Carbon Reduction Plan

Supplier name:                         Search Recruitment Group Ltd
Publication date:                     2nd October 2023

Commitment to achieving Net Zero

Search Recruitment Group Limited is the parent company of Search Consultancy Ltd and Henderson Scott Ltd and is committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050 across the group.

Search Recruitment Group Ltd engaged with Carbon Neutral Britain to measure and calculate the organisations total carbon footprint for 2022/23, with the purposes of accurately calculating our carbon footprint to set our future targets and to take climate action by offsetting our emissions where we have been unable to reduce emissions – and became Carbon Neutral in October 2023.

Baseline Emissions Footprint

Baseline Year: 1st September 2022 – 31st August 2023 *
Additional Details relating to the Baseline Emissions calculations.

As a recruitment business we have we have 23 offices (6 Henderson Scott/17 Search Consultancy) throughout the UK. Most of our offices are serviced offices (16) with (7) Leasehold offices.

It was identified that most of our emissions were incurred under Scope 3 (Other indirect) and that the main emissions were are a result of staff commuting within the reporting period. Due to hybrid working, staff worked from home, of which the energy usage from home was also calculated.

Baseline year emissions:

EMISSIONS TOTAL (tCO2e)
Scope 1

3.23(tCO2e)

All scope 1 emissions occurred from company owned/leased vehicles and the mileage completed within the reporting period
Scope 2

116.60(tCO2e)

All scope 2 emissions occurred from electricity consumption within the reporting period
Scope 3

Total 804.10 (tCO2e)

Total Organisation Energy Usage WFH - 75.44(tCo2e)

Organisations Waste - 14.82 (tCO2E)

Business Travel (not using owned /leased Vehicles) 187.66 (tCO2e)

Staff Commuting – 341.11 (tCO2e)

Business Hotels or Event Activities – 12.39 (tCO2e)

Deliveries - 2.76(tCO2e)

Organisation Water Usage – 2.48(tCO2e)

Transmission & Distribution Losses – 6.82 (tCO2e)

Well to Tank – 160.62(tCO2e)
Total Emissions

923.94 tonnes of (CO2e)

*For previous reporting years 2020/2022, Search Recruitment Group used the Streamlined Energy Carbon Reporting regime. We have amended our baseline emission Footprint to 2022/20233 as this now covers all aspects of Carbon Reporting.

Intensity ratio per FTE for the financial period under review was 1.82 tonnes of C02e per employee.

Completed Carbon Reduction Projects

The following environmental management measures and projects have been completed or implemented since the 2021.

To continue to progress to achieving Net Zero, we have carried out several carbon reduction projects:

  • The group has exited several properties to right-size the estate, also reducing associated carbon emissions.
  • The group has exited older leasehold properties in favour of new, modern working environments with more energy efficient climate control, motion sensitive lighting.
  • The group has introduced PIR motion censored lighting to open-plan office space where possible.
  • The group operate with green energy suppliers ranging from 75-100% renewable energy.
  • The group has replaced all old IT equipment with Eco-Power Laptops and low-powered monitors.
  • As an office-based business, although out waste is negligible it is managed in line with our ISO14001 accreditation.
  • Reduction in single use plastic by providing all employees with refillable water bottles.
  • The group operate the cycle to work scheme, where employees can purchase bikes and equipment from affiliated suppliers and the cost is paid back via the salary sacrifice scheme.
  • Offering Hybrid working to employees therefore reducing emissions from commuting daily
  • Introduction of SAP system, that enable tighter governance and controls around travel by air, trains, and hotel usage.

Search were assessed in September 2022 by Ecovadis, the world’s largest and most trusted provider of sustainability ratings in which we obtained a silver medal rating on assessments covering the 4 pillars of sustainability: Environment; Labour & Human Rights; Ethics & Sustainability. Search achieved a silver medal rating demonstrating the business was within the top 77 percentile of all companies assessed.

Through Carbon Neutral Britian Climate Fund, Search Recruitment Group Ltd has offset our total carbon emissions through internationally recognised offsetting projects.  Certified via the Verra – Certified Carbon Standard (VCS) the Gold Standard – Voluntary Emissions Reductions (VER) or the United Nations – Certified Emissions Reductions (CER) programmes. The projects have also been selected based on their direct and indirect impact around the world – not just in offsetting, but also supporting education, employment, fair wages and clean water, as well as having a positive impact on the local wildlife and ecology.

Emissions reduction targets

To continue our progress to achieving Net Zero, we have adopted the following carbon reduction targets. We project that carbon emissions will decrease over the next seven years by 50%

Search Recruitment Group commit to reducing our carbon emissions by 461.97 (tCO2e) over the next 7 years.  This will be achieved by reducing our carbon footprint on an annual basis by 7.14% (65.96 tCO2e) from our new baseline assessment and from 2030 a further reduction of 2.5% (23.09 tCO2e) each year to achieve Net Zero.

Future Carbon Projects

  • The Learning and Development Department will take responsibility for a companywide roll out of additional training courses: Environment & Sustainability awareness, Defining Recycling, Ways to Zero Waste, Reducing carbon footprint, and Environmentalism & Corporate Responsibility.
  • Our objective is progressively transfer our IT estate from a 60% to 100% cloud-based solution.
  • Where possible, video conferencing will be utilised for internal and external meetings to positively reduce our emissions.
  • Offering Hybrid working to employees therefore reducing emissions from commuting daily and impacting of the direct energy consumptions of the business
  • Continually monitor the properties to right-size the estate, also positively reducing our carbon emissions
  • Electric Vehicle Scheme –, we are currently looking into an EV scheme which will operate in a similar way to cycle to work scheme.

Declaration and Sign off

This Carbon Reduction Plan has been completed in accordance with PPN 06/21 and associated guidance and reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans.

Emissions have been reported and recorded in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the GHG Reporting Protocol corporate standard[1] and uses the appropriate Government emission conversion factors for greenhouse gas company reporting[2].

Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions have been reported in accordance with SECR requirements, and the required subset of Scope 3 emissions have been reported in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard[3].

[1]https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting
[3]https://ghgprotocol.org/standards/scope-3-standard

This Carbon Reduction Plan has been reviewed and signed off by the board of directors.


Richard Vickers
Chief Executive Officer