Sustainability at NetWatch

NetWatch uses a 100% renewable electricity tariff. Home and hybrid working has been embraced by our staff and as such we are continuing to offer this to staff on an ongoing basis. We therefore expect to see our energy consumption continue fluctuating for at least six months as working life settles into a pattern again and we will be monitoring it closely. While hybrid working can be beneficial in reducing the emissions caused by commuting, it does pose a new problem in monitoring energy consumption.

While working away from the office, staff will be heating and lighting their homes and powering their work equipment and this can lead to a secret bubble of emissions arising from our work processes which must be taken into consideration. Accurately measuring and reporting this can be difficult and the most important vector for change in this regard relies on the co-operation and incentivisation of staff. To this end, we are looking to introduce incentives to encourage staff to use renewable energy sources at home, though this is currently on hold due to recent issues in the energy supplier market.

One of our landmark achievements in our sustainability journey came in 2019 with the introduction of our paperless system which has eliminated the majority of our paper usage. However, some of our processes still require paper copies to be sent and received due to the requirements of specific clients, which makes it difficult to completely remove paper from our processes. Nevertheless, we are committed to working with our clients and suppliers to further reduce our paper usage. Furthermore, our responsible purchasing guides for staff highlight the importance of only buying paper products from FSC sources and following best practices when printing necessary documents.