Through operational year-on-year growth, we anticipate our direct carbon emissions to grow proportionately in line with revenue and have therefore established a G4S average carbon intensity of 59.5 tonnes of CO2e per £1m of revenue at 2018 exchange rates.

GHG Emissions Chart

Alongside the risks faced by people and infrastructure from climate change are the challenges presented by global economic conditions.

Managing fuel costs and the impact of “carbon taxes” through programmes to improve the Group’s energy efficiency and reduce its environmental impacts are important to the continued effectiveness and sustainability of the Group’s business.

We follow WBCSD* and WRI** Greenhouse Gas Protocol to measure our Scope 1 and 2 emissions – vehicle fleet, fuel, refrigerants and electricity usage for G4S businesses over which the Group has financial and operational control. In addition the Group has measured Scope 3 emissions from employee business air travel.

The businesses that reported data in the 2018 GHG measurement represent 90% of the Group’s operations, across a 12 month period. This level of measurement, including each of the Group’s main service types, allows reliable calculation of the total GHG emissions for 100% of the Group.

The G4S total carbon footprint during 2018, extrapolated to 100% of the business equates to some 455,310 t/CO2e. These CO2e emissions, including emissions generated by services which our
customers have outsourced to G4S, have decreased by 3.5% since 2017 – against a 1.1% revenue growth in our underlying businesses during the same period, reflecting the efforts made to increase the energy efficiency of our business.

In 2019, we will continue to implement efficiency strategies with the aim of reducing carbon intensity by at least 3.5% per annum.

* World Business Council for Sustainable Development

** World Resources Institute