Over the past year JOS have begun the process of reporting our carbon emissions in line with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the BEIS Environmental Reporting guidelines. This has been carried out using the smart carbon calculator. This has allowed us to reach step 2 of 5 on the Smart Carbon programme.
We are now able to publish our verified baseline year report for 2023 – 2024. This will soon be followed by our 2024-2025 year. Our Baseline figure is 1,292 tCO2e.
Carbon (CO2e) reporting is complex and sometimes difficult to put into perspective. Our emissions are governed by a few key items which contribute the most. These are the purchase of carbon intense materials such as ready-mix concrete and steel reinforcement (47% of total CO2e in baseline year). This can vary from year to year depending on how much of these materials our client will ask us to supply. If our client provides these materials, they will account or the CO2e in their reporting.
Because of this large contribution, we are reporting and monitoring reduction in CO2e in CO2e per m3 of concrete supplied. This equates to 0.91tCO2e/ m3 for the baseline year. We will monitor this metric in the future.
Our first approach to reducing carbon will target the highest contributing areas first. With Carbon and Steel reinforcement, material selection will be the area we target to reduce our emissions. We will work with our supply chain and clients to select products which comply with the specification whilst having a greater recycled material content or reduced cement content.
Other larger contributors to our carbon emissions are associated with travel and delivery vehicles. We will target vehicle selection when renewing fleet vehicles. This will include:
- Utilising hybrid or electric propulsion over pure internal combustion engine vehicles.
- Increasing the payload of vehicles to reduce the number of vehicle movements for deliveries.
We will be shortly setting a strategy to target a steady reduction in our emissions which will detail this further. This will allow us to reach step 3 of 5 on the Smart Carbon programme.
JOS progress on the smart carbon programme began with level 1 which was achieved when Ella Robinson completed the Advanced Carbon Accounting Course delivered by Northumbria University in partnership with SmartCarbon. With the publication of our baseline year report, which aligns with the principles of the GHG Protocol we’ve advanced to level 2.
This means we now understand where our carbon hotspots are. We are using this to set targets for our Net Zero ambitions (level 3) and then targeting these areas to reduce our CO2e (level 4). The ultimate aim of achieving level 5 will be once we show a year-on-year reduction for 5 years.
We are excited to continue working with SmartCarbon as we move forward on a more sustainable path.
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