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CLEAR – Net Zero commitment

The Clear Group is committed to achieving Net Zero carbon emissions by 2030. We are also the first insurance broker to set this commitment through the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).

The Science Based Targets initiative is a coalition established in 2015 which aims to enable companies to set emission reduction targets in line with leading climate science. It is a collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and WWF.

The team at CLEAR spent 12 months collecting and analysing data on the environmental impact and carbon footprint of the business, and in April 2021 we announced our Net Zero commitment.

To begin with we are upgrading our IT suite, which will allow the business to reduce the number of IT facilities required. This action fulfils one of the key carbon net-zero initiatives and will help reduce power consumption across the business.

Another source of carbon emissions for CLEAR has been business travel. While the Covid lockdowns have clearly reduced travel, we are determined to address how to make business journeys more environmentally sustainable in the future. Staff are now keeping a more detailed record of their business mileage and flights as this information will be essential in reporting carbon emissions accurately each year.

The CLEAR Group is committed to achieving Net Zero by 2030 by reducing our carbon footprint by 30% from a 2019 baseline. This is a long timeframe, so to make a positive impact straight away, we have become carbon neutral through the purchase of carbon credits. These carbon credits or offsets help finance clean energy projects in emerging countries through ClimateCare.

Speaking about CLEAR’s Net Zero commitment, Dan Innes, Director said:

"We carefully considered the impact that we want to have on the world and saw it as imperative to reduce our carbon emissions significantly. We saw that the best way to do this was through a credible process aligned to science, which is exactly what the SBTi offers. We can only encourage other SMEs and large businesses alike to develop a science-based net zero strategy."

"We have ten years to achieve a 30% reduction in our emissions, which is ambitious but necessary. Our first initiatives are just the start of a long and challenging but absolutely vital project, and we have a great deal more to do in tackling the causes of climate change."

See our latest report

 
 
  
CLEAR Streamlined Energy & Reporting Disclosure 2021  

Further information

Find out more about CLEAR's Net Zero commitment below:

What we’ve done so far

Over the past year CLEAR have been collecting and analysing our impact on the environment. We now know what our carbon footprint is – how much carbon we use through turning on the lights and using the computers for example – and we’ve made a commitment to become carbon neutral for 2019/20 and going forward. This means we’ve purchased carbon credits (offsets) to finance clean energy projects in emerging countries through ClimateCare.

We’ve decided that we want to be in the leading pack of companies working towards reducing carbon emissions and we’ve therefore agreed to reduce our carbon emissions in line with a ‘net-zero’ target. This means that we will have to reduce our carbon footprint by 30%, against our 2019 baseline, by 2030. After that date, all remaining ‘unavoidable’ carbon emissions will be covered by credits purchased to avoid carbon being emitted to the atmosphere.

This target is what is known as a Science Based Target – one which is aligned to the internationally agreed targets ratified by the Paris Agreement.

How we will achieve it

We’ve got ten years to achieve a 30% reduction in emissions. There are a number of things that we will do during that time, some of which we know now, and some which we’ll decide in years to come. One of the main things that we are doing which will have a large impact on energy use is upgrading our IT suite to reduce the number of IT facilities required.

A large part of our emissions arises from business travel, basically how many miles we travel in cars every day to see our clients. Of course, it may have reduced over the lockdown period but we’ll always need to do some travel. So, we’re incentivising employees to purchase electric cars through the Tusker scheme.

How you can get involved

This is a long-term project and will be achieved with everyone getting behind it and keeping the CLEAR Net Zero commitment in mind. We will be asking employees to do simple things such as keeping account of business mileage and flights as per the revised expenses policy – this is so we can accurately report on our emissions each year. We’d also like employees’ ideas on what we can do now in the future.