As a Tech Zero and SME Climate Hub signatory, Adopter has committed to halving our emissions by 2030 and reaching net zero emissions by 2050. 

We pride ourselves on our sustainability and our commitment to placing the planet alongside profit.

These commitments are demonstrated by our B Corp Certification and our involvement with Tech Zero & SME Climate Hub.

We, therefore, see monitoring and managing our carbon emissions with transparency as a necessary step in working to mitigate our impact on the environment.

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Which types of emissions have been calculated? 

When reporting on emissions, there are three different types of emissions that need to be measured. They are Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions. 

Scope 1 - Direct emissions that are produced from sources that are controlled or owned by a company. 

For example, emissions produced from the running of machinery or the driving of company vehicles count as Scope 1 emissions.   

Scope 2 - Indirect emissions that are created from the production of energy that a company purchases to help run its operations. 

For example, the emissions produced from electricity usage in an office would count as Scope 2 emissions. 

Scope 3 - Indirect emissions that are produced as a result of actions from external sources up and down a company's value chain. 

As Scope 3 emissions are controlled by a company's related suppliers and customers, they have the least amount of influence on these emissions making them the hardest to report on and reduce. 

Emissions from the manufacture and transportation of products purchased by a company are examples of Scope 3 emissions, as are the emissions produced from consumers disposing of a company’s own product. 

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Adopter’s emissions from the last financial year (2022-2023)

For Adopter, the last financial year was about calculating our baseline emissions. Using these initial calculations, we can begin to understand where and how to improve. 

For the financial year of 2022-23:

• We produced 0.2 tCO2e of Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

• (Which is roughly equivalent to the emissions of a single passenger flying from London to Berlin¹)

• We produced 3.79 tCO2e of Scope 3 emissions.
• Meaning our total emissions across all of Scopes 1, 2, and 3 was 3.99 tCO2e.

For context, Adopter’s total annual emissions were less than that of a single passenger taking a return flight from London to Sydney².

As a remote-first service company, we have no Scope 1 emissions and very few Scope 2 emissions. Our Scope 3 emissions - like most companies - form the bulk of our emissions. Most of our Scope 3 emissions came from our suppliers (2.07 tCO2e), and travel (0.66 tCO2e), but some also came from purchases, websites we created, and home-working employee emissions.

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Adopter’s emission reduction plans

Adopter is scaling, and we are aware that we must be realistic about our future emissions. As we hire new team members, our emissions will rise for a period. Nevertheless, we are aiming to work to reduce our emissions intensity as we scale and are determined to reach our emissions targets.

Currently, a large amount of our Scope 3 emissions are residual and difficult for us to mitigate. But we are committed to reducing our emissions where we can.

Our plan:

• We will be launching an internal sustainability forum for our team to regularly share our learnings about ways of reducing our emissions and improving Adopter’s sustainability more broadly.
• We have begun regularly collecting stakeholder feedback on our emissions and wider ESG actions.
• We have implemented an environmental stewardship policy that champions public transport use for all business travel and equips our team with knowledge on sustainable home working.
• We have joined a global community of B Corps all working to reduce their emissions that we can learn from and grow with.
• We will continue to support our clients and the wider greentech ecosystem so that we can push for the innovation and broader decarbonisation that we need to tackle our residual emissions and help our staff and suppliers decarbonise.

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Use of offsets 

Adopter views offsets not as an alternative or solution to reducing our emissions but rather as a way to try to mitigate some of our emissions that are currently outside of our control. 

For the 2022-2023 financial year, we offset 6 tonnes of CO2e. 

We chose our offsets in alignment with the Oxford Offsetting Principles which emphasise carbon removal, additionality, and permanence. This means that our offsets help to remove CO2 from the atmosphere that would not otherwise have been removed and store it for a significant period of time. We purchased our offsets from the puro.earth marketplace and will continue to assess the offsetting space to make sure that any future offset purchases are credible and effective.

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Our Calculations

We have calculated our emissions using Tech Zero guidance and the most accurate information possible. However, practical constraints meant that we could not include our emissions from waste, paper, and purchases of less than £50 that did not fit into categories of food, electronics, clothing, metals, or plastics. Our calculations are thus likely an underestimate. We have over-purchased offsets to compensate for this, and we look forward to improving our methods in the future. 

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What can we do better?

Our Co-Founder, Matt Jaworski, is responsible for our net zero targets and emissions. Have you got any feedback on our emissions plan or how we can become more sustainable? 

Reach out to Matt Jaworski on Linkedin; we’d love to hear your thoughts!

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¹ https://curb6.com/footprint/flights/london-ltn/berlin-sxf
² https://curb6.com/offset?q=5548321

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