Achieving Net Zero Carbon
In recent years, the urgency to tackle climate change has been growing with the issue being at the forefront of global leaders’ attention at many political conferences.
While we need world leaders to take urgent action to tackle climate change, we all need to recognise the importance of reducing our emissions and managing the impacts of our activities on climate change.
In 2021, Oakland Care became the first UK care home group to be certified as carbon neutral. This important certification has been achieved for a third year running in 2023, and sadly, we remain the only UK care home group to have invested in doing so.
For Oakland Care, carbon neutrality is just one small step in our sustainable journey to net zero.
While we work to set our targets, we are conscious of the urgency to act now. That’s why we are investing in innovative projects throughout our business to reduce carbon emissions and our overall carbon footprint.
By focusing on achieving Net Zero Carbon, we are supporting the following UN Sustainable Development Goal:
13 Climate Action
“Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”
– Source: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal13
Ambitions & Targets
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1
We are committed to setting science-based targets and becoming carbon net zero.
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2
All of our construction projects to be certified minimum of ‘Excellent’ by BREAAM.
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3
We will maintain our Greenmark Level 3 status.
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4
We will continue to provide all team members with training on improving sustainability.
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5
We will apply for B Corp accreditation in 2024.
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6
We will give back at least 2000 hours of team time to local sustainability projects.
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7
We will plant at least 1250 trees per annum.
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8
We will have biodiversity gardens in every home by the end of 2023.
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9
All our new homes will be designed with at least 25% of garden space dedicated to biodiversity from 2023.
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10
We will continue to improve the efficiency of our procurement resulting in 25% less deliveries in 2024 compared to 2023.
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11
We will continue to send zero waste to landfill.
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12
We will reduce plastic waste from chemicals by 90% by end of 2023.
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13
The use of Hazardous chemicals will be reduced by 90% in 2024 compared to 2022.
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14
We will only use FSC certified timber for all construction projects.
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15
We will maintain our carbon neutral certification and work towards net zero.
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16
We will reduce paper use across the business by 50% by the end of 2024 vs end of 2023.
Our Sustainability Journey
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Our Commitment
Caring for the environment and improving sustainability is a key focus for our Executive team.
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Biodiversity
We have been working with our residents to deliver biodiversity projects across our care homes.
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Procurement
We have implemented high sustainability requirements through our tendering processes with suppliers to ensure that the supplies we procure are produced and delivered with a lower level of environmental impact.
See our Responsible Procurement and Reducing Waste Initiative