Thursday 15 July 2021

Barings targets net zero emissions globally by 2030

Investment management company Barings has announced its ambition for net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its global operations by 2030.

It plans to fully offset emissions in 2021 and implement reduction programmes over the remaining period as part of its roadmap to long term sustainability.

In addition, it intends to switch all facilities it manages to using renewable energy sources, targeting 100% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2022.

Barings is also setting internal carbon fees on business travel, with the programme aimed at giving employees and managers data to decide what business trips are worth the cost of the greenhouse gases they generate.

Sarah Munday, Barings Director of Sustainability said: “While we will need to utilise carbon offsets to achieve neutrality in 2021, our true focus is on changing the behaviours of our employees and partners that will allow us to achieve our net zero target.

“For instance, we intend to set an internal tax on carbon for air travel by the third quarter of this year and hope to expand that to other carbon generating areas of our business in the coming years.”

Barings' Global Technology and Operations team has reduced the company's European data centre footprint by 74% and the Barings London office operates on 100% renewable energy and green gas.

The office also received a BREEAM Excellent rating for both pre-design and fit-out stages of the construction process and was awarded the ISO 14001 certification for environmental management this year.