Sustainable behaviour

In the last year, Mott MacDonald has launched a major initiative to raise awareness among staff of the benefits of reducing resource use, creating less waste, and adopting more sustainable forms of travelAs part of a wider drive to reduce resource use, in 2008 we committed to cutting our per capita carbon emissions by 5% year on year. We have had less than a year to achieve this but are making good progress.

We expect to achieve our targets next year as campaigns to further embed sustainability in the daily behaviour of staff take full effect.

Our carbon footprint

This is the second year in which we have assessed our carbon footprint. At 35,900t, our 2008 emissions were 6100t greater than in 2007. The increase is explained by business growth and by improvements in the scope and quality of data available. Even though there was no concerted action before mid-2008 to reduce emissions, our footprint per person was 3% lower than in 2007.

Year on year we will achieve greater accuracy in our reporting by improving the way data is collected. In 2009 we have changed our accounts and expenses claims system, enabling us to accurately record distances travelled.

Benchmarking and public commitments

There are few published carbon footprints from organisations similar to Mott MacDonald. By moving towards the commonly used Greenhouse Gas Protocol corporate accounting and reporting standard we will make comparisons easier in future. We have reported our carbon footprint to the UK’s Carbon Disclosure Project, used by many public sector organisations as a standard for supply chain management.

Identifying weaknesses

Improving the coverage and quality of our carbon data year on year will help us direct our environmental actions better. High energy-use offices are being targeted to gain better efficiency. For example, our Pensacola office in Florida USA has reduced electricity use by nearly 50% by changing its cooling systems.

Leading behavioural change

Individuals who make small changes in their own lifestyle tend to be those also looking to make a difference on a big scale, which is what we can do through projects. In the last year, we have launched a major initiative to raise awareness among staff of the benefits of reducing resource use, creating less waste and adopting more sustainable forms of travel. We also piloted a new sustainability awareness induction training module for all staff.

We continue to invest in information and communications technology to reduce the need to travel for internal meetings. These include video conferencing and online meeting facilities. Through each of our location-specific office transport plans we encourage staff to use the lowest carbon mode of travel for business-related journeys and travel to work, where practicable.

We expect to see the impact of all our carbon reduction actions in the results of our 2009 carbon audit.

Systems underpinning sustainability

A Group board director responsible for sustainability gives it prominence at the highest level. In addition, a Group sustainability champion is helping drive policy across our organisation. We have a sustainability task force involving experts from each of our businesses to help advance our strategy.

Senior managers are tasked to pursue carbon reduction in our own operations and on our projects. Sustainability is a formal item on the agendas of all board meetings.

In our offices, we are strengthening the role of energy, resource and travel management through Local Environmental Practice Plans, bespoke documents setting out each office’s strategy.

Sustainable procurement

Mott MacDonald promotes the use of suppliers who provide information on the carbon footprint of their products and who supply products from sustainable sources. We engage with our suppliers to encourage them to reduce their own carbon footprint, and monitor their performance for continuous improvement.

Making sustainability visible

We have produced a family of 16 icons for our intranet and offices to raise awareness of how individuals can help reduce our – and their own – carbon footprint.

Challenging how we work

A new initiative led by our water and environment business is challenging designers to ask fundamental questions about materials, energy, the impact of distribution, production and installation, supply chains, operation and waste.

Working with customers

We are the only consultancy firm signed up to the Hong Kong Government’s Carbon Reduction Charter. We have pledged to reduce our carbon footprint on work done directly for the government and have gained recognition for helping our customers reduce their own emissions.

Working with partners

We are part of the @one Alliance, a services delivery organisation responsible for the bulk of the current capital works programme for UK water and wastewater company Anglian Water.

We have led development of a single sustainability and corporate responsibility strategy covering all seven alliance partners, selecting best practices from each company. The strategy has been benchmarked against those of supermarket giant Tesco, whose sustainability achievements are recognised as excellent.

Changing habits

Across India, we are working with customers to reduce resources consumed by project documents. The dialogue on efficiency has created opportunity to discuss sustainability more widely.