When Bates Wells formally recognised the Climate Emergency and Biodiversity Crisis in 2019, we made a number of commitments to mitigate our environmental impact.

One of these commitments was to decrease our carbon emissions and to reach net zero carbon in 2019. Net zero carbon covers our Scope 1 and 2 emissions and some of our Scope 3 emissions.

We’re continuing to address our Scope 3 emissions and as part of that, we’ve been measuring our people’s carbon footprint whilst they’ve been working at home since lockdown began in March 2020. Using a simple survey created with the help of fellow B Corp Green Element, we’ve been able to calculate emissions created from home-working and are including this in our 2020 carbon footprint.

Whilst we’re continually seeking to reduce our emissions, for those which we can’t eliminate, we’ll be balancing them with verified carbon credits to reach our goal of net zero – and that includes emissions produced by our people whilst they’re working from home.

If you’d like to read more about our commitments and the progress we’ve made to date, read our latest annual climate report.