Green business accreditation scheme announces record carbon savings by its members

August 5, 2020

Investors in the Environment (iiE) is a national sustainability certification scheme for organisations. It is designed to help businesses reduce their environmental impact by recording their resource use, receiving an annual audit, and being awarded a certification level of either Bronze, Silver, or Green, to reflect their eco progress.

Each year the iiE team measures the impact its members have achieved, by converting resource measurements into carbon equivalents and comparing the information against the previous year’s audits. Through the amazing work of iiE members, audited between April 2019 and April 2020, an estimated total of 7,436 tonnes CO₂e was saved.

“To put this into perspective, this is equivalent to powering 2,267 UK houses or taking 3,467 cars off the road for a year,” explains iiE’s Environmental Consultant David Knight. “This is a fantastic achievement for our members – we want to thank everyone who was involved in making these reductions. The results are really great.”

In the previous year, audited iiE members achieved savings of 5,856 tonnes of CO2e, meaning there has been a fantastic 21 per cent improvement.

As part of their audit, organisations provide up-to-date resource measurements, which are compared against the previous year to demonstrate improvements made through the implementation and management of their environmental management system (EMS). The reporting includes electricity, gas, alternate fuels, petrol and diesel, mileage of vehicles, total waste, and paper use.

“Individuals and organisations at a local and global level must become more aware of the challenges that we face collectively,” continues David. “We need to become smarter, more efficient and considered with the resources and materials we use. iiE is working with organisations nationally to support their efforts in making these changes and reducing their resource consumption.”

To achieve the Government’s target of net zero by 2050, the UK needs to reduce all unnecessary carbon emissions, and balance the remaining emissions by investing in carbon removals that will remove the same amount of carbon that is emitted each year.

As carbon levels rise, so will the planet’s temperature, causing the polar ice to melt and sea levels to rise. More than that, this rise in global temperature has knock-on effects such as disruption of eco-systems and an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. It is vital, therefore, that everyone starts reducing their own carbon footprint to contribute towards the net zero target.

iiE members are supported in working towards achieving their certification on both a one-to-one basis through help from their support officer, and one-to-many through webinars and member events. For any business looking to make an impactful change, they can find out more about becoming a greener organisation and also sign up to become an iiE member at www.iie.uk.com