Carbon Reduction Plan

Commitment to achieving Net Zero
NCO Europe is committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050

Baseline Emissions Footprint
Baseline emissions are a record of the greenhouse gases that have been produced in the past and were produced prior to the introduction of any strategies to reduce emissions. Baseline emissions are the reference point against which emissions reduction can be measured.

Emissions reduction targets
As part of our long term goals to achieve Net Zero, for the initial 5 years post baseline year we aim to reduce our carbon emissions per FTE by 18%.
 

3 years post baseline we have exceeded this target reducing our carbon emissions per FTE by 28%. Given the success of NCO Europe’s initiatives in reducing Carbon emissions more aggressive short term targets are being assessed in the ESG committee for 2026 onwards..

Carbon Reduction Projects

Completed Carbon Reduction Initiatives
The following environmental management measures and projects have been completed or implemented since the 2022 baseline.

Current Projects

-        Furthr partnership – With 2022 being our baseline year, we continue to utilise Furthr to communicate our ESG impact as a business and have employees engage via the Furthr app on how they can minimise their carbon footprint.

-        Facility amendments – NCO Europe have reconsidered how we deliver our services to clients and the flexibility we can provide employees in the workplace. This involved adapting to an ever-increasing demand for WFH. In doing so we have also adapted our office locations to more efficiently utilise the spaces we have, not just in respect of service but also to reduce our energy consumption and carbon impact.

On the back of this strategic review NCO Europe reduced the size of its on site facility by 62.5% delivering a significant reduction in our scope 2 emissions by approximately 40 tCO2e per annum.

-        Employee initiatives – NCO Europe openly encourages its staff to be mindful of the environment and how daily choices can have an impact. Recycling is promoted throughout the business and since 2021 the company have transitioned to be paperless. In respect of Scope 2 emissions, the Facilities and Housekeeping team are incentivised to actively reduce electricity consumption reducing our day to day consumption.

-        Hardware Recycling – NCO Europe have taken the steps to reduce our on premise server footprint to reduce the amount of carbon we produce. So far we have gone from 110 physical servers down to 2 generating a significant carbon footprint saving. To further support this initiative NCO has partnered with KOCycle.

We work with our partners to collect and recycle our surplus IT equipment, the approach is simple, KOCycle collect your equipment, calculate based on power consumption usage of the equipment collected calculate the total carbon footprint. They then plant the equivalent number of trees to remove this footprint from our environment.

-        Lettering and Communication Strategies – One of our main carbon emitting suppliers relates to the lettering generated for our correspondence requirements. NCO Europe are working with its clients to encourage wherever possible to switch to digital communications which have a significantly lower carbon footprint.

-        Server Reduction – NCO have identified a main consumer of scope 2 emissions relates to our servers. Throughout 2025 and early 2026 NCO Europe are looking to make alterations to its storage requirements allowing its server requirements to reduce by 66%.

-        Procurement considerations - NCO Europe already audits its key suppliers to ensure their policies and practices align with our ESG commitments, however NCO are committing to more comprehensive onboarding policies in regard to ESG commitments and furthermore developing processes with existing suppliers to measure, report and reduce Scope 3 emissions.

Declaration and Sign Off
This Carbon Reduction Plan has been completed in accordance with PPN 06/21 and associated guidance and reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans.

Emissions have been reported and recorded in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the GHG Reporting Protocol corporate standard[1] and uses the appropriate Government emission conversion factors for greenhouse gas company reporting[2].

Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions have been reported in accordance with SECR requirements, and the required subset of Scope 3 emissions have been reported in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard[3].

This Carbon Reduction Plan has been reviewed and signed off by the board of directors (or equivalent management body).

Signed on behalf of the Supplier:

Andrew Bretherton – Finance Director

Date: 28/01/2024