Out of a personal passion for sustainability and a desire to improve staff engagement with environmental issues, I took on the responsibility of delivering DTAS’ environmental strategy in Autumn 2024.

In October 2024, I reviewed and updated the environmental strategy to ensure reflection of latest policy and legislative requirements; and expanded upon our key environmental action areas (detailed below).

Since then, we have made significant progress in our carbon reporting by establishing our baseline emissions for 2024, and have begun implementing a detailed environmental action plan for 2025 – 2030.

As an organisation, we are excited to make meaningful strides towards reducing our emissions and use this as an opportunity to improve our internal operations, whilst also focussing on creating an environmentally aware work culture in which staff are encouraged and supported to reduce the environmental impact of their work.

Background

In 2019, the Scottish Government pledged Scotland to reach Net Zero by 2045. This is a legally binding declaration that requires a rapid transformation across all sectors, and it is the responsibility of Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS) to help meet this target through emission reductions.

DTAS’ journey to Net Zero

Our own journey to net zero will be made up of understanding our organisational emissions which can be improved through policies and practices, our staff and their behaviour. We will then consider how DTAS can support our membership to move towards net zero, as we feel one of our biggest opportunities comes from our membership network and the work we and they can do to reach communities and take collective action in emission reduction.

Our Environmental Strategy has identified the following key action areas for us to reach net zero:

• Carbon reporting

DTAS commits to develop a full understanding of how to quantify and track our environmental impacts, as well as reviewing our targets and policy regularly to ensure we are on track.

• Procurement

DTAS commits to evaluating our procurement process and take forward suppliers that provide products and services which align with our environmental policy, particularly in relation to carbon emissions and minimising waste.

• Staff Behaviour Change

DTAS commits to raise awareness of environmental matters, implement policies and encourage staff to play an active part in addressing them.

• Membership Support

DTAS recognises many of our members have knowledge and experience of carbon saving measures and we commit to learn from these members and support other members with their net zero journey.

• DTAS Office

DTAS commits to improving the sustainability of the head office, including improving waste management and energy efficiency.

You can read our full DTAS Environmental Strategy here.

Our baseline emissions

Early this year, I calculated DTAS’ baseline emissions for the annual year of 2024, marking a significant step forward in our carbon reporting processes.

You can read more about our baseline emissions, net zero targets and plans to reduce our carbon footprint in our DTAS Carbon Reduction Plan 2025.

We plan to review the progress we have made annually to ensure we remain on track to achieve our net zero targets.

We love to collaborate and share learning. If your organisation is on a similar net zero path and would like to chat, please get in touch (annie@dtascot.org.uk).