Yorkshire-based business achieves operational carbon neutrality

John Good Group has achieved operational carbon neutrality for all its businesses – John Good & Sons, Good Travel Management, Dan Shipping & Chartering, TEPS, and Bay Shipping.

In a significant step towards its long-term sustainability plans, the 190-year-old family business was supported by leading audit, tax and consulting firm RSM to measure and report the carbon footprint for 2022 aligned to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and their Quantis tool for Scope 3 emissions.

Achieving operational carbon neutrality is one of many steps in John Good Group’s sustainability journey. The Group has rolled out carbon reduction programmes across each of its businesses, including renewable energy generation, the introduction of Hybrid and EV vehicles, a review of suppliers, and the development of several people focussed initiatives aimed at carbon-contributing factors such as commuting miles.

The reduction initiatives will continue at pace over the coming years to ensure the business is reducing its emissions as much as possible. However, the Group’s largest carbon-producing business, TEPS, is constrained by the pace of the industry’s technological developments. Progress on new fuelling solutions is slow and the availability of suitable vehicle alternatives is still several years away.

Frustratingly for the Group, additional solar energy generation is also being limited by the national electricity grid which is currently prohibiting the business from exporting surplus solar energy, which it could generate by making extra investment into solar panels on its warehouses. These are issues the Group hopes will diminish over the coming years.

To offset the Group’s residual emissions for 2022, John Good Group partnered with Climate Impact Partners to purchase carbon credits. Working together, the two teams selected initiatives that make significant contributions to the communities they serve while also addressing the global issue of climate change by avoiding and reducing carbon emissions.

The projects selected include Rural Clean Cooking in India, Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve REDD++ in Indonesia, Mudbrick Rocket Stoves in Malawi, and Degraded Grasslands Afforestation in Uruguay.

James White at Climate Impact Partners explained, “Our collaboration with John Good Group is about delivering action on climate change and creating a more sustainable world. We worked together to identify projects that truly align with their ethos and support the UN’s SDGs in the most meaningful way.”

These projects align with the following UN Sustainable Development Goals that John Good Group has committed to: No Poverty (SDG 1), Good Health and Wellbeing (SDG 3), Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8) and Climate Action (SDG 13).

Adam Walsh, chief executive of the John Good Group, commented on the milestone, “It’s an important first step for the Group to achieve operational carbon neutrality, and I’m proud of the team that has worked on this. It’s something we’re all passionate about, but we’re fully aware we have a lot more to do.

“We’ve introduced carbon insight at the point of booking for our customers, and all our team has undertaken sustainability training led by travel sustainability experts, Responsible Futures.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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