Impact Report 2019

Declaring a Climate Emergency
It might sound a bit pretentious or grandiose for an executive search firm to
“declare” a climate emergency. But that’s what Society has decided we need to
do. We feel obligated to speak out and to take action.
Society is committing to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions
to ‘Net Zero’ by 2030.
We don’t have big factories to overhaul, or
complex supply chains to marshal. However,
even for us, this commitment will present
significant challenges. We will need to
reimagine certain aspects of our business
model. That is partly because we are
determined the word “Net” shouldn’t end up
doing all the heavy lifting. Companies mustn’t
fool themselves that simply offsetting their
carbon footprint can provide the whole
solution. There are only so many trees the
world can plant. Meanwhile, many of the
approaches for subtracting carbon from the
atmosphere currently remain unproven.
We feel we actually need to reduce our
footprint as well.
Here is the approach we plan to take:
• we will calculate and report our
estimated annual greenhouse gas
emissions inventory (our ‘carbon
footprint’) compliant with the
Greenhouse Gas Protocol;
• we will look at ways to minimise our use
of carbon-intensive travel, particularly
air travel;
• we will regularly review all energy
and water usage and our waste
management arrangements;
• we will support and encourage our
employees to change their individual
behaviour, including switching to
renewable energy at home, using more
public transport, cycling and walking,
reducing food waste, eating less meat and
dairy, and taking an active interest in
where their pensions are invested;
• we will try to identify ways of pursuing
shared solutions with our clients, our
suppliers and even our competitors;
• we will consider new ways to use
our purchasing power to affect
positive change.
• we will then develop a series of carbon
reduction targets/milestones and begin
reporting on them annually;