2024 Sees Over 30% Carbon Reduction

In 2024, Powerday achieved a 5.8% reduction in carbon emissions, bringing our total Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction to 30.5% since our baseline year.

Since 2021, we’ve steadily reduced our carbon footprint by transitioning to renewable electricity tariffs as legacy contracts expired and by introducing electric vehicles to our fleet. We knew that 2024 would present greater challenges, so we set an ambitious target of a 4% reduction, as outlined in our latest Manifesto.

We’re proud to have exceeded this target, achieving a 5.8% reduction primarily through the transition of 27 waste vehicles to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and the installation of a HVO tank at Old Oak Sidings. Looking ahead, we will continue rolling out HVO across our fleet in 2025 while actively exploring long-term solutions to fully decarbonise our operations.

In 2024, we also switched our Bermondsey site to a renewable electricity tariff (using a market-based approach) meaning that seven out of eight of our sites are now running on 100% renewable electricity.  The solar panels installed at Old Oak Sidings in 2023 were fully operational from February 2024 and generating just over 12% of electricity requirements of the entire site, a figure which is expected to increase in 2025 with the installation of battery storage.  We installed LED lighting at Bermondsey and in the car park at Heathrow, with an expected 75% reduction in energy consumption when compared with traditional lighting.  

Liam Kearney, Joint Managing Director, Powerday says: “We continue to make good progress towards net zero for Scopes 1 and 2 and are pleased to have exceeded our 2024 carbon reduction target.  We remain on track for our next target of 35% reduction by 2026 compared to 2021 levels”.

We announced our target to reach net zero for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2040 (against a 2021 baseline) in early 2023.  We set our first interim target of a 20% reduction by the end of 2023 which we exceeded with a total of a 24.7% reduction which we reported last summer.  We are now working towards our next interim targets of a 35% reduction by 2026 followed by a 50% reduction by 2030.  As a fast growing company combining organic growth and acquisition, we were required to rebaseline in early 2024 following the purchase of Bermondsey-based skip-hire business Economic Skips.

We know that Scope 1 and 2 emissions account for a fraction of our total carbon footprint and recognise the need to tackle our wider emissions.  We have been working during 2024 to build our understanding of our Scope 3 emissions and aim to set a target for these in 2025/26.

To learn more about our approach and insights into our sustainability journey, read this Q&A with John O’Dwyer, Associate Director of Environmental Sustainability at Powerday, featured in Sustainable Business Magazine.