Environmental Policy
Our Commitment and Approach
Governance and Operations
The twentyfifty network comprises of twentyfifty International Ltd and its subsidiaries twentyfifty Ltd in the UK, twentyfifty GmbH in Germany, twentyfifty GmbH in Switzerland, twentyfifty Ltd in Kenya and a wide network of Associates and consultants across the globe, particularly in South Asia.
Whilst these legal entities are separate, they constitute a global twentyfifty network with centralised policies which emanate from our Head Office in Frome, UK. twentyfifty International and its subsidiaries work together at both local and global level, to provide quality services to clients and their own international operations.
Globally, corporate responsibility (CR) is governed by the Board of Directors at twentyfifty and managed by Guy Wilson, Operations Manager. The Central Services Team is responsible for the implementation of the policy and actions on mitigating our environmental impacts throughout our network.
As a cooperative network of individuals and teams across various countries the responsibility for local CR sits with the operations representative (Members of the Central Services Team).
The twentyfifty environmental policy is:
- communicated to all persons working for or on behalf of the organization
- reviewed annually
- will be available on our website
Our Climate and Environment Working Group supports our efforts on advising our clients on climate and environmental impacts within our line of work.
Our commitment
twentyfifty takes every opportunity to minimise our impact on the environment equally within our own operations, via our employees and through the advice we impart on our clients.
We are fundamentally committed to sustainable development, to meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, as an integral part our work.
Framework for objectives and targets
We aim to:
- Create awareness across our business of the environmental impacts from our everyday operations
- Identify, specify, and communicate clearly what these impacts are
- Prevent environmental impacts wherever possible
- Monitor and record our impacts with a view to reducing our impacts year upon year
- Set specific reduction targets
- Work together with suppliers, landlords and other stakeholders to promote improved environmental performance
As a registered B Corporation, we use the B Impact framework to monitor our impacts.
In our own operations
As an organisation, we aim to create awareness of how our operations impact the environment and the climate and how we may be contributing to pollution. We recognise that this is always a work in progress and are committed to continually improving our performance in this regard as per ISO14001, the standard for Environmental Management Systems.
Whilst we are not aware of any current legal obligations for companies in our sector and of our size to comply with, we do monitor changes, using the ECO:FACT platform and internal research, into environmental, climate change and human rights-related legislation across the geographies that we operate in as part of our work.
We consider the following as our main areas of impact on the environment and the climate:
- Waste, water and energy (supply and consumption)
- In rented offices in Frome (UK), Berlin (Germany)
- In shared office spaces in London (UK), Bristol (UK) and Geneva (Switzerland)
- Business travel
- IT (hardware and use of data centres)
twentyfifty believes we have a responsibility to model responsible behaviours with regards to the environment and the climate to our employees and encourage them to act in an equally responsible way in their own lives, away from the work environment.
In response to the impacts above, we always aim to:
- promote responsibility for the environmental impact of the organisation and communicate and implement this policy across our workforce
- encourage our employees, associates, and consultants throughout the world by travelling to work by environmentally friendly means (walking, cycling, public transport, electric vehicles etc.), or to work from home
- provide co-funding of bicycles (up to 40%) for our employees (in the UK and Germany) to encourage travel to the workplace by bike
- provide a salary sacrifice car scheme, allowing our team to purchase electric vehicles at no upfront cost
- put agreements in place with our clients that, when taking flights relating to client work, to recharge the cost of offsetting carbon emissions
- reduce, monitor, and record usage of energy and other resources
- offsetting the environmental impact of business travel by making per flight contributions to Atmosfair
- minimise waste by reduction, re-use, and recycling methods (paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and metal and IT equipment)
- comply with all relevant environmental legislation/regulation
- ensure that all our policies and services are developed in a way that is complementary to this environmental policy
- consider environmental issues in the procurement of goods and services, including the use of environmentally friendly products in all our office spaces, purchased from environmentally preferred vendors, including non-toxic janitorial products, unbleached/chlorine-free paper products and environmentally preferred office supplies (paper, pens, notebooks etc)
- use energy conservation and efficiency measures throughout our corporate facilities, including natural lighting, CF bulbs and double glazing in our offices
With our clients
Climate change and other environmental impacts have a devastating effect on the lives of rightsholders throughout the global supply chains of our clients, due to crop-failure, habitat loss, drought, flooding, and other weather events. This can result not just in lack of earnings, but sometimes loss of livelihood, loss of home, even migration, or impacts on people’s health.
Therefore, our human rights consulting services increasingly incorporate advice on environmental and sustainability issues that impact human rights.