You can read about our approach to sustainability below or you can download our 2021 Sustainability Report here.
Calisen’s business is aligned with the targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy. In particular, Calisen’s smart meter business supports the United Nations’ targets relating to modern energy services and doubling the global improvement in energy efficiency by 2030.
Calisen is also committed to reducing its own emissions and has undertaken a number of new sustainable projects to deliver on this commitment. As part of this, Calisen is setting out emissions reduction targets for all three scopes consistent with the UK’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (“SECR”) requirements and the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The energy market faced a difficult year with sharply increasing energy prices and increasing uncertainty for both industry participants and the end consumer. As a business we are committed to doing our part to deliver a sustainable energy future and supporting our customers through this market turbulence. Calisen’s core businesses are well positioned to build on this, contributing to carbon reduction by providing energy consumers with greater understanding of their consumption and enabling the completion of a smart grid incorporating a greater mix of renewables.
Sustainability and the requirement to acknowledge and take appropriate action to embed the core ESG principles of Environmental, Social and Governance into the fabric of our organisation has provided the bedrock for Calisen to develop a robust Sustainability Strategy and the subsequent launch of “Calisen Impact” in March 2021.
Calisen Impact delivers a single purpose: ‘To accelerate the use of smarter energy’.
Calisen Impact is chaired by the CEO, Sean Latus. Sean is passionate in his commitment to leading the business to achieve the organisation’s sustainability ambitions of:
The purpose of Calisen Impact is to provide a clear sustainability framework that holds the business to account by demonstrating our commitment to environmental, social and governance performance through a clear programme of activity. Calisen Impact operates with clear policies and practices to identify, address and manage all aspects of ESG efficiently throughout all business activity and is designed to extend further to our supply chain. Calisen Impact is not only a brand that employees become familiar with, in addition, it underpins the principles required to create a more inclusive and sustainable future that supports our communities, our customers and each other.
Calisen Impact is about taking action, and is committed to climate change mitigation, including actions to limit global warming and its related effects. As part of our continuous efforts to lower emissions over the long term, Calisen has reformed the electricity in our buildings. In 2020 Calisen implemented the transition of all Lowri Beck and Calvin Capital sites to renewal energy tariffs, 2021 saw the full transition of power which now comes from renewable energy sources such as wind or hydropower. The use of simple control devices like occupancy sensors are instrumental in limiting the amount of energy used.
Calisen is continuing the roll out of upgraded on-board diagnostic technology – telematics across all of the Lowri Beck fleet.
Telematics are used to track and monitor travel speeds and GPS location, and in addition are used to track driving habits, speeding, harsh braking, and sudden acceleration, behaviours that are known to increase fuel consumption and resulting carbon emissions. Calisen utilises the information to help reduce fuel consumption and the environmental footprint of the fleet.
Calisen Impact led a project in 2021 to assess the organisation’s recycling opportunities. As part of the review we identified a ‘meter graveyard’ collecting in a Lowri Beck warehousing facility in Greater Manchester. The meter graveyard consisted of over 28,000 end-of-life meters that had been retired for a number of reasons. The primary importance of the project was to ensure that the meters were responsibly recycled. Therefore, over a period of 3 days, 80 pallets containing over 28,000 meters were transported to Dragon Recycling in South Wales. Dragon Recycling specialises in responsible recycling to fully minimise the impact of recycling on the environment. The Calisen Impact team utilised the recycling project to align the recycling process for all end-of-life meters and regulators at Lowri Beck with the Calvin Capital recycling process.
Calisen recognises that to truly impact carbon emissions we will need to focus on the organisation’s fleet. With the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars coming into force in 2030, and hybrid cars by 2035, over the last 24 months Calisen has reviewed the current Lowri Beck fleet’s carbon emissions and are currently trialling the organisation’s first electric cars. The trial of Renault Zoes will feed into a structured EV adoption strategy aligned to the Company’s ambition to endeavour to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
Calisen already plays a role in reducing the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Analysis by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”) suggests that the average smart meter helps reduce household energy use from electricity by 3 per cent and gas by 1.9 per cent. Using this analysis as a guide, our carbon consultant, Green Element, has estimated that Calisen’s installed smart meter portfolio as at 31 December 2021 is anticipated to contribute towards a total lifetime carbon emissions reduction of 3.8 million tonnes by 2035 resulting from household energy savings alone (excluding emissions from manufacture, installation or end of life).
This table represents Green Element’s calculations of the carbon savings associated with the revenue generating meters installed in the Group’s portfolio. It includes household energy savings due to the installation of smart meters and associated energy consumption behavioural changes.
| Electricity | Gas | |
| Annual per meter consumption (kWh) | 35,001 | 120,001 |
| Weighted3 average energy saving (%) | 3.0%2 | 1.9%2 |
| Annual per meter energy reduction (kWh) | 106.5 | 225.2 |
| Annual per meter annual carbon reduction – energy saving (tCO2e) | 0.03 | 0.05 |
| Total annual carbon reduction per annum (tCO2e) – energy saving | 112,632 | 143,293 |
| Total lifetime4 carbon reduction (tCO2e) – energy saving | 1,689,473 | 2,149,401 |
Assumptions:
Mental health and wellbeing
Calisen Impact has a clear focus on enhanced wellbeing. A key objective for this aim includes working to improve our employees’ physical and mental health and wellbeing, creating a positive environment around mental health through supportive action, and by tackling stigmas, and supporting health and wellbeing in local communities.
Charity partnerships
Throughout 2021 we continued to grow our partnership with Manchester Youth Zone (“MYZ”). MYZ supports young people between the ages of 8 and 19, extended to an age limit of 25 for young people with additional needs, primarily drawing from the UK’s highest area of child deprivation.
Diversity and inclusion
Calisen has a strong diversity, equity and inclusion (“DE&I”) focus, with DE&I included in our strategic planning. In order to ensure the actions we undertake to deliver our gender, racial and equality ambitions, it is important that we have a clear and factual representation of the breadth of diversity across our current workforce. Therefore, we are currently evaluating our diversity data collection which will, in turn, allow Calisen to analyse and more importantly understand the diversity of our workforce, and implement targeted and focused initiatives to ultimately achieve our inclusion and diversity goals.
Governance
Our governance structure is embedded within the framework of Calisen Impact, consisting of the Calisen Sustainability Steering Committee (“SSC”) responsible for driving the sustainability agenda. The SSC is chaired by the CEO and includes committee members at executive level with accountability to deliver the ESG strategy. In addition, the Calisen Sustainability Reporting Committee ‘Green Bean’ chaired by the Group Finance Director, Phillip McLelland, alongside Green Element, an Environmental Management Consultancy, both monitors and reports monthly performance against our strategy and net zero ambition and aims.
Calisen has developed a comprehensive and broad-reaching Code of Conduct to support the achievement of the Company’s purpose to accelerate the use of smarter energy, helping our customers and communities as a whole to manage energy better.
Calisen is committed to voluntarily implementing the recommendations of the TCFD, recognising that better reporting helps sustain stakeholder confidence in the Group and its strategy.
Calisen’s purpose is to accelerate the use of smarter energy. This has informed its strategy of focusing on small-scale high-volume energy infrastructure and the development of its smart meter business.
Calisen’s business is aligned with the targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy. In particular, Calisen’s smart meter business supports the UN’s targets relating to modern energy services and doubling the global improvement in energy efficiency by 2030. Where relevant, our operating companies are committed to operating in accordance with ISO 14001: 2015 requirements.
| 2021 Global (all UK) | 2020 Global (all UK) | 2019 Global (all UK) | |
| Energy consumption used: (kWh) | |||
| Electricity | 418,024 | 515,411 | 623,615 |
| Gas | 220,216 | 290,020 | 341,893 |
| Transport Fuel | 13,245,159 | 10,789,405 | 16,588,333 |
| Other Energy Sources | – | – | – |
| Emissions (tCO2e) | |||
| Scope 1 | |||
| Emissions from combustion of gas tCO2e | 40.33 | 53.33 | 62.86 |
| Emissions from combustion of fuel for transport purposes tCO2e | 1,287.03 | 1,141.55 | 1,774.55 |
| Emissions from other activities which the company own or control including operation of facilities | – | 2.71 | 49.9 |
| Scope 2 | |||
| Emissions from purchased electricity – location based, tCO2e | 88.76 | 120.16 | 159.4 |
| Scope 3 | |||
| Emissions from business travel in rental cars or employee vehicles where company is responsible for purchasing the fuel tCO2e | 2,000.10 | 1523.44 | 2,426.04 |
| Emissions from upstream transport and distribution losses and excavation and transport of fuels – location based tCO2e | 839.69 | 675.15 | 1,046.67 |
| Total emissions for mandatory reporting – location based, tCO2e | 4,255.91 | 3,516.35 | 5,519.41 |
| Intensity (KgCO2e) | |||
| Revenue £m* | 268.80 | 248.1 | 208.80 |
| Intensity ratio: tCO2e from Scope 1, 2 and 3 (fuel for business travel only) / £m location based | 15.83 | 14.17 | 26.43 |
| Average number of full time employees (FTE) | 1,228 | 1,448 | 1,504 |
| Intensity ratio: tCO2e from Scope 1, 2 and 3 (fuel for business travel only) / FTE location based | 3.5 | 2.4 | 3.70 |
Methodology – Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Reporting Standard.
External Verification – Green Element Limited and Compare Your Footprint Limited external verification process.