With COP26, the 2021 United Nations climate change conference just a few weeks away, it’s a timely reminder to everyone that we need to get runaway climate change under control. In this fast moving situation the Premium Credit team is working to protect the environment as part of our ESG strategy.

It’s important to us

Environmental, social and governance matters. As set out in our purpose, we are committed to supporting our communities, which in ESG terms means conducting our business in a manner that minimises our impact on the environment and meets all relevant environmental regulations.

What we are doing

During 2020 we increased the monitoring of our environmental impact as part of our cultural dashboard, seeking to improve our processes and reduce our carbon footprint. We carried out an initial benchmarking assessment of the key areas of impact, and initiated actions to address weaknesses in documentation, reporting and measures.

We also engaged with ESOS (Energy Savings Opportunities Scheme) to measure where we are and get an external perspective. We are looking at how electric vehicles can play a part for those visiting our partners, hybrid working can reduce office-based travel, and how to improve the efficiency of our offices.

Our team continues to assess our greenhouse gas emissions using the ‘GHG Reporting Protocol – A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard’ and in accordance with Defra’s ‘Environmental Reporting guidelines: including Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting requirements’.

Over the course of 2020, Premium Credit’s operations saw a reduction in energy use due to reduced occupancy in the offices from March 2020 onwards. This primarily reflected our adherence to government-mandated restrictions under its response to COVID-19 resulting in the remote working of nearly all staff and closure of the office for the majority of 2020 and to this day.

Whilst this also prevented us undertaking any broader initiatives to reduce our energy consumption, we have continued to progress initiatives to enhance our approach to the management of our energy usage and in turn our GHG emissions.

Join us on the journey

We applaud the many UK businesses working hard to reduce their carbon footprint alongside us. We want to help overcome the challenges and opportunities faced by accelerating climate change and develop a greater understanding about what others are doing so we can collectively increase our influence and impact together.

If you’re not already involved, why not join us on the journey? Tara Waite, our CEO, attended PWC’s Climate Action round table with other business leaders on October 19th.