Greener Society

Greener Society
Where we are driving the transition to net zero, whilst improving the natural world.

We are committed to supporting the Government’s climate change ambitions and pledge to achieve net zero before 2050.

Although we currently transport natural gas (a fossil fuel) into homes and businesses, we are taking a leading role in demonstrating how we can decarbonise our networks using hydrogen instead. Unlike natural gas, which emits greenhouse gases, including methane and carbon dioxide into the environment, hydrogen is a clean gas.

At the same time as we are working on hydrogen for the future, we’re also making environmental improvements today. A key outcome of COP26 was a clear commitment by over 100 nations, including the UK, to reduce methane emissions by over 30% by 2030.

We are committed to achieving this milestone sooner by upgrading our pipe network, helping to restore the UK’s natural peatland through employee volunteering, and finding ways to capture methane before it enters the Earth’s atmosphere.

Waste management is a key priority, and we are reducing all single use plastic and making it even easier for our employees and partners to recycle, cutting the percentage of operational waste that goes into landfill. We are passionate about reserving the natural environment, working towards the Wildlife Trust’s Biodiversity Benchmark by improving biodiversity at our own sites and working with local communities to support nature regeneration in areas impacted by our construction work.

Our Greener Society goals

By 2022	By 2026	By 2026
we will operate a fully electric company car scheme and a zero emissions first responder vehicle fleet	we will procure 100% certified renewable energy to meet our energy needs	we will minimise the use of first time aggregate and ensure that less than 5% of our waste from excavations is sent to landfill

By 2026	By 2030	By 2035
we will be accredited to The Wildlife Trust Biodiversity benchmark across all our key sites	we will reduce our methane emission rates by more than the UK’s 30% target	we will demonstrate hydrogen at scale through a range of initiatives

Environmental Action Plan

Environmental issues have risen in prominence in recent months and years, with high profile environmental protests; greater visibility of the human consequences of the climate crisis around the world; and a renewed national focus on the environment from the Government and political parties.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) recommended a target of “net zero” greenhouse gases by 2050, a target adopted by the UK Government. Protecting the environment has therefore become a higher priority across society, including amongst our customers and stakeholders.

The importance of the environment is reflected in our engagement with customers and stakeholders. The environment is typically described as a high priority and an important area for Cadent to focus on across engagement with all groups. Our understanding of other gas distribution network’s engagement with customers is that their customers and stakeholders say the same.

Our commitments for the next five years (2021 – 2026) are outlined in our Environmental Action Plan here. These include our ambition to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions and how we will work with our supply chain to improve indirect emissions.

In October 2022 we produced our first Annual Environmental Report here which details our progress against the commitments set in our Environmental Action Plan.

Accreditation to ISO14001

Over the past 22 years, we’ve dramatically reduced our impact on the environment, by managing our
waste and reducing greenhouse gas emissions – this is recognised by our Environmental Management
System certification ISO14001 standard which we’ve held for over 20 years.

What are we doing?

We’re involved in several hydrogen projects in partnerships with the energy sector.
The three main areas we lead on are blending, industrial power and decarbonising heavy transport.