As part of our ISO 14001 certification, Zoocha made a commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2025. This has now been achieved through our collaboration with Carbon Neutral Britain!
Through our partnership with Carbon Neutral Britain, we have been able to identify the source of the emissions generated by our business operations, and put in place proactive opportunities to reduce emissions across each of these areas. In order to tackle the existing carbon emissions generated by Zoocha, our team decided to offset against the verified programs offered by Carbon Neutral Britain, supporting projects across the globe.
Each project chosen by Zoocha has been verified by internationally certified carbon offsetting regulators, in order to ensure that our investment into each project has a direct positive impact on the environment and local community.
Our Road to Carbon Neutral
In August 2022 our team achieved ISO 14001 certification to a UKAS rated standard where the scope covers all business activities. This certification involved a comprehensive review and audit of our internal Environmental Management System to ensure Zoocha were prioritising sustainability across all of our services delivered to our clients.
In response to our target to reach Carbon Neutral status by 2025, our team mobilised the 'Team Carbon Neutral' collective within Zoocha, a voluntary set of individuals across a range of roles in our team who are passionate about supporting Zoocha in reducing our emissions. This team have since implemented a number of policies, procedures and best practices in Zoocha that have aided in reducing the emissions generated by our operations.
In 2023, as part of our Great Place to Work survey, we collected feedback from our team on the importance of environmental sustainability to them. This also allowed us to collect feedback and ideas on how we can improve as a business in terms of our commitment to sustainability. With this commitment solidified by our team, we were energised to continue to track the emissions generated and introduce mitigating factors.
Across 2024, our team have been working with Carbon Neutral Britain to further track, analyse and report the emissions produced by our team across a granular level of detail. This has resulted in offsetting our existing output, as well as establishing a roadmap for reduction.
What Next?
Offsetting our emissions is just the start of our commitment to environmental sustainability. Using the outputs from the report shared by Carbon Neutral Britain and working with our own 'Carbon Neutral' collective of Zoocha team members, Zoocha will continue to work to reduce the emissions generated by our business operations.
This will include targeting the emissions generated by our office activity and work-related transport, both of which represent our highest areas of output. As a remote-friendly business, Zoocha will continue to support our team in flexible working arrangements that reduce CO2 emissions generated as a result of commuting and using the office space. Furthermore, we're aiming to review our office space and target areas of waste, working with our local council to improve the energy efficiency of our physical space.
Our Technical Director, who has had a fundamental role in our achievement of Carbon Neutral status, shares his thoughts on the certification:
"Our journey to carbon neutrality reflects the commitment of the entire Zoocha team to creating a sustainable future. Achieving this milestone is not the end of our efforts, but a foundation to build upon as we continue to reduce emissions, embrace innovation, and support impactful global projects. Sustainability is integral to who we are, and we look forward to driving even greater change in the years ahead."
