SUSTAINABILITY POLICY

2050 Climate Group understands our collective responsibility, as a charity and as a part of society, to increase the positive social, economic and environmental impact we can have through our work. We aspire to be a model of how a sustainable organisation should and can operate, leading by example.

Through the ways in which we operate, we aim to realise and exceed the ambition of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019, the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plan, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

How we work sustainably

Since the inception of 2050 Climate Group in 2014, and its formalisation as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2017, we have strived to operate in the most sustainable way that is logistically and financially possible. All members of 2050 Climate Group (board, volunteers and staff) are responsible for upkeeping and improving the sustainability of our operations. This is a (non-exhaustive) list of some of the ways through which we embed sustainability practice across all that we do:

Through our internal operations

  • Responsible suppliers: During procurement, we assess our suppliers on their social, economic and environmental sustainability credentials. For example, all our volunteer t-shirts are made from organic, fairtrade cotton, printed in the UK. 

  • Digital tools for internal communications: We use GSuite and Slack for all the communication that takes place between our board, staff and volunteer team. This enables us to use cloud storage, and to communicate well across physical distance.

  • Video conferencing: We support video conferencing for all our internal meetings, reducing the need for travel (and the associated carbon emissions), and supporting the participation from those who would otherwise struggle to participate due to distance or time constraints. This is particularly prominent through our Malawi-based work, with team members based across Europe and Africa able to deliver an international project with the absolute minimum physical travel required.

  • Reducing printed materials: We do not print materials for meetings or for general office use, and seek to minimise the need to print materials that facilitate our working (making exceptions for legal and financial requirements).  

  • Sustainable travel and subsistence: We support our volunteers by reimbursing them for costs associated with their participation. However, we only support travel undertaken by active travel or public transport (except in pre-agreed circumstances),  and we only reimburse catering which is vegetarian or vegan. We encourage the use of accommodation providers committed to sustainable practice (e.g. those certified by the Green Tourism Business Scheme). 

Through the design of our events

  • Venues accessible by public transport with existing sustainability commitments: We frequently host educational events for over 100 people, and seek to choose locations accessible by public transport to eliminate the need for high-carbon methods of transportation. We prioritise venues which have existing policies and commitments to environmental sustainability and work with the venue managers to support the delivery of more sustainable events.  

  • Sustainable speaker travel: We extend how we work internally to those who we collaborate with on events, only reimbursing travel expenses claimed by speakers or workshop facilitators that attend an event by low-carbon transport methods. We do not encourage or incentivise air travel, and promote public transport (even if it may be more costly in a financial sense). 

  • Vegetarian and vegan catering: We always select vegetarian catering, and vegan catering when possible, for all our events, acknowledging our need as a society to reduce our consumption of intensively-produced meat, poultry and dairy products. 

  • No single-use plastic: We seek to never provide unnecessary single-use plastic (e.g. cutlery, drinking cups, bottled water) to attendees, choosing reusable or compostable materials instead.

  • Re-useable name badges: We provide all our attendees with name badges which are subsequently collected and reused, with lanyards made from bamboo. 

  • Digital programmes: Programmes for our events are always sent to participants via email, reducing the need for any printed support materials during the event. 

Through the content of our work 

  • Supporting actions tackling climate change: A key part of our work is supporting Young Leaders across our YLDP and Leaders Network to take action on issues of environment, sustainability and climate change. Current areas of focus are in plastic reduction, greener healthcare and growing a sustainable food system, among others.

  • Reaching new audiences: We seek to work with those in roles or sectors who may not historically had significant engagement in sustainability, building a Scotland where there is cross-sector engagement in working towards sustainability goals. 

  • Equality, diversity and inclusion: We are committed to being an organisation open and accessible to all, and reducing the barriers to participation for young people in Scotland. We offer small funds to individuals to support the attendance of Young Leaders at our events (for example, through financially aiding their travel by public transport or contributing to childcare support, etc.), and work with partners to widen the reach of our work, including our recruitment processes. 

Continuous Improvement

We constantly seek to improve the our work and our approach to sustainability. We are committed to working with our stakeholders – board, staff, volunteers, participants, alumni, suppliers, funders and young people in Scotland – to ensure we communicate the sustainability impact of our activities, and to explore how they can help us in achieving our aims. We invite and support the suggestion of new ideas, methods and models to increase the social, economic and environmental sustainability of our work. Suggestions can be sent to contact@2050.scot.