NET ZERO CARBON REDUCTION POLICY

 Recolight are actively following a path of reducing the carbon emissions of our operations.

In 2021, we set a target to be Net Zero by 2030, but we now know this will not be possible with the technologies currently available to us. However, we continue to pursue emissions reductions by regularly evaluating our logistics and other operational activities, without using carbon offsets.

Independent environmental contractors assessed our baseline carbon footprint in 2019 and 2024, and we monitor our progress by setting annual carbon emissions reduction targets.

Net Zero impact statement

In recognition of the real world challenges to reaching our goal, particularly given the lack of availability of low carbon HGVs, we have adjusted our targets as follows:Recolight is committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2040.

To achieve this Recolight has set two interim targets:

A 50% reduction in Scope 1, 2 and Business Travel by 2030, from a baseline measurement of Recolight’s 2024 footprint.

A 25% reduction of carbon emissions per tonne of waste collected, by 2030, also from the 2024 baseline.

So what more have we done to reduce our emissions?

  • Our IT systems now automatically monitor transport carbon emissions for all types of WEEE we collect.
  • We have changed our service provision to limit the number of next day and short notice container deliveries and collections, which almost always resulted in a dedicated vehicle movement for that one job.
  • We educate and encourage collection points to stack containers well, and to only request a collection when the container is full. We have a monthly Carbon Reduction Champion award for the Collection Partner with the highest container weight in the network.
  • We try to collect all containers on a site in one movement. Our IT system now alerts us if a site has additional containers that have not been requested for collection.
  • We provide multiple containers to distant and high-volume collection points, so that one vehicle movement can collect multiple containers.

Those changes helped us achieve a 6.9% reduction in waste transport emissions/tonne of waste lamps collected in 2023, against an annual target of 10%. 

 

Policy changes

We have implemented several other general policy changes, as a part of our commitment to reducing emissions and a circular economy:

  • We replace office equipment only when necessary and specify refurbished laptops not new.
  • Net Zero reduction criteria are included in our recycling and logistics supplier tender documents. Suppliers are scored based on these criteria, and those who demonstrate better carbon reduction methods receive a higher score.
  • Staff do not fly on company business, and we encourage travel by train or EV.
  • The conferences and workshops we run are all paperless and only offer vegetarian/plant-based food (which has much lower emissions than meat).
  • We have changed our bank from HSBC, which is one of Europe’s largest financers of fossil fuel projects, to Lloyds and NatWest, both of which have much lower exposure to fossil fuels.
  • Our staff have options for choosing pension investments which do not have exposure to fossil fuel companies.

Update on achieving the Recolight Net Zero target

The Recolight Net Zero target was set back in 2021.  We said that we would not use carbon offsets.

To keep our focus on this most essential of targets, we also agreed annual carbon reduction targets.

So how have we done?

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