Written by Oskar Knight

How we at Higson are reducing our environmental impact

22nd April, 2025   •   4 min

Here’s a question for you: which calendar year holds the record for hottest average global temperature?

It was 2024 (the year that just went by) –  the first year where global warming exceeded 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels.

And the record holder before that? 2023.

Let’s rewind a few more years – at the Paris Climate Agreements in 2015, almost 200 countries pledged to minimise warming to 1.5˚C on average over the course of 20 years, heeding the advice of experts who argued the impacts of global warming would become increasingly extreme if temperatures rose above this level.

In order to meet this target, the UK is committed by law to be zero carbon by 2050. 

Based on recent trends, climate change is becoming an increasingly urgent issue, and every business needs to take action – because sustainability isn’t just good for the planet, it’s essential for success.

In the coming years, there will be increasing scrutiny on businesses to demonstrate what they are doing to reduce their impact.

Meanwhile, 20% of Gen Zs and millennials have already changed jobs or industries to better align their work with their environmental values, with another 25% planning to do so in the future. Environmental issues will likely remain a major factor for people when choosing where they want to work.

More and more people are deciding who to buy from, who to partner with, and who to work for, based on their environmental impact.

What others are doing

Many businesses have already made significant progress towards this goal. For example, Quorn are labelling all their products with their carbon footprint and encouraging other food suppliers to follow suit, and IKEA have committed to drastically reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

The same goes for service based businesses. At Higson, we have adopted these seven key strategies to reduce our impact:

What we do at Higson

1. Embed sustainability as a core value

To create a meaningful and lasting impact, sustainability needs to be one of your company’s core values, and there has to be accountability at the top.

At Higson, one of our five values is to create a positive social and environmental impact, and our annual goals are aligned to this. Augusta, our CEO, leads from the front, raising awareness of environmental issues and holding the team accountable. 

We have also recently established a Social Impact Team at Higson, who are responsible for ensuring we achieve our sustainability goals, which are outlined in our latest impact report.

2. Become carbon literate 

As a result of embedding sustainability as one of our core values, we were accredited as a Carbon Literate organisation by the Carbon Literacy Project. Every member of our team has completed carbon literacy training, making specific and personal commitments to mitigate carbon emissions at work. 

And just last year, in collaboration with the Carbon Literacy Project, we created a bespoke training programme to build awareness of the impact of carbon emissions in everyday life and the workplace. We have now run our Climate Activation training with over 100 individuals and are excited to support other clients on their Net Zero journey. 

Get in touch with us to learn how our Climate training could help your team incorporate sustainable practices into your roles and support your wider sustainability strategy.

3. Support charities that are making a difference

We are proud partners of Cool Earth, who tackle climate change through protecting rainforests and halting deforestation across the world. Protecting tropical rainforest is one of the most effective ways of mitigating the climate crisis, as these carbon sinks play a crucial role in regulating our global climate and ecosystems. 

Over the last 18 years, Cool Earth has protected 2.1 million acres of rainforest, the equivalent of over 1 million football pitches!

Higson donates 10% of all profits to Cool Earth and delivers pro-bono  training workshops to grow and develop their team. Cool Earth are experts at protecting our planet and we believe supporting the experts is the best way to have a real impact.

4. Ensure sustainable work travel

As highlighted in the visual below, travel can be a major source of carbon emissions for small businesses.

We use these prompting questions to help decide on our travel plans:

• If the meeting, training session or workshop requires unsustainable travel (e.g. a flight), can it be run virtually? If so, this is the default choice.
• How can we minimise travel, and maximise the work we do on any trip we do take? Can we travel there by public transport instead? For example, we got the train to Zurich – it took longer but it massively reduced the carbon footprint of the journey, and was a lot of fun!

5. Allow employees annual leave time to travel green 

Travelling to Marseilles in France takes 9 hours by train or 2 hours by plane. If you have limited holiday allowance, you are going to pick the quickest route to maximise your holiday days. 

At Higson, we have a sustainable holiday policy which encourages the team to take the lowest carbon route, (the train in this example) and give extra holiday days for the travel time. The team can take the longer but lower carbon route and enjoy watching the French countryside roll past! We also give a train voucher to anyone who chooses to travel by train over taking a flight.

Augusta leads by example with this, visiting her family in Dublin by taking the train and ferry. A full day’s travel rather than a quick flight – but she always has beautiful pictures and stories to tell from each journey.

6. Be conscious about consumption

Too often, businesses buy a new laptop or phone for their people without considering refurbishing their current equipment. 

Globally, we are producing 300 million computers and 1 billion phones every single year. 

However, only 22% of our discarded electronics gets recycled.

Every purchasing decision follows the buyerarchy of needs, starting at the bottom of the triangle with “use what you have…”

7. Eat plant based

Looking at the graphic below, we can see that the carbon footprint of different foods varies greatly. This is a key reason why we always eat plant based food at team events, whether it be a pot-luck lunch, Christmas meal, or networking breakfast. We also promote eating plant based food among our clients when delivering in-person training or catching up for a coffee.

8. Create space to share knowledge

We have a sustainability slack channel to share recent environmental news and top environmental tips for our personal life away from work. A post on this channel might include:

• Inspiring low carbon / nature / environment stories from the last week
• Sharing new low carbon top tips and habits; including our favourite plant-based recipes or sustainable holiday plans
• Discussion around the company’s sustainability, and progress towards our goals

Want to know more?

If you would like to learn more about our sustainability strategy, or discuss how we can support your team to engage in climate action, please get in touch. We would be very happy to speak to you about our experience and explore how we could help you work towards a more sustainable future.