Every year since 2019 we have produced an inventory to report on emissions, using best practice guidance set out by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.  

Our approach has evolved over time and will continue to do so as guidance is updated, and our methods and data improves. We made a range of improvements following an external audit of our approach in 2022, including the addition of further categories. 
 
In 2022-23, The Wildlife Trusts were collectively responsible for 19,539.6 tCO2e (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) across our operational activities. Our emissions are split up into scopes 1, 2 and 3: 

• Scope 1 covers our direct emissions, including from building fuel, fleet and equipment fuel and refrigerants (fluid used in air conditioning or refrigerators). 
   

• Scope 2 includes our indirect emissions from use of purchased electricity. 
   

• Scope 3 covers our remaining indirect emissions that occur through our other activities. For example, purchases, water use and staff travel.  

Scope 3 is an area where we have expanded our reporting in this latest inventory, most significantly with the addition of purchased goods and services. Counting these emissions is a challenge as we’ve had to draw upon generalised datasets based on how much we’ve spent, which only gives a rough indication of emissions. In many cases we may already be making more sustainable choices in terms of suppliers so using these averages may not reflect true emissions. Despite this, we believe it is useful to report on these categories as best as we can, with the aim to improve our methodology over time. These emissions now make up a significant part of our total. 

Another significant category of emissions for The Wildlife Trusts is from our grazing animals, which are an important part of our conservation activities to simulate the ecological impacts of wild grazing animals that are no longer part of the UK’s natural system. Herbivores like cows and sheep remove and otherwise shape the vegetation, recycle nutrients and cause other disturbance that creates or maintains the ecological niches required by other animals, plants and fungi. In the process, they generate greenhouse gas emissions – most notably of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O).  With more than 30,000 grazing animals on Wildlife Trust landholdings, these emissions can be considerable. 

Methods of estimating emissions from grazing animals are less well established, more varied and more open to challenge. There is still considerable debate – often based on limited evidence – about the relationship between grazing animals and nature-based carbon sequestration. We have developed our own bespoke calculator that allows conservation grazing managers to estimate their livestock’s long- and short-term direct emissions and their likely climate impacts.  We have collected and presented data for 2022-23 and also extended our estimates back, using the same methodology, to 2021-22 and 2020-21, for comparison. At this stage, we are happy to acknowledge that this is quite experimental, but it gives us a transparent result rather than relying on a ‘black box’ model where we can’t see the underlying data and assumptions. 

In 2022-23 our livestock emitted greenhouse gases with a long-term equivalence (over 100 years) of about 14,500 tCO2e, or a short-term equivalence (over 20 years) of 40,500 tCO2e.  And we estimated the carbon intensity of our conservation grazing operations at about 2.8 tCO2e per Livestock Unit year of grazing activity, in the hopes that in future years we will find ways to deliver the same amount of beneficial conservation grazing impact (or more), but with fewer emissions. We are undertaking research on how we can do this, which will be published later this year. 

Excluding emissions from purchased goods and services and capital goods, our latest account for 2022/23 shows a 16% decrease in operational emissions since the 2019 baseline. Looking at each scope in isolation, we can see that this reduction is mostly due to our scope 1 and 2 emissions decreasing by 10% and 42% respectively. Scope 3 emissions have obviously increased since the baseline because of the addition of new categories such as purchased goods and services. We are also seeing a rebound effect following the significant drop in travel during the Covid pandemic. However, business travel, and associated emissions, have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Looking at the finer details within scope 3 will help us understand where to target our efforts to reduce emissions.   

Our 2022/23 inventory highlights the great work happening across the federation to decarbonise. Many Trusts have carried out energy audits highlighting ways to reduce energy demand, and in some cases started producing their own through the installation of solar panels. Trusts are encouraging car sharing, public transport or walking/cycling to work to reduce the impact of staff commute. Hybrid working, virtual meetings and home working policies are helping to reduce staff travel. Trusts are reducing the number of petrol and diesel vehicles in their fleets and transitioning to electric vehicles and electric bikes. Continuing actions such as these and using our inventory to focus where we take action, will help us progress towards our net zero target.  

We want to minimise the impacts of our activities, but also inspire and empower others to do the same! Climate change might often feel like a problem that’s bigger than us, and that it’s difficult to make a difference. However, there are lots of simple and easy things we can all do to help.
 
Things you can do about climate change