One of our core aims is reducing our impact on the planet and doing everything we can to ensure our Society operates in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Therefore, we are delighted to announce that our Head Office is now carbon neutral. This means that we have reduced our unavoidable carbon emissions and funded carbon offset projects that contribute to positive climate action. Some of our current projects include afforestation efforts in the UK and the cleaning of oceans worldwide. 

This is an excellent achievement, and we are proud to have made such a strong start on our journey towards net zero carbon emissions by the end of 2024. Our work with ClimatePartner will continue to explore further ways that we can limit our impact across the Society as we work towards total carbon neutrality. 

We have also begun work with Investors in the Environment to learn more about our environmental impact and how we can become more ecologically conscious. In February 2022, we were audited for the first time and assessed on five key areas of environmental management. We were given a sustainability rating of 73% and received an Investors in the Environment bronze accreditation. This is a great achievement for our Society, and we are already looking forward to putting further measures in place to achieve a silver accreditation at our next annual audit. 

Ann-Marie O’Dea, Chief Executive Officer at Shepherds Friendly said:  

“As a friendly society, we’ve always tried to do our bit for the environment. Over the last couple of years, it’s been our mission to step up that commitment and to become a greener business. To achieve carbon neutrality at our Head Office and be awarded a Bronze Investors in Environment accreditation in such a short space of time is definitely a positive step in the right direction. The efforts of our people and our Green Team have been key in this.  

“We’re certainly just at the beginning of our journey and there’s much more we plan to achieve in terms of being more environmentally conscious and sustainable. Being a mutual, values play a huge part in what we do, one of these being ‘doing the right thing’. So, working together to try and help our planet is just one way we can continue to live our values.”   

Get in touch 

If you would like to find out more about how we are becoming more sustainable, or how you could make a different with our sustainable products, contact our Business Development team on 0161 495 6495 during our office hours (Monday to Thursday, 9.00am – 5.00pm; Friday, 9.00am – 4.00pm) or at [email protected].