Carbon Reduction Plan

Global Voices Ltd is committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050 at the latest. This sits alongside our existing aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.

Our Sustainability and ESG Strategy already sets out measures covering energy use, transport, waste, digital working and responsible sourcing. It also includes a target to reduce waste generation by 45% by December 2028.

This is Global Voices' first formal Carbon Reduction Plan. We have not previously produced a quantified organisational Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions inventory. FY22 has therefore been selected as a retrospective baseline and FY26 as the most recent reporting year for which Finance has supplied comparable cost data.

Global Voices leases its office. Electricity, heating and waste are included within a landlord service charge and separate meter readings or waste tonnage are not available to us. Where physical activity data is unavailable, estimates have been made from recorded expenditure using UK Government energy prices, UK Government greenhouse gas conversion factors and DEFRA spend-based emissions multipliers. These estimates will be replaced with activity data where it becomes available.

Global Voices does not operate a company-car fleet. Petrol expenditure has therefore been treated as employee/business travel rather than Scope 1.

The figures above are first-year estimates and should be read with the following methodology and limitations.

• Office electricity: Service-charge expenditure converted to estimated kWh using average UK non-domestic electricity prices, then multiplied by the relevant UK Government electricity conversion factor.
• Office heating: Landlord gas/service-charge expenditure converted to estimated kWh using average UK non-domestic gas prices and treated as a proxy for purchased heating energy within Scope 2.
• Business travel: Finance estimates that other travel spend is approximately 85% flights, 10% taxis and 5% rail. Where passenger-km data is unavailable, DEFRA spend-based multipliers have been used as an initial screening method.
• Petrol: Expenditure has been converted to estimated litres using representative UK petrol prices and then converted to CO2e using the relevant UK Government petrol factor.
• Waste: Waste-service spend has been converted using a DEFRA spend-based waste-management multiplier because tonnage is not available from the landlord.
• Employee commuting: Approximately 40 staff are office-based five days per week. Management information indicates 11 cars are typically present, 10 people car share, 15 use bus or walk and 4 mix bus and car. Around 25 staff travel from Glasgow/Edinburgh at approximately 35 miles each way and around 15 are local at approximately 3–4 miles each way. The calculation uses 230 working days, treats the bus/walk group as bus users for a conservative estimate and applies the relevant UK Government car and non-London local-bus factors. FY22 uses the same commuting pattern as a proxy because historic commuting data is not available.

Because part of the footprint is spend-based, changes in price can affect the reported result even where physical activity is unchanged. Future reporting will move toward activity-based data to improve comparability.

10%

Reduction in total reported emissions by FY31, from FY26

45%

Reduction in waste generation by December 2028

2040

Our aim for carbon neutrality

Global Voices already aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040 and to reduce waste generation by 45% by December 2028.

Global Voices will reduce total reported organisational emissions by 10% from the FY26 position by FY31. On the current methodology, this would reduce annual reported emissions from approximately 136.76 tCO2e to approximately 123.08 tCO2e. The reduction target will be reviewed as data quality improves so that future performance is driven by actual activity rather than changes in spend or market prices.

• Car-share scheme, including a financial incentive for participating employees.
• Cycle-to-work support.
• Paperless administration and electronic operating manuals.
• Electronic marketing materials, customer reporting and invoicing.
• Use of virtual meetings and remote interpretation where appropriate, reducing the need for travel.
• Responsible sourcing of linguists with location considered where this can reduce unnecessary travel.
• Recycling, reduction of single-use plastics and responsible waste-management practices.
• Consideration of ethical and environmental factors within supplier selection.

Global Voices' Sustainability and ESG Strategy records that face-to-face interpretation reduced from 73% of interpretation projects in 2019 to 34% in 2023, demonstrating a material shift toward remote delivery.

• Seek actual or landlord-apportioned electricity, heating and waste activity data rather than relying on spend-based estimates.
• Record business travel by journey type and distance, including air, rail, taxi and reimbursed mileage.
• Introduce a simple annual staff commuting check to improve the employee-commuting estimate and track the effect of car sharing.
• Continue to support car sharing and lower-carbon commuting options.
• Continue to use remote meetings and remote interpretation where appropriate while maintaining service and clinical requirements.
• Continue to source appropriately qualified linguists closer to face-to-face assignments where practicable.
• Review this Carbon Reduction Plan annually and publish updated emissions and progress against the agreed target.

This Carbon Reduction Plan has been prepared with reference to PPN 006 and the associated Technical Standard for Completion of Carbon Reduction Plans. It includes Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and the required subset of Scope 3 categories. Where activity data is unavailable, transparent estimation methods have been used and the limitations are stated.

The plan will be reviewed annually and updated as the quality and coverage of Global Voices' environmental data improves.