Policy Owner: Group COO / Operations Director (or appointed Sustainability Lead)
Approved by: Board of Directors (Scout AI Group HoldCo)
Review cycle: Annual (or sooner if material business change)
Version: 1.0
Scout AI Group ("the Group") is committed to operating responsibly and reducing our environmental impact while delivering high-quality services to clients. This policy sets out how we will:
- Measure and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across our operations and value chain.
- Prevent pollution, minimise waste, and use resources efficiently.
- Embed environmental good practice into decision-making, delivery, and procurement.
- Meet applicable legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements (including public sector net zero expectations where relevant).
This policy applies to:
- All Group entities, employees, directors, contractors and subcontractors, including those working remotely, at client sites, or in shared/co-working spaces.
- All operational activities: service delivery, training/academy activity, procurement, travel, facilities, IT, and events.
- Supply chain and partners where we have influence through purchasing, contracts or relationship management.
Scout AI Group will:
- Commit to Net Zero: reduce absolute emissions and work toward a Net Zero position in line with the UK's 2050 net zero ambition, prioritising real reductions before offsets.
- Comply with law and client requirements: meet applicable environmental legislation and contractual obligations.
- Continually improve: set measurable objectives, track performance, and improve year-on-year.
- Use resources efficiently: reduce energy, water, materials, and waste.
- Avoid pollution: prevent environmental harm through responsible practices, including safe waste handling and procurement.
- Engage our people and partners: train staff, involve suppliers, and support clients with sustainable choices (especially where digital and AI can reduce waste and travel).
Board Oversight
- Approves this policy and annual objectives.
- Receives quarterly performance reporting and risks.
Sustainability Lead (appointed role)
- Maintains the Group carbon footprint and improvement plan.
- Coordinates data collection (energy, travel, procurement) and reporting.
- Supports bids/contract requirements (e.g., net zero plans, reporting, and due diligence).
Entity Leads / Department Heads
- Embed actions into day-to-day operations (procurement, travel approvals, IT, events).
- Ensure staff comply with procedures and record relevant data.
All Staff / Contractors
- Follow this policy, complete mandatory training, and support reduction actions (travel choices, energy saving, waste separation).
We follow a standard hierarchy:
- Measure emissions (Scopes 1, 2, and relevant Scope 3 categories).
- Reduce absolute emissions through targeted interventions.
- Substitute with lower-carbon alternatives (renewable electricity, low-carbon travel, efficient IT).
- Offset (last resort) only for residual emissions that cannot yet be eliminated, using credible, high-quality schemes with clear additionality and verification.
Emissions boundary (baseline and annual inventory):
- Scope 1: Direct fuel use (e.g., company vehicles if any; on-site gas heating if applicable).
- Scope 2: Purchased electricity used in offices/co-working spaces (where metered/allocable).
- Scope 3 (priority categories): business travel (rail, car mileage, flights); employee commuting (where material and measurable); purchased goods and services (including professional services and key suppliers); capital goods (IT equipment); waste generated in operations; upstream/downstream leased assets (where applicable); cloud/hosting and data centre services (where measurable via supplier reporting).
Scout AI Group will publish and maintain measurable objectives. As a minimum, we will:
Near-term (0–12 months)
- Establish a Group emissions baseline (by entity and consolidated).
- Implement a travel and meetings standard (remote-first, rail-first).
- Create a sustainable procurement standard for key categories (IT, events, subcontractors).
- Introduce a quarterly environmental dashboard to the Board.
Medium-term (1–3 years)
- Reduce Scope 2 electricity emissions through renewable tariffs where we control supply or through green energy arrangements in shared spaces.
- Reduce business travel emissions year-on-year (rail vs car/air).
- Improve IT energy efficiency and extend device life cycles.
Long-term (to 2050 or earlier)
- Achieve Net Zero across Scopes 1–3, subject to a maintained transition plan and credible reduction trajectory.
Note: Specific percentage reduction targets will be set after baseline completion and data quality assessment, and will be reviewed annually.
7.1 Energy & Buildings (including remote working)
- Prefer energy-efficient premises and co-working providers with credible sustainability credentials.
- Apply good practice: LED lighting, sensible heating/cooling setpoints, shutdown of equipment, and efficient meeting room use.
- Promote remote working practices that reduce travel while encouraging energy awareness at home (guidance issued annually).
7.2 Travel & Meetings
- Remote-first: use video conferencing as default where service delivery permits.
- Rail-first: choose rail over domestic flights wherever feasible.
- Car travel: encourage car sharing and public transport; prioritise low-emission vehicles where hire is necessary.
- Flights: require senior approval and justification for flights; use economy class as default where travel is unavoidable.
- Record all business travel in expense systems with mode of transport and distance (or route) for footprinting.
7.3 Digital & IT Sustainability (AI and cloud)
As an AI-led group, we will reduce digital emissions by design:
- Prefer cloud providers and services with strong renewable energy commitments and transparent reporting.
- Optimise workloads: right-size compute, schedule non-urgent processing, and reduce unnecessary training/inference runs.
- Use data retention and lifecycle management to reduce storage emissions and cost.
- Extend device life through repair/upgrade where secure and practical; recycle via certified WEEE channels.
7.4 Procurement & Supply Chain
- Include environmental considerations in procurement decisions alongside cost, quality, and security.
- For key suppliers and subcontractors, request (where proportionate): an environmental policy or equivalent; evidence of emissions reporting; commitment to comply with applicable environmental law.
- Prefer suppliers that demonstrate credible carbon reduction plans and responsible labour/environmental practices.
7.5 Waste, Recycling & Materials
- Apply the waste hierarchy: prevent; reduce; reuse; recycle; recover; dispose.
- Minimise printing; default to digital documents and e-signatures.
- Ensure appropriate recycling provision in offices and event venues.
- Dispose of e-waste through certified WEEE recycling partners.
7.6 Water
- Reduce water use where we control facilities (efficient fixtures, leak reporting).
- Encourage venue selection that demonstrates water efficiency for events.
7.7 Pollution Prevention & Chemicals
- Use low-impact cleaning and office consumables where practicable.
- Ensure safe storage/handling of any hazardous materials (rare in our operations) and compliant disposal routes.
7.8 Events & Training Delivery (Scout Academy and Group events)
- Select venues accessible by public transport and with sustainability credentials.
- Reduce single-use plastics; provide refill stations and reusable materials where possible.
- Use digital joining instructions, QR codes, and paperless materials by default.
- Capture attendee travel modes where feasible for event footprint estimation.
The Group will maintain awareness of and comply with relevant environmental law and requirements applicable to our activities, and respond to client/public sector sustainability requirements in bids and delivery (e.g., carbon reduction expectations, reporting, and sustainable procurement standards where required).
- Maintain a central carbon and sustainability register covering energy, travel, procurement, waste and events.
- Use recognised methodologies where possible (e.g., GHG Protocol principles and UK Government conversion factors for travel/energy calculations).
- Produce quarterly internal dashboards (progress vs objectives, key metrics, risks) and an annual sustainability statement suitable for client due diligence where appropriate.
- Mandatory induction content for staff and long-term contractors covering travel policy, waste/recycling, procurement basics, and digital sustainability.
- Annual refresher communications and "what changed this year" updates.
- Encourage staff suggestions via an improvement channel (e.g., Teams form), reviewed quarterly.
Failure to follow this policy may result in corrective action, which could include: retraining, process changes, supplier escalation, or disciplinary measures (where appropriate and proportionate).
We will review this policy annually and update it based on performance results and lessons learned; changes to the Group structure or services; new legal/client requirements; and advances in low-carbon digital/AI practices.
Default rules across the Group:
- Remote-first; rail-first; flights require justification and senior approval.
- Paperless-first; e-signatures by default.
- Buy less, buy better, keep longer (IT and equipment).
- Select sustainable venues and suppliers where practical.
- Measure consistently; report quarterly; improve annually.
- Total emissions (tCO2e) by Scope (where measurable).
- Electricity consumption (kWh) and renewable share (where known).
- Business travel: miles/km by mode (rail/car/air).
- IT: device counts, refresh cycles, e-waste recycled (kg/items).
- Waste volumes (where available) and recycling rates.
- Supplier coverage: % of spend with suppliers holding environmental policies / emissions reporting (where proportionate).