We’re very pleased to confirm that Zapmap has achieved the Planet Mark certification, a recognised symbol of sustainability progress that aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
The certification demonstrates a business’s commitment to measuring and reducing its carbon emissions. We have achieved the certification by reporting our carbon footprint, engaging stakeholders and taking steps to continually reduce our carbon emissions.
What is the Planet Mark?
The Planet Mark is a sustainability certification for every type of organisation. The certification recognises continuous improvement, encourages action and aims to build an empowered community of like-minded individuals.
It was set up in 2013 in collaboration with the Eden Project, and has a mission to build a sustainable, brighter future for the planet.
What does Zapmap’s Planet Mark certification actually mean?
This is the first time we’ve measured Zapmap’s carbon emissions, and the certification covers our carbon footprint from 1st January 2022 until 31st December 2022.
The report measured our emissions from a whole range of sources including electricity, gas, water, business travel, waste and homeworking. Following extensive data collection and analysis, Zapmap’s measured market-based carbon footprint has been calculated as 4.4 tCO₂e, with a footprint of 0.1 tCO₂e per employee.
The certification report highlighted certain areas of the business where we can focus our efforts to reduce carbon emissions, and recommends a target 5% reduction overall in carbon emissions.
What are our next steps?
We are pleased to be able to say that, since the reporting period of 2022, we have already taken several steps within the business as part of our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint year on year.
- The Zapmap office is now based in a coworking building that uses 100% renewable energy.
- To support our employees in reducing their personal carbon footprint, we introduced an EV-purchasing salary sacrifice scheme, with employees already taking advantage of the new scheme.
- We also have a relationship with Co-Wheels Car Club, which enables our employees to rent EVs on a short-term basis. We will continue to encourage employees to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, reliance on petrol/diesel vehicles for business travel by using a Co-Wheels EV where possible.
- We have recently introduced monthly Zapmap lunch-and-learn sessions. These have been hugely popular amongst the team and have covered topics ranging from EV road trips to sustainable lifestyle changes for a zero-carbon future.
- Members of the Zapmap team are already working towards a greener future. Many employees already own an EV and several also have ground source heat pumps, solar panels, or have made other sustainable lifestyle changes.
- We continue to share expertise and advice across the company. Planet Mark will also run a carbon audit ‘energiser’ session with Zapmap in early March 2024. The purpose of the session will be to understand our impacts, consider actions that can make a material difference – and create targets, roles and responsibilities within the company.
As a business, we will continue to reduce our carbon footprint at both a company and employee level. The Planet Mark certification is a recognition of this commitment.
“I’m delighted to confirm that Zapmap is Planet Mark certified,” says Zapmap CEO Richard Bourne. “As an internationally recognised symbol of sustainability progress, this certification demonstrates our commitment as a business to measuring and reducing our carbon emissions.
“Even better, it’s great to come away from this first stage of the certification process knowing which areas the company needs to work on in order to reduce our emissions. Already we’re very close to forming some concrete actions, and with a little more investigation we can take clear steps that will help us to continually reduce our carbon footprint.”
