1st July 2023
Net Zero Week 2023
Net zero is the world’s answer to stopping climate change. On the 27th June 2019, the UK became the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end our contribution to climate change.
The legislation committed the nations of the UK to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Net zero means any remaining emissions would be offset by schemes to remove an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases.
We all need to radically reduce our carbon emissions to combat the effects of climate change. Reaching net zero will require many new measures, innovative solutions, aggressive government policies and plenty of human effort both at work and at home.
Net Zero Week™ is part of this much needed momentum. The UK’s national awareness week highlights our challenge and provides the best expert advice and information to help us all better understand the challenge and how to benefit from making changes. Our greatest pursuit requires us all to take on our fair share of tackling emissions to stop global warming.
What are we doing at Volunteer Scotland?
“To meet our aims of Net Zero emissions at Volunteer Scotland we have established a working group looking at actively reducing our outputs. Some quick wins will be achieved in the current year, and we have already invested in reducing our energy in relation to lighting and other electrical sources as well as our heating outputs. In addition, we have reviewed our hybrid working arrangements and have said that a Friday will be a non-travel day for staff as well as half of the remainder of work week. There may be some exceptions, but this has been bedded into working arrangements.
Medium to longer term we are exploring our building fabric to determine how best to insulate and provide energy. We will also explore a major source of the current emissions and review our business servers with a view to moving these to the Cloud. This could save 20-25% of our current carbon outputs.
As well as driving this through Volunteer Scotland we will attempt to engage our tenants and suppliers in delivering further reductions by their actions to help achieve this target.”
Kenneth Stirratt
Head of Corporate Services and Lead on Volunteer Scotland's Net Zero Working Group
You can find out more about Net Zero Week here: netzeroweek.com and share how you’re getting involved on social media with #NetZeroWeek