Creating a bespoke carbon footprinting tool

AMEC is a FTSE 100 company supplying consultancy, engineering and project management services to its customers in the world's oil and gas, minerals and metals, clean energy, environment and infrastructure markets. With annual revenues of around £3 billion, AMEC designs, delivers and maintains strategic and complex assets and employs more than 25,000 people in around 40 countries worldwide.

AMEC aims to reduce its emissions by 80% by 2050 on 2008 levels. Its first milestone was reducing carbon emissions by 15% by 2013.

Anthesis created a bespoke version of its online footprinting tool Footprint Reporter to help AMEC understand the carbon impact of its operations. AMEC is now into its third year using Footprint Reporter, which has enabled the company to track, trend and report its carbon footprint, identifying a number of key areas where big reductions in both emissions and costs could be achieved.

AMEC Footprint Reporter covers scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, reflecting the different levels of control the company has over different aspects of its footprint. Scope 1 emissions are those which the company controls directly. These include company fleet vehicles and oil and gas consumption at AMEC facilities. It has reduced its scope 1 emissions since 2009 by reducing company car use, oil and fuel use.

Scope 2 includes electricity consumption from the grid. AMEC has been engaging with staff to reduce this. It has also increased its use of renewable electricity from 9.6% to 14%. The tool's analysis of scope 2 emissions is helping AMEC to understand how it can perform better under the UK government’s mandatory cap and trade scheme for large organizations, the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme.

AMEC also captures some scope 3 impacts, including air and rail travel. Travel is a big carbon hotspot for this global business. There has been an overall increase in scope 3 emissions in the last year, particularly due to acquisitions leading to an increase in long haul flights. To counter this trend, the company has been raising awareness of its sustainability strategy amongst AMEC employees, with an internal campaign on electricity, flights and car use as well as AMEC Earth Week.

AMEC achieved an absolute reduction in carbon emissions of 1% in a year. However, this doesn’t reflect progress made because the company grew in 2009, having made a number of acquisitions. A like for like comparison shows an impressive 7% reduction in carbon emissions and the company is on track to meet its targets for the future. It has recorded its carbon footprint using Footprint Reporter since 2009, which has led to a continuing improvement in the quality of the data available. AMEC is also building its renewable energy business; the company aims to bring the latest green technology to market.

Linzie Forrester, AMEC Sustainability Program Manager, said:

“AMEC Footprint Reporter will be integral in reducing our carbon footprint. It is already giving insight into where our business has both carbon and cost hotspots."