Impact of COVID-19 on our carbon footprint

The closure and reduced occupancy across our portfolio of 150 offices and greatly reduced travel contributed to a significant reduction in emissions from office energy, business travel and employee commuting. At the same time, ERM invested in several measures to reduce our carbon footprint.

We noted a significant decrease our Scope 1 emissions (-31%), primarily from natural gas usage and company-owned vehicles for fieldwork. At the same time, we continued to reduce our Scope 2 emissions significantly (-96%) through renewable energy contracts, purchasing renewable energy and implementing other energy efficiency measures. We continue to take actions to remain on track for meeting our 2025 Scopes 1 and 2 emissions target, and once adopted, we are well positioned to achieve an ambitious science-based target of 1.5 degrees by 2025.

With dramatic reductions in business travel (-81%) and employee commuting (-92%) as a result of COVID-19, our Scope 3 emission decreased 80% from FY20 to FY21. Although the pandemic precipitated a historic shift to remote working and demonstrated the feasibility and benefits of online meetings, our Scope 3 emissions will likely rise as we return to some pre-pandemic ways of working. Achieving our 2025 Scope 3 emissions target remains quite challenging.

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Reduction in FY21 emissions compared to FY20

-31%

in Scope 1 emissions

-96%

in Scope 2 emissions

-80%

in Scope 3 emissions

Against this backdrop, we adopted several strong measures in FY21 that contributed to our overall reduction in emissions and progress towards meeting our science-based targets:

• ERM transitioned to renewable energy in all offices, with nearly 100% of office energy use supplied by renewable energy through direct renewable energy contracts and Renewable energy credits. This was a primary driver of the decrease in our Scope 2 emissions during FY21.
• Our office optimization measures reduced office space, decreasing carbon emissions from office energy by approximately 7%.

In FY22, we will continue these initiatives and are pursing additional emission reduction measures, including:

• Reducing travel budgets by 50%, which will significantly reduce our business travel emissions.

ERM worked with our sustainability software provider and internal experts to develop a methodology to calculate emissions from home working, given there is not a standard at this time. This enables us to better understanding the full impact of changes in employee commuting and we will continue to refine this methodology over time.