Today marks a pivotal moment in the Useful Simple Trust's sustainability journey. After years of dedicated work and commitment to our Science Based Targets, we are proud to publicly launch our Climate Transition Action Plan (CTAP).
This CTAP is a blueprint for transforming climate goals into measurable action - providing transparency on our carbon context, identifying our emission hotspots, and outlining our target pathway with specific actions for 2026.
Why This Matters
Whilst we recognise that our greatest impact is through our project work, we believe that every organisation has a responsibility to combat climate change. For us, reducing our impact aligns with who we are as a business; our Ethos and our status as B Corp, Social Enterprise, and Employee Benefit Trust.
The Trust’s four Impact Strands - Get Set Zero, Work for Good, Restore and Adapt, and More with Less - knit together the projects and services our brands provide to clients. Our CTAP focuses on accelerated action towards net zero carbon in line with Get Set Zero, and provides a near-term roadmap aligned with the critical 1.5°C pathway following guidance from the We Mean Business Coalition.
Our Journey
- 2018: Became a Social Enterprise
- 2019: Started calculating our annual operational carbon footprint
- 2020: Achieved B Corp status
- 2021: Appointed our Head of Sustainability, Carrie Behar
- 2022: Set carbon reduction targets with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)
- 2023: Became a Carbon Literate Organisation - Silver
- 2024: B Corp recertification and 32% score improvement
- 2025: Became a Carbon Literate Organisation - Gold
Our Commitments
- We have set official Science-Based Targets with SBTi, committing to reduce Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 46% by 2030, from a 2019 base year, and to measure and reduce our Scope 3 emissions.
- Through the SME Climate Hub, we have joined the United Nations (UNFCCC) Race to Zero initiative, where we are committed to ‘reducing emissions, across all scopes, swiftly and fairly in line with the Paris Agreement, with transparent action plans and robust near-term targets’.
- We will offset residual emissions from business travel, office and homeworking energy use, and employee commuting by 2030.
- We will engage with our top 10 suppliers to set their own Science Based Targets and reduce emissions by 2030.
Discover how we are turning climate commitments into measurable action.
Download our Climate Transition Action Plan here.
