Tag Archives: Carbon Net Zero

TEP’s Neutral Footprints

This year, TEP’s staff have chosen to offset their carbon footprint by supporting a project that safeguards endangered species such as the Capuchin Monkey, Black Bearded Saki, The Little Spotted Cat and Giant Otter.

Since its foundation, TEP has always been mindful of its responsibility to manage the company’s impact on the environment. As a result, in 2010 TEP became the only environmental consultancy to offer full scope carbon neutrality under British Standard PAS 2060.

Every year since, TEP’s Green Team reviews our carbon footprint to monitor and help get us closer to carbon net zero. This year’s report has documented an 18% increase in TEP’s carbon emissions. This can be largely attributed to the growth in our employee numbers, resulting in a 26% increase in business travel and 28% increase in commuting mileage. These two categories alone make up the majority of TEP’s CO2 emissions, with 229 tCO2e out of our 374 ton total in 2017/18.

To combat this, our Green team does a fantastic job implementing changes to help reduce our footprint. Changes such as: purchasing carbon neutral stationary, switching to LED lighting units, introducing hybrid powered pool cars and offering low carbon loans to our staff. However, to honour our pledge to carbon neutrality, every year TEP’s emissions need to be offset through Carbon Credit schemes from organisations such as EcoAct; who help companies deliver sustainable solutions.

This year our staff have chosen to support the Floresta de Portel project in Brazil. The project aims to protect and preserve the Amazonian ecosystems through the education and establishment of sustainable business practices for local inhabitants.

The project places a strong emphasis on working with the local communities to create prosperous and sustainable livelihoods, by safeguarding existing endangered species such as the Capuchin Monkey and allowing natural environmental recovery. The project also provides land tenure, allowing locals to claim rights to the land and prevent logging and large scale farming. It creates jobs to manage and monitor the health of the surrounding forest, as well as energy-efficient cook stoves to reduce reliance on felling trees. This is a fantastic project that we are proud to be supporting, it also fulfils three of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals:

08 – Decent Work and Economic Growth

13 – Climate Action and

15 – Life on Land

Very few significant journeys are ever short or direct but TEP is committed to becoming carbon net zero and helping other companies to do so along the way.

Ecology Ensures Natural Sustainability

Ecology surveys are hugely important to understanding the unique ecosystems that are woven throughout our natural and built environments, whether for roosting bats, migratory birds or great crested newts. Surveys allow our ecologists to identify and monitor potential ecological constraints within a development and offer effective solutions to mitigate the impacts on a sites biodiversity. Biodiversity being vital because, it boosts ecosystem productivity, ensures natural sustainability and offers a greater resilience to the effects of climate change.

This is why TEP’s ecologists are leading the way with regard to local and national efforts in delivering biodiversity net gain. Our ecologists are closely involved in the consultation process with Natural England to develop the Defra 2.0 metric.  We have successfully helped our clients to deliver biodiversity net gain on a range of projects. TEP also contributes to BREEAM assessments, to help clients meet sustainability targets under the BREEAM 2018 criteria. This may include the production of a long term management plan for a site, to ensure that the recommendations for biodiversity enhancement are carried out.

All of TEP’s ecology team are committed to delivering their service in a sustainable manner, complying with environmental legislation and the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management’s (CIEEM’s) code of good practice. We recognise that reducing the use of non-renewable resources, the waste arising from our operations, and the impact of travel through the delivery of our service is essential. This is why during survey design and planning, our ecologists seek to minimise the number of site visits, by utilising suitably experienced ecologists and completing multiple surveys simultaneously. This is regularly achieved, for example, by completing a Phase 1 habitat survey with a preliminary bat roost assessment and badger survey during the same visit. Survey materials are also considered, such as creating traps for great crested newt surveys from recycled single use plastic drinks bottles, reusing them where possible and recycling them when no longer usable. We purchase equipment such as eDNA kits in bulk where feasible, to reduce courier mileage.

All these small gains go a long way to addressing TEP’s own sustainability targets. Importantly, our ecologists aid our clients in meeting their own carbon reduction commitments. TEP’s Ecology team is engaged in a range of projects that help our clients address climate change. This includes our Northern Roots project, which will be the UK’s largest urban farm and eco-park. TEP’s ecologists are advising which habitat creation measures will optimise the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered in vegetation, wetlands and soil, with the ambition that Northern Roots will be carbon-negative and contribute towards Oldham Council’s climate emergency actions.  

To discover how our other teams are contributing to climate action follow the links the below:
Environmental Planning
GIS
Arboriculture
Landscape Design
Landscape Management

or to get in touch about your ecological enquiries, please email ecology@tep.uk.com

Arboriculture – The Root of Climate Action?

TEPs Arboriculturists are well-versed in the fantastic benefits of trees and the role they play in climate resilience. Trees are amazingly efficient carbon off-setters, sequestering carbon and accumulating it in the form of biomass, deadwood and in the soil. However, planting trees purely as a ‘carbon sink’ to offset harmful activities, does not always make the most of the wider role trees play in natural capital assets, interests and ecosystem services.  

Advising on existing trees early in projects helps to ensure that the best and most valued trees are retained and incorporated into developments.  Planning developments with tree advice from the outset can help ensure protection of valued trees and tree groups with their carbon storage, landscape, biodiversity amenity and well-being benefits secured.  Tree protection and methods of working that avoid, reduce or mitigate effects can mean that new developments benefit from the retention of trees that otherwise could have been lost.

Tree planting sometimes seems the blanket response to climate action. While it has a large part to play in the offset, haphazardly planting trees without careful planning can lead to the loss or displacement of other habitats, including species-rich grasslands, wetlands, heathlands and peatlands. The wrong trees in the wrong place can also adversely affect the soil (including soil carbon), water flows, water quality, biodiversity and air quality.  Better management of a site’s tree stock, both existing and proposed needs to be viewed as a contributor to achieving ‘carbon net zero’, instead of being the only solution.

TEP is currently working with Oldham Council to deliver the Northern Roots project, which will create the largest urban farm and eco-park in the UK.  Our green and blue infrastructure study will bring together woodland management and creation objectives; low and zero carbon technologies; carbon capture potential of different habitats; and; capital and revenue funding sources.  Northern Roots is pursuing nature based interventions that deliver the right mix of social, environmental and economic outcomes to help mitigate and adapt to climate change. This is an exciting and challenging project for all involved but one which will ultimately optimise environmental performance towards net zero and improve the lives of local communities. It is also paving the way and helping to set the standard for combating climate resilience in the future.

To discover how our other teams are contributing to climate action follow the links the below:
Environmental Planning
GIS
Ecology
Landscape Design
Landscape Management

or to get in touch about tree management, please email arboriculture@tep.uk.com

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