Reducing our Carbon Footprint

Foundation Scotland staff have been working on a new project that will bring us one step closer to decarbonizing our operations.

In 2022, several staff from our Climate Action Working Group and Operations team started an examination into the carbon footprint of the Foundation. In order to be transparent and accurate, we contracted Glasgow based agency, CLD Carbon to measure our emissions. A Strategy for Carbon Management at Foundation Scotland report was finalized in June 2022. The strategy detailed a carbon reduction target of 42% by 2030/31 against the 2021/22 baseline.

Equipped with data and a keen desire to reverse our environmental impact, the team commenced a research exercise into possible carbon offsetting initiatives. This was an interesting process and, following several discussions, Forest Carbon was identified as a preferred partner for Foundation Scotland.  Forest Carbon is the leading and longest standing developer of land-based projects for the UK voluntary carbon market and were founding members of the Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code Advisory Boards.  The organisation can demonstrate a track record dating back to 2006.  Partners include Microsoft, Salesforce, and the National Grid. 

As Scotland’s community foundation, we were keen to see positive impacts on our own doorstep. Forest Carbon has offered us a wonderful opportunity to offset at their Hawkshaw site in the Scottish Borders in conjunction with The Borders Forest Trust. This project will aim to restore rough grazing land into new, native woodland and will be the basis for our future offsetting. To ensure that we are offsetting in real time, we have also committed funds to the Cochabamba project in Bolivia which is a small community reforestation and protection programme.

With these projects under our belt, we have become one of the first funders under the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF's) Funder Commitment on Climate Change to pursue carbon offsetting!

Looking to the future, we will monitor the positive impacts of our offsetting both in Scotland and overseas. While we cannot offset our way out of the climate crisis, we are proud to have moved one step closer to Net Zero.