Kainos signs The Climate Pledge committing to Net Zero Carbon
Sustainability is more than just a buzzword here at Kainos. We realised pretty early on that in order to truly do our fair share of keeping global temperatures inside the +1.5° C safe zone proposed by the Paris Agreement, we needed to establish and commit to an aggressive programme – reducing our carbon footprint, offsetting emissions and working with our customers, partners and suppliers to ensure that operating sustainably is front of mind in everything we do.
As Kainos Net Zero Strategy Lead, I’ve been part of many projects to help us achieve our goals within this space. But signing The Climate Pledge might be my proudest moment yet. It’s a public declaration of our determination to make the world a better place – and make sure our legacy is something that we can be proud of.
What is The Climate Pledge?
The Climate Pledge, co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism, calls organisations to take collective action to tackle climate change, working together towards a safer and healthier planet for future generations to enjoy. Signatories agree to the following:
- Regular reporting – measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis
- Carbon elimination – implementing decarbonisation strategies through business change and innovations like use of renewable energy and process efficiency
- Credible offsets – taking action to neutralise remaining emissions with real, permanent and socially beneficial offsets
All this leads to the overarching commitment of The Climate Pledge – achieving net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040, ten years earlier than the date set by the Paris Agreement.
Why did we sign it?
As a key AWS partner, we have followed the journey of The Climate Pledge from day one. And signing it in this particular tranche of signatories was a no-brainer.
Having undertaken so much work to achieve carbon neutrality in 2020, and submitting our carbon reduction plan to the strongest validation body in the industry (the Science Based Targets Initiative), we knew that not only will we be able to meet the 2040 deadline, we’ll actually be able to beat it by an additional 15 years, with our own self-imposed commitment to achieve net zero by 2025.
And our own goals are mirrored in those of The Climate Pledge. Like them, we believe that as a global organisation we have a responsibility to ensure that our impact on society, our local communities and the environment is a positive one. And we believe that only joint transformational action, with organisations working in partnership with their suppliers and customers, can protect our world – both from the physical effects of climate change, and the disruption they risk causing to society, the economy and the health and wellbeing of future generations.
What’s next?
As part of our commitment, we will regularly report on our progress towards carbon net zero. We will do this to make sure that our actions are transparent and that we’re held accountable for them.
And addressing our own carbon reduction plan isn’t enough for us. We are also developing services and products that we can offer to our partners, suppliers and customers to help them achieve their own carbon net zero ambitions.
Over the next few months, we’ll be bringing you more on our net zero journey, and exploring what we’re doing to work towards a more sustainable future in more depth. In the meantime, you can find out more about our work in sustainability.