WORLDWIDE: Synergy Global Housing has released its first emissions report on its path to achieving Net Zero by 2030.
In line with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) protocol, the report, produced by GreenFeet, will act as a baseline emissions measurement as Synergy aims to reduce its carbon footprint to be carbon neutral by 2030.
Major areas measured were fossil fuels, electricity, vehicles and business travel, as well as real estate related emissions. Synergy has limited its associated business travel in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint with limited trips per year and minimum distance requirements. More information on its sustainability ethos can be found here.
Some key findings and results of the report included:
Synergy’s overall emissions = 5,000 tonnes of CO2. To put that into perspective – 1 tonne of CO2 is the equivalent of a car driving 23,000 miles (or once round the world). So 5,000 tonnes is like a car driving 115 millions miles every year, or 5,000 times around the world.
Over 90 per cent of Synergy’s emissions originate from real estate properties.
An organisation-wide “per unit” intensity metric has been created, which will enable Synergy to track the year-over-year progress made toward the company’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2030.
Synergy will track and measure emissions on a quarterly basis via the GreenFeet platform.
Debra Christopher, president of Synergy said: “For our sustainability program, it’s critical that we understand where we sit as a company first and foremost. With this first emission report, we now have a baseline to understand our current state of emissions and what we can do to act upon it, make better educated choices and further our efforts toward being a sustainable housing company.”
Synergy provided GreenFeet with data from 2019 through 2021 to form this baseline. After assessment of the three years of data, GreenFeet selected 2021 as the baseline year for the report, noting it provided a true representation of the company’s business globally.
Although the baseline report has been completed the Annual GHG reporting is still in progress. GHG emissions are broken down into three Scopes.
Scope 1: All Direct Emissions from the activities of an organisation or under their control including fuel consumption on site such as gas boilers fleet vehicles and air conditioning leaks.
Scope 2: Indirect emissions from electricity purchased and used by the organisation. Emissions are created during the production of the energy and eventually used by the organisation.
Scope 3 – All Other Indirect Emissions from activities of the organisation occurring from sources that it does not own or control. These are usually the greatest share of the carbon footprint, covering emissions associated with business travel procurement, waste and water.
Each step in Synergy’s comprehensive sustainability plan is benchmarked against the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals in a broader effort to align to the Business Travel Association’s (BTA) recent three-step environmental, social and governance ESG campaign.
Synergy’s objective is to do its part to help fulfil the goals outlined by the 2016 Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C (compared with pre-industrial levels).
Lisa McKelvey, co-founder of GreenFeet said: “We’re extremely pleased to be working with Synergy to help them measure their carbon emissions as they strive to be carbon neutral by 2030. This baseline report is the first step in a meaningful sustainability program which includes measuring, setting and evaluating goals, reducing emissions, offsetting and reporting.”
GreenFeet offers people, companies and organisations easy to configure, accurate visibility into their CO2 emissions to assess options and, ultimately, change behaviours and reduce emissions quickly.
The GreenFeet partnership adds to a growing number of sustainability initiatives currently in motion for the global serviced apartment program manager, including:
A “Green Leaf” program that ranks the sustainability levels of Synergy’s global property offerings. Working closely with supplier partners, each of Synergy’s global property profiles will soon display a leaf ranking system to help inform environmentally conscious guests of the property’s sustainability levels
The removal and replacement of all single-use plastics in the apartment with environmentally friendly glass, paper and microplastic-free options
An internal training program to educate and empower Synergy associates on making small eco-conscious changes at work and home
Synergy announced its partnership with GreenFeet in March this year.
