Burke Bros Moving Group in the UK has successfully become the first moving company, globally to receive PAS2060 certification to become fully carbon neutral by measuring and offsetting all carbon emissions across Scope 1, 2 and all 15 categories in Scope 3.

The company has directed a strategy to improve its environmental credentials and take responsibility for its emissions as it works towards net zero.  It has invested in ensuring that all the emissions associated with its business activities have been calculated to GHG (Green House Gas) Protocol and offset through the purchase of verified United Nations Carbon Credits. This not only neutralises the company’s emissions, but also demonstrates positive humanitarian benefits to the less privileged.

“The journey to net zero is long, especially within an industry that heavily relies upon HGV and sea transportation, where zero carbon technology is still realistically a decade away,” said Steve Pitt, Transport Manager. “The climate crisis didn’t happen overnight, and it certainly won’t be solved overnight, but the fact that Burke Bros Moving Group has now established its Boundary Period Carbon Footprint, means it can now begin executing the plan to reduce emissions to net zero by 2040, 10 years ahead of the UK backstop.”

Delivering both improved environmentally friendly services to its customers and responding to a need to lead the rest of the industry in the area of sustainability, Burke Bros Moving Group has become fully carbon neutral as part of its journey to net zero.

Laura Burke, Financial Controller, explained the process: “All of the GHG emissions that we create through our entire business activities have been measured.  It was quite an undertaking to collect so much data from every element of the business in this ‘carbon accountancy’ challenge and the hard work doesn’t stop here.  This is part of a longer environmental journey to achieve net zero (a minimum 90% reduction in boundary emissions only mitigating the embedded emissions through the purchase of Carbon Offsets) by 2040.  We will continue measuring our progress and reporting regularly as part of our commitment to the global climate crisis.”

Paul Lucas, Business Development Manager added: “Having achieved the PAS2060 Carbon Neutral certification, customers that use our removal and storage services won’t inherit our carbon footprint and we will directly reduce the emissions of the companies to whom we supply. Part of the next stage in this project is to mobilise our supply chain to ensure it is aligned to our business-critical commitment to Net Zero 2040. Our supply chain accounts for over 58% of our total carbon footprint, so without its alignment we will not be able to achieve our goal, like the UK government, our future procurement processes will include suppliers being able to demonstrate a robust commitment to net zero.”    

Speaking about the achievement Chris Burke, Director, said: “We are an industry not exactly famed for having a positive environmental impact, so this makes our company’s achievement of carbon neutrality even more pertinent.  It’s important that the industry steps up and starts making a difference for future generations.  We have given sustainability and environmentally-sound practices attention for many years and have presented innovative projects to audiences in the United States of America with two award wins for our contributions on global environmental issues.”

Chris added that the British Association of Removers has confirmed Burke Bros to be the first in our industry in the UK and FIDI has confirmed it to be the first moving company globally to have been certified PAS2060 Carbon Neutral. “We are extremely proud to have achieved this milestone and to have spearheaded the developments in this area for our sector. We will continue working on our journey to net zero and keeping our customers and industry colleagues updated on our company social media pages.”

Gary Burke, Managing Director added: “I recognised in 2021 that our company would have to be sustainability-led in time, so it became incorporated into our business plans to become carbon neutral and work towards net zero.   The team were given the brief to be the first in our industry to step up to the challenge.”

Photo (left to right): Charlotte Crowshaw, Marketing Officer; Steve Pitt, Transport Manager; Chris Burke, Director; Paul Lucas, Business Development Manager; and Laura Burke, Financial Controller.