We are committed to reducing our carbon emissions and, for 2022, HFL has fully removed our residual carbon output.

We are delighted to be partnering with Supercritical to achieve our goals and have undertaken three critical steps as part of this process:

1. Know our footprint. We needed to understand our current emissions, using a detailed breakdown to measure where we are now so we can make a plan to move forward, measure and stay accountable.

2. Reduce our emissions. Our team wants to be involved, so we have asked for their ideas on reducing our carbon emissions because it needs to get the broadest possible support to make change sustainable.

3. Remove. Where we cannot reduce our emissions to zero, we will offset them with a durable carbon removal.

The two leading standards for net zero are The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and The Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting. Both state that you must balance out your emissions with permanent carbon removal to get to net zero.

We have committed to fully offset our residual carbon output using biochar. This natural carbon removal system literally takes carbon dioxide out of the sky via plants and stores it as a very stable form of carbon in soils.

Biochar is charcoal‐like material rich in stable carbon. It is produced by heating biomass in an oxygen-limited environment in a process called pyrolysis. It is most commonly used as a soil amendment in agriculture and horticulture and brings significant additional co‐benefits, such as yield improvements and the reduced need for fertilisers.

“Following the analysis from Supercritical, we are starting a long‐term strategy to reduce our carbon footprint, and carbon removal using biochar is just the first step.

“There are many options available to us as an organisation, and our staff have already come up with some excellent ideas. As we move forward with our plans, we want to share our progress and find ways to work with the community to overcome some of our shared challenges,” says HFL Managing Director Matt Westgarth‐Smith.