Sustainability

Education

At the core of our transition to net zero is the need to learn, educate and advocate. We are all part of an infinitely complex and ever-changing global eco-system upon which enormous and uncharted changes rest. We recognise and embrace the need for mass collaboration to solve our piece of humanity's universal puzzle.

Starting with our sustainability induction, employees at RED are provided with unlimited access to the world's latest understanding of how climate change is affecting the planet, and how our services are affecting real-world change.

Corporate approach

RED is a company of Tractebel, an engineering and consulting powerhouse and part of the ENGIE Group, a global leader in low-carbon energy and services. Within this corporate structure, RED contributes towards several group-wide sustainability initiatives and targets. For ENGIE'S overarching sustainability & CSR performance please refer to The Engie integrate Report 2023.

This report includes REDs S&P Global, Moody’s, MSCI, Sustainalytics, CDP and Ecovaldis ratings.

Tractebel’s overarching sustainability & CSR performance is also available here.

As part of Tractebel, RED is in the Commitment stage of our SBTi journey.

Independent from our corporate structure, RED has identified 5 key drivers which resonate with our leadership and stakeholders. One of these drivers is:

‘To operate as a climate / nature positive business’.

To achieve this, RED has set targets to reduce its use of resources at a market-leading level of sustainability. We aim to exceed every environmental best-practice target we are set.

Our targets

• Energy use reduction - 5% per year per employee
• Water use reduction - Water balanced by 2023
• CO2 footprint reduction (including all GHGs) - 5% per year per employee
• Waste generation - 100% diversion from landfill by 2023

Our performance against these targets is measured and reported on an annual basis and can be found here:

Additionally, in 2024 we plan to being begin measuring our effect on nature & biodiversity and, once we have set out baseline, will set appropriate targets to address any negative effects.

RED has a comprehensive programme of CSR activities which include an environmental pillar which drives us towards broad-based sustainability and addresses our carbon and biodiversity impact.

REDs four CSR pillars include:

• Environment
• Fair operating practices
• Labour practices
• Community involvement & development

Defining the scope of our sustainability

We use ISO 50001 & 14001 to provide a framework through which the policies relating to Energy, Water, Waste, Carbon and Biodiversity are managed. These cover all Scope 1 & 2 emissions along with some of our Scope 3. We do this by including the related activities within the ISO scopes and monitor/measure these through an audited management system.

Scope 3 – Decarbonising with our clients

Our product Scope 3 or ‘product related emissions’ is the carbon, or other environmental factor affecting climate change, which we can reduce through alterations in our designs. Ultimately, our design policies aim to reduce our clients' environmental footprint to allow them to realise their environmental targets required for TNFC, TNDF, SBTi, CRREM, GRESB, EED, ESOS, CSRD, CDP, etc.

There are many aspects to consider, but as a design consultant we believe the following final goals are required to be truly sustainable:

1. To design 100% recyclable buildings.
2. To design buildings which have a net positive environmental impact in operation.
3. Sequestration or capture of carbon (or equivalent) where buildings cannot (for whatever reason) achieve either target above.

RED's Scope 3 approach

The influence RED has over the Scope 3 of our designs varies depending on our terms of appointment, the stage of the project and the nature of the works involved. Undertaking a bottom-up approach and quantifying Scope 3 is difficult and not an exact science. To counter this problem, we also undertake top-down calculations which are issued as part of our annual SECR submissions.

Defining our influence is as much about education and advocacy as it is about deliberate design. We always act in the best interest of our stakeholders and clients but equally recognise that, while the world is in a climate emergency, our actions need to consider the practical application of resources; always ensuring health & safety and the requirements of fairness and equality.

Therefore, in order to calculate our Scope 3, we assess our part in the context of a supply chain, using the GHG Protocol to define the role we play and the quantity of carbon we can help to remove from a project or business practice.

Primarily, our aim is to reduce a project’s environmental footprint when compared to both practical net zero and actual sector benchmarks. We also use the revenue we generate within any given sector to calculate a proportion of responsibility.

In taking both the bottom up and top-down figures, we can quantify our worse-case Scope 3 generation.