People and culture
Over the last year, we have focused on a combination of introducing new approaches (new channels to strengthen employee voice through our listening strategy, new partnership with Land Collective to increase industry awareness amongst under represented groups and improve diversity in hiring) alongside continuing to embed the initiatives we introduced in the previous period. Those changes are now becoming integrated into our culture and becoming part of our everyday way of working. This shift is a critical stage where we are building momentum and we are starting to see their full impact and benefits, as outlined in the following sections.
We have seen some seismic shifts in the way employees relate to jobs and their employers over recent years. Coupled with this, the world of work is constantly changing, the pace of change is ever-increasing and influences like digital and AI are shifting the way work is done. Being connected with our employees and understanding how all this looks and feels from their perspective will be critical to our future success as a sustainable organisation. Our ‘Cundall Engage’ listening strategy provides this connection and insight regularly, so we can respond to our people.
Cundall Engage – Employee voice
Cundall Engage is our annual employee engagement survey, which we have had in place since 2023. We are now in our 3rd year of Cundall Engage and it is becoming well established as the foundation of our employee listening strategy.
Alongside the annual survey, we have developed many additional layers of listening which are tailored to different areas of the business. Some areas use listening circles to focus on specific topics, others use ‘espresso engage’ sessions to encourage free flow conversation which is very much led by employees and their priorities. These listening mechanisms are shaped locally to suit individual offices and teams.
Our network of global engagement champions is now well established and they provide an invaluable insight from all our global business areas. Being globally connected is an important part of our culture and our Engagement Champions are a conduit to ensure the voices and perspectives from all our teams are heard, wherever they are in the world.
2025 Engage survey
responded to our 2025 survey
Say they feel they are respected at Cundall
Say that Cundall allows them to make a positive difference by joining in
Believe Cundall is committed to achieve its sustainability objectives
New approaches
- Cundall Engage - Employee voice
- Land Collective
- Elevate
- Wellness 360
Being an Engagement Champion has given me the opportunity to amplify the voices within the marketing team by creating a space for honest conversations through listening circles. It's been incredibly rewarding to help create a safe environment where employee perspectives are brought to the forefront and turn that feedback into meaningful action.
Nikita Patel, Birmingham
Being part of the Cundall Engage survey team over the past couple of years has given me the opportunity to actively engage with my local team and help create a safe space for people to share feedback on how the business is run. The process has been incredibly rewarding, particularly seeing our local team’s comments evolve into guidance that the partnership team takes on board to drive meaningful change.
Stefan Hill, Perth
My involvement with the Engage survey over the past three years has included facilitating Listening Circle sessions that enable staff to share feedback through open and honest conversations. This feedback has been valuable in providing the Partnership clarity over employee priorities - leading to better-targeted changes that are implemented more quickly.
Stephen Johnson, Birmingham
Systematically captured colleagues feedback through monthly open forums and represented their collective voice in leadership discussions as an Engagement Champion.
Mobilized teams through sports, team-building, sustainability, and charity initiatives.
Advanced well-being through health check-ups and wellness sessions, including yoga and Zumba.
Raised sustainability awareness through posters, sapling distribution, and composting drives.
Trust and participation strengthened as teams actively adopted energy-efficient and sustainable practices.
Manu Nair, Bengaluru
I became an Engagement Champion because I genuinely care about the people in our business
This role has connected me with people across the office - hearing their stories, understanding what motivates them, and learning about the diverse experiences and cultures that shape who they are. Those conversations have deepened my understanding of our team, helped me build stronger connections, and given me valuable insights that I can feed back to our leadership.
By listening without judgement and sharing honest feedback - even when it’s difficult - I’ve been able to help widen perspectives, inform more inclusive action plans, and strengthen communication across Cundall. The experience has also enhanced my own leadership capabilities. It’s shown me firsthand that our leaders truly care about our people and act with intention. That level of openness, integrity, and commitment to continuous improvement is what drives meaningful cultural change, and I’m proud to be part of shaping that journey.
Leigh Harper, London
Diversity and inclusivity
Our commitment to widening participation in our industry continues to be a high priority. Every year we support apprentices, graduates, interns, placements to join us at these early stages of their careers. We aim to give people from all backgrounds a supportive environment to learn and provide a solid foundation to begin their careers.
Our culture of innovation and inclusivity is driven by the diversity of our people. Our Cundall Communities have continued to grow their global representation this year, with new members and co-chairs joining from different countries, each bringing new and valuable perspectives. After a significant refresh and change of approach in 2023, these groups are well-established as employee-led forums which are open to everyone, wherever they are in the world. They provide a space to share experiences, connect with others and play an active role in shaping our inclusive culture globally.
Over the last year we have strengthened our approach to inclusive hiring through an external partnership with the Land Collective. This also allows us to give more back to the industry and local community by making careers in our industry more accessible to underrepresented groups. The One of the challenges in our industry is that it has historically been a white, male dominated environment so people who do not fit this demographic have fewer role models and may hold perceptions that careers in design engineering aren’t open to them. Partnering with the Land Collective gives us additional channels to educate a wider range of young people on careers in our sector and to dispel those myths. It also allows us to reach a diverse pool of external talent and raise awareness of the opportunities on offer at Cundall, which in turn helps us to build a more diverse pipeline of early careers talent coming into our business and into the industry more broadly.
We recognise that we can have a greater impact by working collaboratively with others in this space, so in 2025 we partnered with an external organisation called the Land Collective – an organisation dedicated to supporting early talent. Through their network of diverse young people across London and the South East of England, The Land Collective helps individuals to explore their options and access careers in the built environment. Their focus on diversity in gender, ethnicity and social mobility aligns closely with our own commitments and we know there is further work needed to remove barriers across our industry.
Our aims in this partnership are to support the Land Collective network of graduates, school students and university students through opportunities, awareness-raising, workshops and career support, whilst also opening up our own early career's pathways to them. By actively involving Cundall employees in these activities, we are not only supporting the next generation but also educating ourselves on how we can continue to strengthen inclusivity in our own organisation.
In our first few months of working together, we have already seen many benefits of working with the Land Collective , such as running insights days, further enhancing awareness of diverse hiring amongst our leaders and offering work placements to Land Collective members, to take place in 2026.
Our Cundall communities
Gain is Cundall’s Gender, Affinity and Inclusion Network. Gain provides a supportive network for women, non-binary, and intersex staff; and works to influence greater gender diversity, representation and inclusion across the practice.
Prism is Cundall’s LGBTQ+ network which offers a dedicated forum for Cundall employees who identify within the LGBTQ+ umbrella to connect. PRISM also works to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion at Cundall.
Mosaic is Cundall’s Ethnicity and Culture network which provides a forum for people of minority and underrepresented ethnicities and cultures to connect and share experiences and ideas.
Divergent is focused on neurodiversity, supporting our neurodiverse colleagues, embracing those who want to learn more about neurodiversity, and in the long term, adapting how we apply Cundall’s vision and values so everyone can be as productive as possible.
Learning and development
Early careers
Every year we invest heavily in early careers talent; we view it as our responsibility along with other employers in the industry, to continuously bring new talent into the industry and to use this as an opportunity to widen access to careers in engineering and the built environment. Our investment spans graduate programmes, apprenticeships, placements and internships and everyone who joins us at early careers stage benefits from our structured and comprehensive development programme. It’s not just about the technical aspects – our development covers all the knowledge and skills people need to set them up for success in the early stages of their careers and beyond.
Graduate intake FY2024-25
UK AND IRELAND
EUROPE
MIDDLE EAST
APAC
leaders received training as part of an Inclusive Leadership programme.
Supporting career development into leadership
We have now introduced an ‘induction’ into new roles when our staff move up to the next stage of management or leadership.
Our highly technical engineers and consultants build their early stage careers around specialist technical and client expertise and then when they move through management and leadership roles there is a very different skillset to learn. We support this at every stage.
When moving into Associate, Associate Director, Director or Partner roles there is a planned ‘induction’ which helps individuals to plan their next stage of career development so they can be equipped with the skills and behaviours to succeed.
Our Inclusive Leadership Programme is a deep dive into leadership culture and behaviours which build inclusivity. All our Directors and Partners go through this programme, underscoring the importance of leadership setting the tone for everyone else in the organisation.
Elevate programme
Our Elevate management programme is there specifically to develop people management skills as people move into those pivotal roles. Through a combination of face-to-face workshops, virtual learning, self-reflection and coaching circles, our managers learn about how to be an effective manager, how to get the best out their people and the behaviours which will set them up for success as a future leader.
These behaviours include looking after the wellbeing of others and themselves, understanding cultural differences and supporting diversity and inclusion.
Our cohorts are deliberately mixed, so we have a diverse mix of people in each group, from different offices, so people can benefit from the rich diversity of views and build connections with colleagues in different parts of our business.
people went through the programme as part of a Management Development Programme
Hours per person was dedicated
Training 2024-25
40
Graduate Professional Skills Training Year 1 (2024 Intake)
38
Graduate Professional Skills Training Year 2 (2023 Intake)
30
Elevate Management Development Programme
37
Inclusive Leadership Programme
220
Asbestos Awareness Training
25
CDM2015 E-Learning
435
An Introduction to Information Security Management System (ISO 27001)
25
Revit Training
97
Performance Review Training
206
Cundall Security: Best Practices for Everyone
97
Word Templates and Cundall Standards
343
An Introduction to Information Security Management System (ISO 27001)
Health and wellbeing
Cundall works in a fast-paced engineering services environment, where short deadlines and rapidly changing project demands can create pressure and potential risks for employees.
We understand this and have a Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy in place in line with ISO 45001:2018 which is implemented organisation wide.
The policy ensures wellbeing of our employees by various methods, one of them being a Stress Risk Assessment in place which was undertaken in accordance with the UK Health and Safety Executive Guidelines.
The Stress Risk Assessment reviewed all hazards our employees might be susceptible to with a mitigation plan in place for them.
The policy also sets out various health promotion initiatives including corporate/ discounted gym memberships, discounted medical and dental insurance rates, and trained First Aiders in each office.
Globally, we have introduced additional initiatives, including access to the Wellness360 portal for all employees, our network of Mental Health Advocates, financial wellbeing sessions, Benefits Week, social committees in each office, volunteering day allowances, free flu vaccinations and fruit bowls in each office.
To ensure these initiatives are easily accessible and well‑communicated, we have updated our intranet HR pages, making information on benefits and wellbeing simpler to find. We have also launched a new Benefits Portal for employees in the UK.
Health and wellbeing are embedded in our learning and development programmes. Early careers training includes sessions on financial wellbeing, while our Elevate Management Programme covers topics such as resilience and wellbeing for senior staff and managers.
To ensure our initiatives are successful and provide the anticipated benefits to our employees, we elevate work-life balance and other health and wellbeing-related indicators through our annual Cundall Engage Survey.
In our 2025 Engage Survey:
are satisfied with their ability to work flexibly
say they have a good balance between their personal and work life
Selection of our health and wellbeing initiatives across our global offices
- Eye and dental health camp, Bengaluru
- Boardgame night, Manchester
- Craft lunch, Perth
- Hiking day at 'Sierra', Madrid
- Yoga on alternative Tuesdays, Birmingham
- Bi-weekly yoga, London
- Nature walk, Newcastle
Taking action on climate and nature
Climate change remains the biggest threat we face and is at the core of our Sustainability Roadmap and broader business strategy. While our Zero Carbon Design 2030 commitment focuses on our projects, we can also report further progress on our operational emissions.
Our targets
Our net zero targets for our operations have now been validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and align with their Net Zero Standard. Our validated science-based targets are:
Near-term targets
- Cundall commits to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 42% by FY2030 from a FY2023 base year.
- Cundall also commits to reduce absolute scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services, fuel- and energy-related activities, upstream transportation and distribution, waste generated in operations, business travel, employee commuting and upstream leased assets 42% within the same timeframe.
- Cundall further commits that 70% of its suppliers by emissions covering purchased goods and services, will have science-based targets by FY2028.
Long-term targets
- Cundall commits to reduce absolute scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions 90% by FY2050 from a FY2023 base year.
Overall net-zero target
- Cundall commits to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain by FY2050.
- This means that the remaining 10% of emissions will be neutralised through permanent carbon removal methods.
The Climate Pledge
In addition to our science-based targets, Cundall is a signatory of the Climate Pledge meaning that we will neutralise any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.
The World Green Building Council’s Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment
As a founding signatory we take special pride in being part of the World Green Building Council’s Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment.
The commitment recognises leadership action by businesses, organisations, cities and subnational governments in tackling operational and embodied carbon emissions from the building and construction sector and requires a reduction of energy consumption and the elimination of emissions from energy and refrigerants removing fossil fuel use by 2030.
New developments or major renovations should be built to be highly efficient, powered by renewables and show a maximum reduction in embodied carbon before upfront emissions are compensated by the party with direct ownership.
This aligns with our Zero Carbon Design 2030 commitment for our projects. For our own offices, it means that we strive to achieve 100% renewables for our offices by 2030 (through off-site energy products and certificates) and we continue working with new and existing building managers and owners to choose or electrify the spaces we work in.
Data quality and tracking
The improvement of our data quality was and continues to be one of our priorities for financial years 2025 and 2026. One key area of focus is data from our building managers including common area energy, refrigerants and waste data.
Audits, verification and reporting
To ensure a best practice approach to emissions accounting, reduction and reporting, we have undertaken a third-party limited assurance audit under ISO14064 for our FY2024-25 data. This process confirmed that our approach to emissions accounting and reduction is sound and credible but also highlighted opportunities for improvement, especially for data quality for some of our activity data sources.
Since 2008, Cundall has also implemented an ISO 14001-certified Environmental Management System, which is integral to our efforts in reducing the environmental impacts of our operations and projects ensuring that they are systematically managed and mitigated.
We report our progress on climate action in our Sustainability Reports and expanded our CDP reporting (the former Carbon Disclosure Project) from the Hong Kong business to the global operations in 2025. We further report annually to the UN Global Compact and to the World Green Building Council as founding signatory of the Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment.
The Science Based Targets initiative is a global charitable programme founded by several organisations including the WWF and the World Resources Institute. Science-based targets provide a clearly defined pathway for companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, helping prevent the worst impacts of climate change and future-proof business growth. Targets are considered ‘science-based’ if they are in line with what the latest climate science deems necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement – limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
2025 marks our first global submission to CDP, a globally recognised, non-profit environmental disclosure and rating body. CDP evaluates the environmental performance of over 25,000 companies and more than 1,000 cities and states worldwide. For Cundall, CDP assessed our climate change performance across key categories, including business strategy, dependencies, risks, impacts, energy reduction initiatives, environmental policies, governance, value chain engagement, and Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. This analysis helps us identify gaps in our sustainability strategy and areas for improvement.
Disclosing our environmental performance to CDP helps us understand environmental opportunities and risks for our business, strengthens our governance systems, and improves our data collection framework to accurately calculate our emissions. Our rating also enables us to track against our net zero targets for our operations.
For our first submission, Cundall received an overall rating of ‘C’, demonstrating a strong understanding of how environmental issues relate to our business activities. This positive foundation sets the stage for further progress. Moving forward, our focus will be on strengthening data collection systems for greater accuracy, enhancing engagement across our value chain, improving climate risk resilience for our offices, reinforcing our governance structure to further embed sustainability into every decision, and setting up a comprehensive decarbonisation plan. These priorities will help us upgrade our rating and accelerate progress toward achieving our net zero and zero carbon design targets.
Operational emissions
Since reporting our emissions in our previous Sustainability Report, we have made a number of improvements and adjustments to our data quality and calculation methodologies following our SBTi validation and ISO14064 audit. This means that some emissions for both our base year FY2022-23 and FY2023-24 have changed in this report to ensure maximum accuracy. Changes include the inclusion of working from client sites (Scope 3, Category 11) and office waste, as well as updates to our electricity and gas data.
We have also reviewed and updated our emission factors and transitioned from historic factors to a new set of factors published by the US EPA for calculating emissions from purchased goods and services (Scope 3, Category 1). Our new factors are consistent across other recognised sources but are significantly lower than our historic factors. This change has resulted in a notable reduction in reported emissions for this emissions category compared to our previously reported emissions. To maintain methodological consistency with our science-based target (SBTi) baseline year (FY2022–23), we have retrospectively recalculated our emissions for purchased goods and services for both FY2022–23 and FY2023–24 using the new factors.
Our footprint
For 2024-25 we have recorded an overall footprint of 3,246.7 tCO2e (market-based) and 3,521.4 tCO2e (location-based). This represents an overall reduction of 755.6 tCO2e or 19% (market- based) compared to FY2023-24. Compared to our baseline year FY2022-23, this reflects a reduction of 266.4 tCO2e or 8% (market-based) and 118.7 tCO2e or 3% (location-based) respectively.
Overall, these results indicate that Cundall is making measurable progress toward its stated emissions reduction targets.
Reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 42% by FY2030, using FY2023 as the base year.
Where are we at: Mapping our target trajectory until 2030, progress has been made, with a reduction of 116.8 tCO₂e or 38% (market-based) in FY2025 compared to the FY2023 baseline for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
Reduce Scope 3 emissions by 42% over by 2030, using FY2023 as the base year
Where are we at: In FY2025, Scope 3 emissions decreased by 149.6 tCO₂e or 5% compared to FY2023, indicating an alignment with our desired Scope 3 trajectory.
Reduce total emissions across Scope 1, 2, and 3 by 90% by FY2050, again using FY2023 as the baseline.
Where we are at: We recorded a combined reduction of 266.4 tCO₂e or 8% (market-based) in FY2025, compared to FY2023.
New offices new opportunities
Our Edinburgh, Riyadh, Brisbane and Sydney offices moved to new premises in FY2024-25. This gave us an opportunity to further improve our energy performance in these offices and lower the use of fossil fuels in both our tenancies and shared areas
Cundall’s new Edinburgh office
In April 2025, our Edinburgh team has relocated to a new state-of-the-art premises at New Clarendon, 114-116 George Street. Employees have bid farewell to Semple Street, which had been our Edinburgh office for the past ten years. The new office provides a workspace designed to support our values of collaboration and excellence, together with a strong emphasis on employee wellbeing. The office’s location, at the heart of Edinburgh’s city, makes it easily accessible for clients to visit and encourages sustainable travel due to its close proximity to transport links.
“As sustainable design is core to our ethos, it was important that we led by example and pushed the boundaries of what was achievable in our office move. Inclusivity was also key to the design process; our ambition was to create a space where everyone felt welcome, and all needs were catered for.”
John McLoughlin, Partner
Our sustainability specialists developed a circular economy strategy and conducted whole-life carbon assessments at both the early design stage and post-completion. This approach maximised circular potential while significantly reducing whole-life carbon impact. Where possible, we prioritised material retention and sourced approximately 60% of materials and furniture from reclaimed sources.
As a result, the new Edinburgh office boasts exceptionally low embodied carbon, measuring 34 kgCO₂e/m² (GIA) at design stage, making it the lowest Category B fit-out project we have delivered. Through our design considerations, we achieved a 41% reduction in upfront embodied carbon compared a design without sustainability features, along with an 87% reduction against the recently released UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard target for 2025 office fit-outs.
Non-negotiables in our Office Move Guide include the procurement of office spaces that use no gas or other fossil fuels for space or water heating, to further allow the procurement of renewable energy for the tenancy. Using fully electrified office buildings and the procurement of renewable energy attributes equivalent to our electricity consumption for all our offices is a major priority for us (more information on our renewable energy procurement can be found in Section below). However, we acknowledge that not all regions we operate in show the same level of maturity in their grid decarbonisation and electrification.
Renewable energy
For FY2024-25, we are proud to report that our Australia, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore offices procured 100% renewable energy covering our Scope 2 emissions*. For our offices in the EU, we achieved a 37% proportion of renewables, an increase from 24% in FY2023-24.
FY2024-25 was also the first year we procured renewable energy certificates for our Dubai, Bengaluru, and Singapore offices contributing to the 100% if renewables in Asia and bringing our proportion of renewables in the Middle East up to 38%.
*This does not include offices where we operate from a co-working space as we report electricity used in offices where we rent a co-working space as Scope 3 emissions.
% of renewables by region
Scope 2*
Asia**
Australia
EU
MENA**
UK
Total
*Excludes offices in work sharing spaces:Manila, Riyadh, Chennai, Adelaie, Brisbane, Bristol and Glasgow
** Offset through Renewable Power Certificates (RECs). All other proportions of renewables are either through Green Power products or as per utility supplier's disclosure.
Increase compared to FY23-24
+47%
0%
+13%
+38%
0%
+14%
Most of our Cundall offices are in leased spaces and rely on grid electricity, often from non-renewable sources. As on-site renewable energy generation is not feasible, we have reduced our market-based emissions by procuring Green Power Certificates for our UK and European offices, and Renewable Energy Certificates for offices in the Middle East and Asia.
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and Green Power Certificates operate on the same principle, they are tradable, market-based instruments that represent electricity generated from renewable sources and supplied to the grid. By procuring RECs, we are able to account for and track renewable energy generation on a market-based basis. While the electricity we consume from the grid remains a mix of sources, these certificates enable us to claim renewable energy usage and support the growth of renewable energy generation. In doing so, they play a key role in reducing our market-based emissions.
Transport
Commuting and business travel remain the second-largest contributors to our operational emissions. One of our largest offices in Newcastle relocated to new premises at the end of 2025. The new location offers significantly improved access to public and active transport infrastructure, which we expect will lead to a reduction in employee commuting emissions in FY2025–26.
Business travel, especially flights, play a key role in fostering personal connections and engagement, team cohesion and leadership visibility for us as a global business. We have made good progress in reducing these emissions from FY2023-24 to FY2025 but flight emissions remain a challenge. However, similar to employee commuting, we further improve data communication and awareness throughout FY2025-26 and onwards. We also work closely with our travel agents to streamline our data collection and tracking and identify low-carbon options for travel.
Materials and supply chain
Given the ongoing climate challenges, we recognise that our business decisions affect not only our organisation but also our employees, clients, partners and suppliers. For FY2025-26 we have prioritised sustainable procurement, focusing on ethical practices and strengthening our Supplier Code of Conduc to ensure responsible and transparent operations.
First published in September 2024, our Supplier Code of Conduct outlines expectations and requirements for both suppliers and employees dealing with suppliers. This policy guides how we engage, manage, and conduct business with others in an ethical manner consistent with our core values.
As the next step, we are revising our Procurement Plan and Ethical Bid Policy. This includes setting internal targets and mapping our supply chain to identify high risk suppliers and conducting due diligence reviews to ensure our supplier relationships meet the standards of responsibility and integrity we expect.
We laid the foundations for this process in FY2024-25 by a review of risks, opportunities and requirements we have relating to our suppliers and the goods we purchase. This includes a better integration into our QA systems including an improved alignment with our ISO9001 and ISO14001 accreditations, mitigating risks from IT infrastructure and data management and other factors such as reputational or financial risks.
Procurement, however, also provides significant opportunities. Purchasing from SMEs, start-ups, charities, not for profits or First Nations businesses can help us to engage with our local communities and make a lasting impact. In FY2024-25, we have increased both the spend and range of Indigenous-owned businesses in our supply chain especially in Australia to source catering and foods, furniture and other supplies.
Our near-term emissions target includes a supplier engagement commitment that provides the opportunity to engage with our key suppliers, develop better selection criteria for future suppliers and reduce our Scope 3 emissions. We already made a good start towards our targets in FY2024-25 with 33% of our suppliers having a science-based target. For 4% of our total Scope 3, Category 1 emissions, we used a supplier-specific emission factor.
Waste and water
Nature and biodiversity are the foundations for human life on earth. They are the systemic basis of our society and economy and provide vital services and resources for us to breathe, eat, live and work. Nature also holds deep cultural, spiritual and community value. Water is a key aspect of nature and we acknowledge its importance to our community, society and natural habitats.
The responsible use of resources and avoidance of waste is intrinsically connected to climate action, biodiversity preservation, and broader sustainability goals.
As an engineering and consulting practice, our impact on water, waste and resource use is significant through our project designs and less through our operations. However, we work to ensure that our operational water use is managed through improved efficiency, monitoring and compliance with all applicable local regulations in line with our ISO14001 accreditation.
All Cundall offices within our operational emissions and impacts boundary are leased, often in shared buildings with other tenants. This poses a challenge in collecting comprehensive waste and water data. Working closely with our building manager and owners, we remain committed to improving our global data collection process and accuracy in tracking these metrics and improving both waste and water performance.
Trees planted on behalf of our new starters joining us in FY2024-25.
Trees planted since we started this initiative in 2022.
Our decarbonisation plan
Our approved Science-Based targets provide direction and help advancing our decarbonisation measures.
Over the past year, we have worked to align our emissions trajectory with the stringent requirements of the SBTi Net Zero Standard. This year, we focused on successfully getting our Net Zero Targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Securing this approval has put us on track to achieve Net Zero by 2050. To meet these targets, we will published a robust Decarbonisation Plan that outlines both our short-term and long-term targets in line with science-based requirements and actions and timelines to achieve these goals.
Our Decarbonisation plan includes strategies across our value chain. Some of the highlights are:
Scope 1 and 2
- Improving energy efficiency by deploying sustainable design choices in new offices and continuously improving our existing tenancies with upgrades that enhance energy performance.
- Achieving 100% renewable electricity across all offices by 2030 by transitioning to either green power products or balancing our emissions from electricity consumption with renewable power certificates.
- Eliminating our reliance on fossil fuels by working with our building managers and owners on electrifying their assets and selecting spaces for new offices that use no gas for heating and hot water, wherever possible. We target to phase out from our offices spaces by 2030 and aim to operate from buildings that use no gas their central systems by 2040.
- Tracking refrigerants though HVAC assessments, leakage testing where possible and work with our building managers and owners to upgrade the systems used in the building.
Scope 3
Establishing a low-carbon procurement framework, including:
- Embedding low-carbon and climate-related criteria into procurement policies and processes
- Enhancing internal systems to collect, standardise, and track supplier ESG and emissions data. Prioritising high-emission and high-spend suppliers for targeted engagement and decarbonisation discussions.
- Increasing engagement with key suppliers to encourage alignment with science-based targets and adoption of supplier-specific emission factors.
- Improving Scope 3 data accuracy and consistency, covering refrigerants, waste, and other emission sources.
- Enhancing waste management by a short-term focus on improving data accuracy. We address this through better engagement with our building managers and owners and by carrying out waste audits in our offices, where feasible. We can then use the obtained data to roll further initiatives for waste reduction such as awareness campaigns, better signage and incentives for waste reduction.
- Reducing business travel emissions by encouraging low-carbon travel choices through improving transparency of travel emissions data and increasing awareness. We further strengthen our sustainable travel policies to ensure that appropriate tracking and monitoring mechanisms are in place. We also continue our global roll out of using travel agencies and transport companies for better emissions tracking, identification of low-carbon travel options and improvements and consistency of our data quality.
- Addressing employee commute emissions by embedding public transport access and active travel facilities within the Office Move Guide. We increase data transparency by reporting commuting survey results back to the practice paired with awareness campaigns and other engagement activities to reduce emissions from employee commute.
Cundall Dublin © Donal Murphy Photography
Cundall Edinburgh © Paul Zanre Photography
Bottom image © Adobe Stock