Carbon emissions reduction – our Science Based Targets approach

Our commitment

Our purpose at Hymans Robertson is ‘Together, building better futures’ and there’s no bigger risk to all our futures than the impact of climate change. We know that building a sustainable future for generations to come means acting now to tackle climate risk. That’s why we’re committed to playing our part in delivering a net zero carbon future.

We’ve been actively working to reduce our carbon emissions since 2019. Thanks to the adoption of 100% renewable energy across our offices and other targeted initiatives,  we’re proud to have been able to reduce our core carbon emissions by 38% (from 1988 to 1224 tCO2e between 2019/20 and 2024/25), and our ‘per person’ emissions by more than 60% (from 2.34 to 0.92 tCO2e per person over the same period). 

Looking forward: A science based approach  

To ensure our carbon reduction strategy is in line with best practice, we’ve worked with the experts at Carbon Footprint ltd to develop a Science Based Targets (SBT) aligned carbon reduction plan.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a framework that empowers organisations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions based on the latest climate science. By guiding them towards the target of keeping global warming below 1.5°C in line with the Paris Agreement, the framework helps turn ambitious goals into concrete, measurable climate action.

Our SBT carbon reduction plan takes our 2024/25 carbon emissions (the first year that we’ve been able to measure our entire Scope 1, 2 & 3 carbon footprint) as our new baseline year.  The key commitments within the plan are:

• A Net Zero target date of  2046 - We’re committed to reaching net zero emissions across our operations by 2046, prioritising meaningful reductions and responsibly offsetting what remains
• Medium-term carbon emission reductions of 55% by 2030/31 - We’ve established objectives to more than halve our total carbon footprint in the medium term, with the next key milestone requiring reduction of c55% of our current carbon emissions by 2030/31.

The chart below illustrates our forecasted emission reductions under the plan. The start point is the red line, which shows expected ‘passive’ emission reductions in our carbon footprint over the coming years. These reflect government and legislative commitments that form part of the UK’s net zero strategy – for example, to decarbonise the energy supply, reduce travel related emissions and improve building energy efficiency.

The blue dotted line represents the required reduction in our carbon emissions to reach net zero by 2050 using SBT methodology. While the green line reflects our planned active reductions, which are ahead of the minimum SBT requirement.

The timescales, methodology and the carbon reduction activities which underpin our plan has been developed and verified in partnership with Carbon Footprint ltd. They’ll also audit and verify our emissions and our progress against the plan each year, with a progress update shared in our annual Impact Report and on this webpage.  

Achieving our goals

The largest part of our initial carbon emission reductions will be achieved by refining the ‘spend-based’ estimate of our supply chain emissions that’s included in our 2024/25 footprint. This involves an assessment of each of our individual supplier's emissions to determine their contribution to our overall supply chain footprint, before we work to increase our requirements of suppliers in relation to carbon reduction. An initial assessment carried out in September 2025 suggests that the vast majority of our largest suppliers also have Science Based Targets reduction plans in place, giving us confidence that our collective emissions should reduce significantly in years to come. 

We’ll also implement and continue to development emission reduction measures across each element of our carbon footprint, with a particular focus on further reductions in business travel – the single largest category of emissions after our supply chain.  

Our first SBT progress update will be published here and in our Impact Report in summer 2026. If you’d like to know more about our SBT plan or wider CSR activities, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.