both committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their own estate, operations and wholly owned traded services to Net Zero by 2030. Cantium has released its Carbon Reduction Plan, outlining its commitment to this target.
The plan outlines Cantium’s compliance with Action Note PPN 06/21, which sets out how to take account of suppliers’ Net Zero Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts.
Cantium’s Progress So Far
Since 2019/2020, Cantium has been reducing its GHG emissions in the following ways:
Communication
We communicate with our workforce regularly through our internal intranet site and staff dial-ins. Our staff are engaged in environmental matters via blogs and articles that build awareness and support them to reduce their own footprint – whether working from our offices or remotely. The content themes include recycling, waste reduction, reuse, saving energy and water, and public initiatives such as World Environment Day.
Training
We have educated our staff on climate change, our policies, the roadmap to achieve Net-Zero by 2030, and personal actions staff can undertake such as sustainable car use, use of public transportation, walking and cycling, remote working, and waste reduction. We do this via the Environmental Awareness and Smarter Travel courses that form part of our induction and mandatory training requirements for all staff.
Schemes
We have partnered with KCS Professional Services to launch an electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme, offering our staff the opportunity to drive away in a brand-new electric car with no upfront costs.
Certification
We hold ISO 14001 certification, audited annually by the British Assessment Bureau. The work put into acquiring and maintaining this certification has reduced Cantium’s environmental impacts and controls environmental risks.
Kent County Council Initiatives and Schemes
Initiatives and schemes by KCC ensure that the facilities management providers for our premises hold ISO 14001 to comply with their (and our) own ISO 14001 certification. Our buildings, as per the KCC capital investment programme, include the installation of solar panels and sensor-activated lighting. KCC ensure contractors are aware of the Environmental Policy and considers whether they have their own EMS before awarding work.
The carbon emission reduction achieved by these schemes equates to 167tCO2e, a 49.55% reduction against our 2019/2020 baseline.
In the future, we plan to implement further measures including:
- Halfords Cycle2Work scheme
- Improved, focused mandatory training course for new and current staff
- Encouraging uptake of our electric car scheme
Cantium’s Next Steps
To continue our progress to achieving Net Zero, we have adopted the following carbon reduction targets:
We aim to decrease carbon emissions over the next five years to 78tCO2e by 2026/27. This is a reduction of 54% from 2021/22 performance and 77% from baseline 2019/20 performance.
During 2022/23 we intend to assess our supply chains for key carbon-emitting activities (Scope 3) and action plans. We will then monitor carbon reduction performance against their policies, championing carbon reduction. ISO 14001 certification or policies following such principles are sought to ensure suppliers focus on their environmental impact. We also include the use of the TOMs (Themes, Outcomes and Measures) framework within our major tendering processes.
You can read more about how Cantium aims to achieve Net Zero by 2030 in our Carbon Reduction Plan.
