Climate change is a significant problem that affects us and will affect future generations if nothing is done about it. Whilst figures vary, the construction industry contributes around 5% of the UK’s annual CO₂ emissions and overall households contribute to around 40% of the UK’s CO₂ emissions. Here at Pro Vision, we are therefore very aware of both the responsibility and the opportunity we have as a development consultancy that deals with all aspects of the construction process from planning through to the design of buildings and their construction on site.

As a company we have made various changes to the way in which we work in order to reduce our CO₂ emissions and ensure that we are acting responsibly in relation to the climate. As part of this commitment we have been on a journey of quantifying our CO₂ emissions and looking at ways of offsetting them.

Working with Carbon Footprint our first step was to quantify the amount of CO₂ we produce as a business. Taking into account all our work-based activities, our emissions for 2021 equated to 1.2 tonnes of CO₂ per employee. This is around a third of the average for a business of our type and we are incredibly proud that we have been able to limit our CO₂ emissions to this extent. We are aware, however, that the pandemic had a significant impact on suppressing our emissions and so we are committed to the challenge of ensuring that going forward we seek to maintain and, as far as possible, improve upon this figure in our post-pandemic world.

Our, next step looked at ways to offset these CO₂ emissions. Our team agreed to fund a number of internationally certified projects that are reducing CO₂ emissions. Climate change is a global problem and therefore we have sought to fund projects both in the UK but also in other countries where the money we use to offset our emissions can often go further and have a bigger impact in terms of CO₂ reduction.

The projects we are funding are varied and include: tree planting in UK schools; a programme looking at reducing deforestation through supporting economic development in Brazil; the installation of wind turbines in Maharashtra state in India; the implementation and installation of grid connected renewable energy power plants in India and; the construction of a wind farm in Peralta, Uruguay.

These projects are important because they both help reduce CO₂ emissions as well as providing employment and opportunities for people in often poorer parts of the globe. Additionally, we are happy to be able to fund the planting of trees in the UK in order to have a direct impact within our own community.

Whilst our financial input into these much larger projects may only be limited, by partnering with Carbon Footprint we are able to ensure that the money we invest to offset our emissions can be pooled with many others to bring about significant change in terms of CO₂ reduction for the planet.

Pro Vision also decided that we want to go further than just offsetting our emissions and we have pledged to offset an additional 25% beyond our own emissions. In order for everyone to limit global temperature rises it is imperative that globally we don’t just limit or offset our own emissions but that we look to actively reduce the amount of CO₂ emitted. It is because of this that we felt, as a company, that it was an important step to go beyond merely offsetting our own current emissions.

Having undertaken this work Pro Vision are proud to announce that we have been certified as a Carbon Neutral Plus organisation. We are committed to doing our part to help reduce our CO₂ emissions and contribute towards helping limit the effects of climate change for us and for future generations.