CLIMATE COMMITMENTS

We’re committing to be carbon neutral* by 2025, and net zero across all emissions by 2050 at the latest.

Sustainability Reporting

As a company, we believe in providing as much transparency and clarity as possible to our investor base for them to make informed decisions. This is why we continue to work hard on supplying information on our sustainability goals and carbon emissions to ensure consistency and accountability. You can find our Financial Year 2021 Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) disclosure below, along with our scope one, two and three carbon emissions data for the year.

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board Disclosure

Carbon neutral

A company can say it’s carbon neutral when it reduces the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and uses offsets to balance their remaining carbon emissions. Offsetting involves activities that prevent, reduce or remove emissions from the atmosphere, such as planting trees.

Net zero

A company reaches net zero when all associated greenhouse gas emissions – that goes beyond carbon dioxide – from all of its operations and supply chain have been reduced as much as possible and any residual emissions that cannot be reduced are balanced through offsetting.

Our emissions

Since 2017 we’ve reduced our emissions** by approximately 11% per year;

Emissions from:

Tonnes of CO2 equivalent
2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021

Scope 1 – Combustion of fuel and operations of facilities

1285

992.1

1001.7

975.5

Scope 2- Purchased energy for own use

2321.9

2001.7

827.7

672.1*

Tonnes of CO2e per average full-time equivalent employee

1.66

1.27

1.14

0.89

Energy used (MW)

N/A

4.985

4.447**

Scope 3 - Business travel

N/A

0.63

Scope 3 - Employee commuting

N/A

23.17

*The purchased energy for own use figure includes 30.8 tonnes of CO2 emissions relating to our operations in Poland. It is not feasible to split any other metrics by country.
**The energy used figure includes 145 Mega Watts relating to our operations in Poland. It is not feasible to split any other metrics by country.

We’re working hard to do better and are rolling out various emission reduction initiatives:

Introducing LED lighting across our operations
Recycling of our food waste
Reducing our paper usage
Reducing energy usage associated with data retention
Providing colleagues with regular information on climate change and how they can play their part

Each year we aim to reduce our scope 1 and 2 emissions by at least 15% and expand our reporting of our scope 3 emissions. We also commit to reduce our tonnes of CO2e per average full-time equivalent employee by at least 20% per year.

*Scope 1, 2 and scope 3 business travel and employee commuting emissions
**Scope 1 and 2 tCO2e

As well as focusing on emissions reduction methods, we’re supporting local projects that can help restore our community. We’re:

Planting around 2,000 trees in woodlands around Bristol
Re-wilding local community spaces that will support biodiversity growth

Empowering our clients

As the UK’s number one investment platform for private investors, we support our clients with information and the tools they need to invest according to their values.

We’re helping clients with information that explores the different approaches to sustainable investing. It aims to help clients align their principles with their investments.

Guide to responsible investment

You can find more details of our progress on ESG and reducing emissions together with our Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures in this year’s annual report. It highlights the risks and opportunities of climate change to HL. We’re using this work to shape our ESG strategy, embedding climate-related risk management across the business.

You can stay up to date with our progress towards net zero in our annual report.