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 second year in 2022, however, 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 achieve Greenmark level 3 accreditation by end of 2022.
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4
We will provide all team members with training on improving sustainability.
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5
We will achieve ISO-14001 accreditation by end of 2023.
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6
We will give back at least 1500 hours of staff time to local communities to volunteer with environmental projects.
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7
We will plant at least 1000 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 reduce delivery miles for each home to achieve a total reduction of 50% by end of 2023 (compared to 2021).
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11
We will reduce the volume of clinical waste in each home going to landfill by 50% (2023 vs 2021).
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12
We will reduce plastic waste from chemicals by 90% by end of 2023.
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13
All homes will only use cleaning chemicals that have zero hazardous properties by 2023.
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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.
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