Hemming Group are responding to the climate emergency head on.  Our Green House Gas emissions reduction goals of 50% reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050 are aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement and our plan to reach those goals include both large and small targeted changes on a month by month basis.

Purpose

The purpose of this Environmental Sustainability Policy is to outline our commitment to reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions (hereafter referred to as GHGs, emissions or CO2e) and reducing our waste footprint, within our organisation, and in the products we deliver. This will be known as “Get Zero!”.

We will communicate this policy to all our stakeholders, including clients, suppliers and staff. We will do this to enable them to work with us in achieving our ambitions in this important area. 

We recognise that the environmental impacts from our products mostly derive from –

• emissions from fuel usage and waste from single-use items
• paper, printing and delivery
• use of IT, including the internet and particularly the use of AI 

We therefore hope to increase environmental awareness across our organisation and with our suppliers and customers with this policy and embed carbon reduction and zero-waste practices in our everyday business and interactions with stakeholders.

Our values and the environment 

Strategic – we have a clear ideas of where we want to be in five years and a roadmap of how we intend to get there
Once we have our base year assessment we will be able to commit to a clear set of mile stones on our journey to 50% reduction and net zero

Collaborative – we respect each others work loads and timescales and understand the importance of working together to meet our common goals
Only by working together will we be able to achieve our goals

Innovative – we value and nurture creativity; investing in it to create innovative, ground-breaking solutions for our customers and markets.
Reaching our goals will involve creativity and a willingness to innovate our processes, products and services

Sustainable – we strive to achieve the triple bottom line of People Profit Planet and to balance the needs of all three
We acknowledge the business imperative as well as the moral imperative bound up in reducing our GHGes and in actively spreading the importance of this issue in all our sector audiences.

Ethical – we are a decent and honourable company to work for and do business with and we understand the importance of supporting mutual growth
Ethically and morally it is no longer a matter of choice to address the climate disaster or to use our influence to help our customers in their own GHGe reduction journeys.

Statement of Intent

Net-zero Goals

Our aim as a responsible business is to create a future fit for everyone. We therefore publicly support a 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels future and are aligning our climate mitigation targets to reach Net Zero Global emissions by 2050 at the latest across our company operations.
We further aim to reduce our emissions by 11% annually to reach the 2030 target of 50% reduction since our base year of 2023

We also recognise that most of our business activities are Scope 3 as they are contracted services. Therefore, we commit to measuring emissions from business activities across energy, travel and transport, catering and production, printing and delivery and our online and in-office work.

We aim to reduce business emissions from products we deliver and contract, in line with a 1.5°C pathway.  Where no greater emissions reduction is possible at that time we will consider mitigating them with accredited offsetting projects appropriate to the sector served.

The Circular Economy

In addition, we are committed to becoming a Circular Economy business. This means we will reduce waste across all company owned operations with a view to diverting 90% from landfill and incineration. We are also committed to running “Circular Events” across our five test events in 2025, increasing that to cover all event deliveries by 2030. This means we will divert 90% from landfill and incineration. 
Monitoring and Reporting
We commit to monitor, review and report on our progress on a annual basis and use the ongoing learnings to inform our approach to reducing emissions and waste across our operational and event activities. 

Our commitments 

We are committed to responsible environmental operations, publishing and event planning and as such commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and waste across both our operational activities and our product delivery.  We have applied the basic/better/best practice grades to our commitments. In order to achieve this, we are committed to:

• Joining Science Based Targets initiative Business Ambition for 1.5°C - Best practice
• Halving our greenhouse gas emissions before 2030 across all company owned operations. To do this we will set 2023 as our baseline year and set a yearly reduction target of at least 15% - Better practice
• Achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050 or sooner if possible - Best practice
• Disclosing our progress on a yearly basis - Best practice
•  Integrating positive climate activity in business strategy - Best practice

Our environmental journey

2024

We are conducting a comprehensive assessment to understand our greenhouse gas emissions caused by the materials and energy we use in the production and provision of our products and the pursuit of our business for our base year of 2023.
We are pinpointing both our areas of high emission and easy wins and are planning how to make impactful reductions in those areas.

Our environmental champions

We believe that it is imperative that our people are involved at every level of our environmental journey if we are to achieve our stated, net zero goals.  We have a panel of Champions drawn from all our teams who guide and drive our environmental improvements and reductions at our grassroots level.

2025 – 2030

We will continue to monitor and assess our GHGe annually to pinpoint areas to make reductions; plan how to change our processes and the materials we use and execute those plans.

• We will question our customers and our own needs to and reduce the quantity of materials used
• We will include environmental reductions and the circular economy at the planning stage of all our products.
• We will work with our suppliers, supporting their reduction journeys, working towards only working with those who have pledged to Race to Zero or committed to Science Based Targets by 2030.
• Request our events landlords to switch to a 100% renewable energy provider
• Support our employees to switch to renewable energy in their homes
• Support our employees to switch to electric vehicles
•  Actively promoting lower impact travel options for staff travel with reward schemes in place. 
• Measuring our annual emissions from staff travel for meetings and events, and for company transport. Staff will be asked to keep a record of their travel to and from meetings and events to facilitate measurement.
• Setting limits and / or restrictions on flights for business travel to ensure reductions are in line with our 1.5 °C commitment. 
• Communicating to staff that business travel should be undertaken by low-emitting transport wherever this can be done in less than a business day. This includes C-Suite travel.
• Offering a 75/25 split for plant-based options in staff and parties and in-office catering. our communal kitchens / internal and external. At least 50% of beverages will be plant-based.
• Diverting food waste from landfill and ensuring our office and facilities buildings have food composting bins and the relevant collection service and reducing food waste in our offices by educating staff.
• Ensuring that waste is segregated within our offices with contractors to manage these.
• Reducing emissions associated with services we are contracted to deliver as far as possible, starting from the beginning of the project. 
• Writing a Sustainable Energy Plan for every product to detail our mitigation methods across energy, gas and other fuel usage.
• Design plant based menus across all our events with the option for vegetarian or non-red meat for the main course.
• Setting targets on each event to reduce the number of miles travelled by produce to ensure food is locally produced and requesting menus do not feature out of season produce. 
• Hiring as many assets as possible, such as furniture and decor, even when purchase may be cheaper, unless these items have a designated post-event life.  Where hiring is not feasible, we will Prioritising sustainably sourced materials e.g. renewable or recycled sources and design assets with the Circular Economy in mind to reduce potential waste generation.
• Ensuring a segregated waste stream onsite which includes bins for coffee cups and food waste for 100% of our events. Where we are not responsible for catering, we will work with the caterers collaboratively to ensure efficient and effective waste management across the whole events.  We will only use biodegradable or compostable materials when it has been confirmed there is a waste collection stream available for them and that they are being correctly managed. Where we cannot confirm this management, we will opt for traditional materials that we can ensure will be recycled