Our Environmental Footprint
At Ecotricity we take our environmental footprint seriously.
We’ve calculated our Environmental Footprint every year, since 2010. This isn’t about how green our electricity is - that’s taken care of – the information is available in our Fuel Mix statistics. This is about how green everything else we do is – what goes on behind the scenes, from selecting a site for a new solar farm and servicing our windmills, through to running our offices.
We look at the impact of everything we do and we try to be as green and sustainable as we possibly can. Ecotricity’s policies, management processes and targets are certified to ISO14001 standards. To hold this certificate, we are independently audited to check that we’re performing as we promised, that we have trained people to do the work and that they have the resources needed to meet our objectives.
Ecotricity’s 2025 Environmental Footprint Report *
There are two ways we can calculate the carbon emissions related to electricity consumption, as defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Market-based reporting reflects emissions from the specific electricity a company buys. Because we made the decision to buy renewable electricity and gas, we can report zero emissions. For completeness we also report location-based figures, that calculate carbon based on the emissions of the power grid in the UK.
| Emissions (Market Based) | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electric | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gas | 16 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Water | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Pool Car / Van Fuel | 119 | 156 | 106 | 130 | 131 | 140 | 124 | 119 |
| Grey Fleet (Staff own vehicles) | 0 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 30 |
| Air Transport | 30 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Escape emissions F-Gas | 1 | 59 | 0 | 59.28 | ||||
| Total Emissions | 169 | 192 | 122 | 137 | 135 | 206 | 139 | 210 |
| Emissions (Location Based) | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electric | 387 | 383 | 297 | 310 | 281 | 254 | 262 | 236 |
| Gas | 16 | 18 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 8 | 6 |
| Water | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Pool Car / Van Fuel | 119 | 156 | 106 | 130 | 131 | 140 | 124 | 119 |
| Grey Fleet (Staff own vehicles) | 0 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 30 |
| Air Transport | 30 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Escape emissions F-Gas | 1 | 59 | 0 | 59.28 | ||||
| Total Emissions | 556 | 575 | 431 | 461 | 429 | 472 | 409 | 452 |
*The data in the tables on this page is just for Ecotricity. Ecotricity is part of the Green Britain Group (GBG) (https://www.greenbritaingroup.com/). GBG carbon emissions are published in the Group’s Annual Report and Accounts.
We’re Carbon Neutral
In 2019, we were the first (and only) energy company to stand alongside Extinction Rebellion and declare a climate emergency. Part of that commitment was to become carbon neutral by 2025.
We achieved this back in 2022, 3 years ahead of schedule by reducing our emissions as much as we could and offsetting residual emissions. We will always keep driving our residual emissions down further and maintain our carbon neutrality.
There is still work to do (see below) to cut our carbon footprint further. However, in the meantime to stay carbon neutral, we’ll purchase carbon credits to cover the residual 178.28 tonnes of Scope 1 and 2 emissions that we produce, based on the market-based calculation. (Scope 1 emissions are those from sources owned or controlled by the company (e.g., company vehicles, boilers); Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating, or cooling.) We will make sure that the carbon credit projects we invest in, will deliver the carbon, environmental and community benefits claimed and are well managed.
Highlights from 2025
During the last year Ecotricity continued to grow - we opened a new office in Stroud for Ecotricity’s Business team. We’ve reused a vacant office and refurbished it using low impact materials (e.g. recycled floor tiles, recycled/reused furnishings) where possible. The refurbishment also improved the energy efficiency of our new building. Moving a number of our people into the new office meant less gas consumption at our main office.
Our grey fleet milage has increased due to the expansion of our business team. To reduce the size of the increase, we promoted the use of public transport and car sharing when possible. We also encouraged holding meetings electronically to reduce travel, taking account of the balance between virtual electronic meetings and those held in person.
Our pool cars and vans have reduced fuel consumption thanks to our maintenance team from green energy generation. They take care to plan their journeys to reduce mileage as far as practical.
We did suffer a maintenance problem with one of our windmills, which resulted in a loss of coolant (SF6) from its system. The leak was discovered and repaired quickly and only a small amount of coolant was leaked. However, the high Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the coolant, means if it leaks into the atmosphere, the impact on climate change of 1 kg is 22,800 times that of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. The leak therefore was equivalent to just over 59 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
It’s Not All About Energy
To help reduce the impact of our food consumption, we opened a “Vegan Canteen”. The all-Vegan menu is provided by Forest Green Rovers FC catering team. We are Britain’s first workplace vegan canteen.
Looking to the future
Ecotricity has set itself an ambitious target of reducing the carbon generated by activities owned or controlled by us, Scope 1 and Scope 2, by 90% by 2030 (using the market-based calculation). Most businesses are aiming for 2050 for the same thing.
To reduce our Scope 1 and 2 footprint, we need to;
a) change how we travel for business and maintain our generation sites
b) invest in the energy efficiency of our buildings.
We’ve already started on both areas, for example all our pool cars are now electric. We’ll update our progress in the next report.