The annual carbon audit enables us to pinpoint which of our operations emit the most carbon dioxide equivalents (Co2e), excluding the holdings in our portfolios. We now have two full years to report on, and you can find the carbon audit reports for 2019 and 2020 here.
The carbon accounting process revealed that "Scope 3 Business Travel" is our highest greenhouse gas-emitting activity, and in 2019 (a "normal" year) this constituted over 85% of our total emissions. We can see a tCO2e/FTE (tonnes CO2 equivalents per employee) of 2.2 tonnes, which we consider to be too high, mainly generated by emissions due to travelling.
Updated travel guidelines
Due to Covid-19-related travel restrictions, our total emissions fell by over 80% in 2020. Nonetheless, SKAGEN has now added an environmental supplement to our travel guidelines to reduce the amount of business travel undertaken, also in a post-Covid-19 world.
The environmental supplement stresses that employees must be conservative when assessing the need to travel, and encourages them to opt for less carbon intensive modes of transportation (i.e. choosing train over air travel for certain distances).
As the world has grown more accustomed to online meetings after one year (and counting) of Corona restrictions, we predict that the amount of business travel will fall substantially going forward. Combined with the environmental restrictions now in place, SKAGEN will see a significant decrease in its future emissions.