Carbon Reduction Plan 2024-25

Meeting the reporting requirements

This Carbon Reduction Plan complies with PPN 06/21, as published by the Cabinet Office in June 2021. This document will be reviewed and updated annually in accordance with industry standards and regulatory requirements.

Baseline Carbon Emissions

Baseline Year: 1^st of June 2024 – 1^st of June 2025
Additional Details relating to the Baseline Emissions calculations.
Souter Bros Ltd. is a private limited SME company. We are therefore not obligated to report our emissions under the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) regulations. Due to our company size, we have not previously reported emissions. We will be using the most recent reporting year (2024-2025) as our baseline moving forward. Our total emissions for the reporting year 2024-25 are 14,566 kg CO₂e. To provide a comprehensive view of our organisation’s emissions, we are reporting our emissions data associated with our storefront location at North Middlesex University Hospital, Sterling Way, London N18 1QX. Since we only use a blend of homeworking and on-site working, we do not maintain an office space. During our baseline year, we had 6 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employees within our organisation. As we expand into additional locations, we expect to grow and employ more staff. This will increase our carbon footprint initially, though we will put measures in place to reduce the impact proportionally.
Baseline year emissions: 14,566 kg CO₂e
EMISSIONS	TOTAL 14,566 kg CO₂e
Scope 1	Souter Bros. is a provider for refreshments and ethically sourced coffee to NHS Trusts, running on-site cafés. We have 1 fleet vehicle in operation. We do not produce any emissions directly from our activities through owned or controlled sources such as: Burning coal onsite to generate electricity Using diesel to power onsite generators Therefore, our scope 1 emissions are only 441 kg CO₂e.
Scope 2	Our Scope 2 data consists of electricity and gas estimated through our office and café sites. Since we do not pay utilities directly, these have been estimated based on square footage and average UK use for office spaces and cafes without kitchens and takes into account our café opening hours. Neither site uses gas for our facilities, so this calculation only takes into account electricity. Energy kg CO₂e Electricity 3,726.90 Gas 0 Total 3,726.90
Scope 3 (Included Sources)	Our Scope 3 footprint is dominated by emissions resulting from business travel and employee commuting. Category kg CO₂e Upstream deliveries 6,814 Employee commuting 2,467 Business travel 132 Waste disposal 861 Water 124 Total 10,398 When calculating the above information, we have made the following assumptions: Working patterns based on 37.5 hour weeks Employee commuting based on 48 working weeks per employee Since we have not previously monitored water usage, we used an estimate of 1,000 litres a day. This is based on the industry average for a café of our size and type of amenities. Moving forward, we will look to implement a more robust monitoring system for water usage and treatment. We do not include downstream deliveries within this scope, as all deliveries we make are conducted with our fleet vehicle and are therefore included in Scope 1.
Total Emissions	14,566 kg CO₂e

Emission reduction targets

To continue our progress toward achieving Net Zero by 2050, we have adopted the following carbon reduction targets:

Targets
2025	2035	2040	2050
14,566	7,282	3,641	0

Figure 1: Our carbon reduction targets by year

As illustrated in Figure 1, our targets project a significant initial reduction. This ambitious approach is deliberate, recognising the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions.

We also aim to improve our data tracking and monitoring processes to improve the quality and accuracy of the carbon related data in future years.

Carbon reduction projects

The carbon reduction opportunities outlined in this section, once fully implemented, will reduce our GHG emissions annually, aligning with our goal of achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050 at the latest. As mentioned above, we may initially increase our carbon footprint as we recruit a larger team but will work to reduce this by 2035. To achieve this, we will explore options for measuring carbon emissions relative to headcount or annual turnover.

In subsequent years, we will work to identify and implement methods for more accurately reporting emissions across all scopes. We will train all staff on our environmental policies and encourage employees to share ideas and suggestions for further reducing carbon.

Scope 1 actions

Identify energy efficient vehicles as these are required by the business. We will also begin exploring options for installing an electric vehicle port once we grow to more sites and require a larger office space
Implement more robust monitoring procedures for energy use in partnership with our office management and café site management
Offset any residual CO₂ emissions through the purchase of equivalent carbon emissions credits from an International Carbon Reduction & Offset Alliance (ICROA) provider

Scope 2 actions

Introduce power management policies for hardware such as laptops, PCs, printers as necessary
Introduce more robust tracking strategies for energy and gas consumption on sites
Offset any residual CO₂ emissions through the purchase of equivalent carbon emissions credits from an International Carbon Reduction & Offset Alliance (ICROA) provider

Scope 3 actions

Employee commuting

Recruit within the local area to reduce travel needs, ideally employees within a walkable distance for zero emission commuting
We will interrogate our data from travel to better understand if and where carbon reductions can be made
Continue to encourage the use of public transport, particularly walking and green buses, as well as car sharing. Currently 50% of employees partake in these methods of transport
Continue to support and encourage hybrid/homeworking where applicable
Encourage the continued use of virtual meeting platforms where possible
Promote cycling to work by providing information and participating in cycle-to-work schemes

Waste disposal

Donate used coffee grounds to the NHS site to use as fertiliser, reducing waste sent to landfill. This is already a strategy in place which we would implement in future sites
Work with our waste management provider to ensure we prioritise sustainable practices, such as recycling all non-hazardous waste and reducing mileage on collections
Use products made from recycled materials to reduce virgin resource use
Transition to biodegradable, compostable, or reusable packaging materials to limit waste and lower carbon output
Provide recycling stations in all café locations to ensure proper disposal of materials, including paper, plastics and organic waste
Complete waste audits to maximise recycling and minimise waste production
Partner with local organisations to ensure that food waste is composted or donated where possible

Water use

Identify water-saving strategies and innovations to minimise wasted water in the production of beverages like coffee and tea
Promote water conservation awareness among employees through regular communication and training
Implement more robust processes for water use monitoring

Upstream transportation and ethical sourcing

Currently, all upstream transportation is limited to a 60-mile radius from our sites. Adding value through ethical sourcing, we will aim to only source Fairtrade certified coffee and tea. Fairtrade Standards require small producers to take steps in order to:

Adapt to climate change
Reduce the production of greenhouse gases and increase carbon sequestration (this is the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere)
Avoid deforestation and protect forests
Tackle soil erosion and increase soil fertility
Reduce water usage

Additionally, we source all food from our locally based partners, such as bakeries in London for our North Middlesex location.

As we expand, we will work with our upstream suppliers to:

Implement accurate tracking methods
Take on new partners who are local and maintain a sustainability policy
Explore options for greener transportation, such as hybrid vehicles

Declaration and sign-off

This Carbon Reduction Plan has been completed in accordance with PPN 06/21 and associated guidance and reporting standards for Carbon Reduction Plans.

Emissions have been reported and recorded in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the GHG Reporting Protocol corporate standard and use the appropriate government emission conversion factors for GHG company reporting.

Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions have been reported in accordance with Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) requirements, and the required subset of Scope 3 emissions have been reported in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard.