#196 Reed & Mackay's Carbon Verification Journey

Business travel remains one of our largest sources of greenhouse emissions, accounting for 26% of the UK's total emissions.

In an ideal world, no one would have to travel to work or events, some might even point to the way everyone adapted in COVID as a prime example of this in practice. However, for many that model of work is not feasible in the long-term.

So, how can we reduce this unavoidable stream of emissions?

Businesses are starting to take the right steps, however, today's guest is paving the way as a shining example of sustainable business travel and events management.

In this episode, Mel is joined by Christopher Truss, Global Sustainability Director at Reed & Mackay, to discuss their impressive existing ISO Standard portfolio and their journey towards ISO 14064 carbon verification.

You'll learn

· Who is Chris Truss?

· Who are Reed & Mackay?

· What are the highlights from Reed & Mackay's latest Sustainability and Responsible Business report?

· What Standards are Reed & Mackay certified to?

· What is the demand for sustainability within the business travel and events management sector?

· Why get ISO 14064 verified?

· What were the challenges with obtaining ISO 14064 verification?

· What are the benefits of obtaining ISO 14064 Verification?

Resources

· Reed & Mackay

· Reed & Mackay Sustainable and Responsible Business Report 2024

· Carbonology

In this episode, we talk about:

[02:05] Episode Summary – We welcome today's guest, Chris Truss, Global Sustainability Director at Reed & Mackay, to explore their ISO Standards portfolio and journey towards ISO 14064 verification.

[02:40] Who is Chris?: Chris has had over 20 years experience in the business travel industry. He is currently responsible for driving the sustainability agenda at Reed & Mackay, which includes the development of services and solutions that their clients require to meet their own sustainability initiatives.

He also manages a wide range of third-party suppliers.

A lesser know fact about Chris is in a band, playing the folk fiddle and singing in pubs around Yorkshire. He also plays tennis in the over 45 category for Yorkshire!

[04:50] Who are Reed & Mackay? – Reed & Mackay are a global travel management and event management business. They help clients all the way from picking up the telephone and making bookings on their behalf, helping them source appropriate venues for their events and then managing the overall spend, the supply chain and ultimately reporting back to them on what they've been up to and how they can improve their processes and save money.

Reed & Mackay are highly regarded for their quality of services, especially within the professional services sector, and they proudly boast a number of large blue chip clients.

[05:50] What are some of the highlights in Reed & Mackay's Sustainability and Responsible Business Report? When Chris came into his latest role, he looked to tackle two main points:

· How can Reed & Mackay operate sustainably?

· How can we articulate that to our clients?

As a result of the work Chris has done, Reed & Mackay have signed up to the United Nations Global Compact and have aligned themselves with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

They have also become an EcoVadis rated supplier and are undertaking their first Carbon Reduction Plan disclosure.

From a corporate responsibility point of view, they have made great strides to improve their gender pay gap. They are also ensuring the integrity of their charitable partnerships.

[08:00] What are some of the sustainability initiatives that Reed & Mackay have started? Reed & Mackay support a charity called 4Ocean, who are trying to remove as much plastic from our oceans as possible.

They selected this charity in particular due to it's global reach, embodying the nature of Reed & Mackay's global influence in 13 countries for the past 10 years. They recognised the need to support a sustainability based charity as corporate travel is highly polluting, so this is a form of taking responsibility and looking at where they can assist to reduce environmental damage.

4Oceans also allows their employees to get involved directly, should they choose to take some time out of the office to help with ocean clean-up.

[09:55] What ISO Standards are Reed & Mackay certified to? They are currently certified to:

· ISO 27001 Information Security

· ISO 14001 Environmental Management

· ISO 22301 Business Continuity

· ISO 9001 Quality Management

All of which they have been certified to for over 10 years now! They acted as a foundation for Chris to drive his sustainability agenda.

[11:10] How are these ISO Standards managed across the business? – Reed & Mackay have a dedicated Security and Trust team that manage all ISO certifications, in addition to their other responsibilities.

All of the ISO Standards are a part of their Integrated Management System, which sits alongside their policies and procedures for the business that are managed by a central team.

This has provided them with an invaluable foundation to ensure the delivery of quality services, client satisfaction and continual improvement.

[12:45] What is the demand for sustainability within the business travel sector? They are receiving more requirements and requests from clients in regard to their own operational CO2 footprint, which is needed for clients own reporting requirements as Reed & Mackay would count towards many clients Scope 3 emissions.

There is also a need for more transparency with carbon reporting, including the use of credible calculation methodology's.

The verification of GHG emissions also gives clients more confidence that businesses are doing what they say they're doing.

[14:15] What was the main driver behind Reed & Mackay gaining ISO 14064 verification?: While they felt confident in their sustainability efforts up to a certain point, they wanted someone to come in and mark their homework to make sure they were doing the right thing.

With the increase in client demand for credible sustainability reporting, it was vital to pursue various CPD disclosures such as EcoVadis and prepare for upcoming legislation like CSRD.

To ensure they were in the best possible shape to give the information requested by clients and other stakeholders, they needed am accurate and reliable method of verification, which is what ISO 14064 could provide.

[15:40] What were the main challenges in obtaining ISO 14064 verification?: Just getting a hold of the raw data was the most difficult part, although they found it to be a very enlightening experience too.

Having to dig to find the right information helped Chris to understand the business better, giving him a greater visibility on where their carbon emissions are coming from and where there are opportunities to reduce those.

You have to be very tenacious to get all the necessary data. Chris highlights purchased goods and services data as particularly challenging to obtain due to its granular nature.

Now they have been through this process once, they've got a system in place to make data collection a lot easier in future.

[18:55] What impact has ISO 14064 verification had on Reed & Mackay?: It's helped from an internal perspective as people now have a greater visibility and understanding of the impact that have on an individual basis. This in turn creates a strong launchpad for their Net Zero strategy.

From an external perspective, it's given Reed & Mackay a lot more confidence in their own processes and their ability to work with their clients towards sustainability goals.

[20:00] What were the main benefits of getting ISO 14064 verified?:

Giving clients, stakeholder and employees confidence: The verification calculation is reliable, and so they can be confident in relaying the facts and figures to interested parties.

A great insight: The data has provided huge insights into how the business operates and where it's biggest emissions sources lie. This is vital to know before you take steps to try and reduce your current impact.

Ability to create an accurate Carbon Reduction Plan: Once again, with confidence in having the correct data to hand, they are able to formulate an accurate Carbon Reduction Plan which can be realistically achieved.

Anti Green-washing: Consumers are crying out for a reliable sign of credibility. Simply having an environmental policy statement may have been enough 10 years ago, but that's not the case now. People expect evidence of your sustainability claims.

[21:50] Chris's top tip for anyone considering ISO 14064 verification: Just get started and don't be scared by the process.

Though it may seem daunting to start, you will actually be in a much better position than when you started. Having verified data and awareness of where that data comes from and what it means on a larger scale will be vital to looking for opportunities for improvement.

So, if you want to improve your sustainability, you just need to get cracking!

[23:20] How are Reed & Mackay helping organisations improve the sustainability of their travel?: Reed & Mackay's ambition is to make sure that clients understand the impact of their choices at every single step of their journey.

To help, they provide the carbon footprint of every booking they make, whether that be through their site or with a consultant.

They also have approval processes built into their systems, which can be based on carbon. For example, if a client doesn't want to take the lowest carbon option on a particular journey, they can add required approval from an additional person within that client's organisation. So it adds a level of accountability over the choices people make.

They also provide full reporting on business travel activity and where potential savings have been missed. This is a valuable tool if they need to provide travel data to carbon consultants for example, they'll already have all of those granular reports prepared.

These reports will highlight where clients haven't taken the lowest carbon option, i.e. where they could travel in a group instead of individually. Reed & Mackay's intention is to make sure people have visibility of carbon alongside cost so clients can make a fair and balanced decision.

Additional services include:

· Able to set carbon budgets across a business

· Ability to purchase carbon credits for offsetting purposes

· Opportunities to mitigate carbon emissions through offsetting, or decarbonise through Carbon Reduction Plans over a period of time

[28:50] Chris's book recommendation: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

[29:15] Chris's favourite quote: You can't measure success if you have never failed – Steffi Graf

If you would like to learn more about Reed & Mackay, and their sustainability initiatives, visit their website.

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