NCAS is committed to taking immediate and ongoing action to reduce our organisation’s environmental footprint. This includes the priority areas of sustainable procurement, reducing emissions from travel, and environmental impact reporting. We have formalised this commitment by becoming signatories to the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice.

The NCAS carbon baseline was completed in 2022 for 2019-2020, in collaboration with 3Adapt consultants. Learn more about NCAS’s carbon baseline. Our comprehensive 2019-20 data collection analysis revealed the NCAS baseline carbon footprint was 5,400 tonnes CO2e a year.

Following our carbon baseline calculation, we considered our approach, priority areas and gaps in data. We will now be conducting an annual carbon footprint analysis. This will initially cover scope 1 and scope 2, and increasingly scope 3 as we better understand this more complex area of our emissions.

The majority of NCAS emissions in 2024-25 fall within scope 3, and include indirect emissions associated with purchased goods and services, fuel for the FAAM Airborne Laboratory’s research aircraft. and business travel.

A priority area for us next year will be to break down the scope 3 data in order to pinpoint areas for carbon reduction measures.

We will improve data collection and quality for our carbon footprint analysis in 2025-26. As additional emissions are likely to be captured, we anticipate that NCAS’s carbon footprint will rise.

We stay committed to embedding environmental sustainability into research and innovation practice.