Horizon has today launched its first Environmental, Social and Governance ESG Report measuring all the company’s impacts during the 2022 calendar year. You can read the full report here.
This has required the business to measure all its carbon emissions, gas usage, miles travelled, electricity, waste and water usage and then take account for various energy saving measures – heat exchanges, use of boreholes, solar panels, etc – to come up with an accurate measurement of our carbon footprint. The company has also measured its social impact and audited its governance.
Horizon is the first crematorium operator in the UK to undertake such an audit and the findings of that report will form a benchmark against which we can improve in the coming years.
Some of the key findings for 2022 are:
- Each cremation generated an average of 0.14 tonnes of CO2(e) compared to an industry average of 0.19 tonnes.
- Our sites generated 9,134kWh of renewable electricity.
- We planted over 1,500 trees.
- We had zero environmental incidents or accidents.
- 54% of Horizon’s operational full-time staff were women.
- £56,388 was donated to 11 charities.
Director, Stephen Byfield said, “This has been a significant undertaking that has proved the old adage that if you don’t measure it, you can’t change it. We will keep measuring our impact and hopefully be able to make some meaningful changes to further reduce our emissions from levels that we believe are already best in class”.
Horizon will now explore how it can further reduce its emissions: examine which are the greenest cremator technologies, develop greener memorialisation options for the bereaved, look at minimising plastic waste from floral tributes and examine greener construction techniques.
