We have been helping our members achieve their financial goals for over 195 years, so it’s fair to say we understand the importance of looking forward to and investing in the future. Therefore, we are delighted to have received our bronze accreditation from Investors in the Environment as part of our promise to become a more sustainable Society. The accreditation follows our partnership with ClimatePartner and our pledge to become carbon neutral by the end of 2024.
Investing in our environment
As part of our commitment to operating in a more sustainable way, we began working with Investors in the Environment to learn more about our environmental impact and how we can become more ecologically conscious. In February 2022, we were audited for the first time and assessed on five key areas of environmental management. Overall, we were given a sustainability rating of 73% and awarded an Investors in the Environment bronze accreditation. This is a great achievement for our Society, and we are already looking forward to putting further measures in place to achieve a silver accreditation at our next annual audit.
Carbon neutral operations
We are also immensely proud to announce that our Head Office is now carbon neutral. This means that we have reduced the amounts of greenhouse gases produced by our operations and offset unavoidable emissions by funding carbon offset projects which contribute to positive climate action. Our current carbon offset projects include afforestation (woodland creation) in Cumbria, UK and cleaning oceans, worldwide.
This is an excellent achievement and has given us a strong start on our journey towards net zero carbon emissions by the end of 2024. Our continued work with ClimatePartner will explore further ways to reduce our impact across the Society in our pursuit of total carbon neutrality.
Ann-Marie O’Dea, Chief Executive Officer at Shepherds Friendly said:
“As a friendly society, we’ve always tried to do our bit for the environment. Over the last couple of years, it’s been our mission to step up that commitment and to become a greener business. To achieve carbon neutrality at our Head Office and be awarded a Bronze Investors in Environment accreditation in such a short space of time is definitely a positive step in the right direction. The efforts of our people and our Green Team have been key in this.
“We’re certainly just at the beginning of our journey and there’s much more we plan to achieve in terms of being more environmentally conscious and sustainable. Being a mutual, values play a huge part in what we do, one of these being ‘doing the right thing’. So, working together to try and help our planet is just one way we can continue to live our values.”
Get in touch
If you would like to find out more about how we are becoming more sustainable, contact our Member Services team on 0800 526 249 during our office hours (Monday to Thursday, 9.00am – 5.00pm; Friday, 9.00am – 4.00pm).
