Blog by Rob Milligan – Funding and Partnerships Manager, Tai Pawb
Here at Tai Pawb we believe that managing our environmental impact is an essential part of being a responsible organisation. Annually we calculate our carbon footprint to better understand how we can reduce our emissions and be kinder to our Earth.
Our recent calculations show promising progress. Between 2023-24 and 2024-25, our estimated carbon Footprint dropped from 25 tCO₂e to 21 tCO₂e, a reduction of 4 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent and around 16% year-on-year. We saw reductions across all our emissions categories.
You might be thinking that our carbon footprint seems relatively high for a small organisation of just 10 staff members. But this is because we deliberately tried to capture as much of our environmental impact as possible, particularly our scope 3 emissions.
Some approaches to carbon assessments can focus more on direct energy use and travel, but we really made and effort to focus on the indirect emissions related to our purchased goods and services, business travel, and wider supply chain activities. We wanted to ensure a more accurate and transparent idea of our impact, even if it results in a higher overall figure than would be expected for an organisation like Tai Pawb.
Where our emissions came from:
For 2023-24, Tai Pawb’s estimated emissions were:
- Scope 1: 5.4 tCO₂e
- Scope 2: 1.0 tCO₂e
- Scope 3: 18.6 tCO₂e
- Total: Approximately 25 tCO₂e
For 2024-25, estimated emissions reduced to:
- Scope 1: 3.9 tCO₂e
- Scope 2: 0.8 tCO₂e
- Scope 3: 16.3 tCO₂e
- Total: Approximately 21 tCO₂e
The largest reduction occurred within Scope 3 emissions, which fell by approximately 2.3 tCO₂e, while Scope 1 emissions reduced by around 1.5 tCO₂e and Scope 2 emissions reduced by 0.2 tCO₂e.
Four day week
Lots of factors would have influenced the reduction in our emissions, not least of all would be our transition to a four day working week in April 2024. We made the change with the intention of supporting staff wellbeing and work/life balance but the reduction in emissions in 2024-25 suggests that the move may have been the related tot these environmental benefits too.
One of the biggest things we’ve learned from this exercise is that most of our emissions sit in Scope 3. That’s not unusual for a small organisation like Tai Pawb. We don’t run large buildings or fleets of vehicles, so a lot of our impact comes from the goods and services we buy, the projects we deliver and the wider supply chains we’re part of. In fact, Scope 3 accounted for around 75-80% of our emissions in both years.
That means the biggest opportunity for further reductions probably isn’t turning off lights or changing the heating settings. It’s thinking more carefully about what we buy, who we buy from, and how environmental considerations can be factored into procurement decisions. Those are areas we’ll continue to explore over the coming years.
At the same time, we don’t want to lose the gains we’ve already made. The reduction in Scope 1 emissions from 5.4 tCO₂e to 3.9 tCO₂e, alongside the small reduction in Scope 2 emissions from 1.0 tCO₂e to 0.8 tCO₂e, shows that relatively simple changes to the way we work can add up over time.
This isn’t the end of the journey, it’s really the first proper benchmark we’ve had.
The reduction from 25 tCO₂e in 2023-24 to 21 tCO₂e in 2024-25 shows that meaningful progress is possible, even for a small organisation.
I’m happy to see that the data supports the conclusion that the changes we made to improve staff wellbeing are having a positive environmental effect. While we can’t say our move to 4 day week was responsible for all of the reduction, fewer commuting days, less travel and lower overall operational activity are all likely to have contributed to the fall in emissions.
For us, that’s a really encouraging finding. It suggests that creating a healthier, more sustainable way of working for staff can also help reduce our environmental impact. As we continue to track our emissions in future years, we’ll be interested to see whether that trend continues.