In December 2020, Synergos Limited took the decision to work towards becoming a
zero carbon company, with the eventual ambition of becoming 'carbon-positive',
meaning that the company's activities and influence on the activities of others
means that we are doing more good than harm.

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We considered this an entirely realistic aim since we work in the 'intellectual' arena as opposed to those of physical products, and therefore have fewer sources of emissions to address.

 

Director Stephen Grant, a proponent on environmental issues since the eighties, proposed and led the programme which initially addressed the companies direct activities before investigating the effects of indirect and allied activities and actions. This then extended to encouraging employees to switch their domestic energy providers to one of a shortlist of 'green' or renewable/sustainable providers, with GEUK, Ecotricity
and Good Energy as recommendations.

 

Despite the relatively straightforward operational nature of Synergos, it proved far more difficult than envisaged to reduce emissions to zero. By May of 2021, 85% of all energy used by the company and its employees was 'green', and monthly emissions were down to 393kg. The remaining emissions were proving stubborn and difficult to address. Indeed, Grant wrote that the process had made him suspicious of the
zero claims of larger organisations.

 

By the end of July, emissions had been reduced further to less than 100kg, i.e. a level so low as to be difficult to measure. At the same time, Synergos had been part of the Ecologi Offset Programme which is a fully transparent scheme approved by both the Verified Carbon Standard and by Gold Standard – the leading bodies in this field. Lloyds Bank, Axa, the BBC and many other committed organisations
are also part of the Ecologi programme.

 

We had by then offset 31.8 tonnes of CO2 and been directly responsible for the planting of 512 trees. All energy used by the company and by its employees was sustainably sourced, and emissions had been reduced to the equivalent of three or four kilos per day whilst offsetting well over 150kg per day. It was at that point that we declared Synergos to have achieved a true and verifiable net zero status.

 

By January 2023, the company and its employees had continued on the same path. Some 1,826 saplings had been planted and 129.8T of emissions offset (against 1.8T emitted over the same period).