Our Carbon Neutral Commitment

As part of our wider, ongoing commitment to our local community and to corporate sustainability, Steven Smith are this year excited to be launching our ‘Carbon Neutral Commitment’ to being a carbon-neutral Estate Agent.

We were challenged by the conversations taking place at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, more commonly referred to as COP26, and in particular, a quote from the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson where he says, “let’s make this decade a moment of decisive change in the fight against climate change.”

Given the diversity of our office setup and the often remote nature of our work, working out what we as local estate agents need to do in order to be a carbon-neutral company isn’t a simple process but we believe that by pledging to look at doing the following we are doing the best that we can to ensure a ‘green’ future for our planet.

• Analysing our energy usage and carbon output in our office and offsetting any excess by funding tree planting and carbon offsetting projects.
• Calculating our annual mileage (including viewings and staff travel to and from work) and looking into ways of minimising this.
• Encouraging all our staff to walk, cycle and use public transport to our offices where at all possible.
• Swapping our utility providers to a green-only energy supplier in all our offices as soon as our existing contract allows.
• Only using recycled and recyclable office supplies and sundries.
• Reviewing our courier usage and using local suppliers and locally based businesses where possible.
• And by including everything else… like where does our tea and coffee come from, adopting a fix and repair ethos instead of always buying new, minimising travel and conducting online viewings, encouraging recycling in the office and cutting out excess plastic and other non-recyclable or reusable materials.
  
  

What progress have we made so far?

What we are working towards is an ongoing commitment, both as a responsible local business, but also as leaders in our communities to ensure a green future for the next generation and beyond. So far we have achieved the following:

• We have opted to source all our ‘for sale’ boards from a carbon-negative supplier, Kremer Sings, additionally, all the sale boards are produced using carbon-neutral methods and recycled materials which can be recycled into new sale boards when at the end of their usable life.
• So as to minimise travel we are actively encouraging online viewings and valuations as well as phone consultations.
• We are working with property developers and landlords to investigate ways to make future new build developments ‘green’ and more environmentally friendly both in their construction processes and for their long-term environment environmental impact.

Plant a Tree for Every Completed Property Sale

Steven Smith have also pledged to plant a tree for every house sale completed and have chosen Ecologi as our commercial tree planting partner.

Ecologi are a Bristol-based business and among the largest commercial tree planting organisations in the UK, with over 48.2 million trees planted so far, the equivalent of 2.2 million tonnes of carbon reduced each, and every year.

Steven Smith Managing Director, Chris Marney says, “we’re absolutely delighted to be able to reach this milestone. Both for the future health of our planet, our home, but also for Steven Smith now that we are in a position to be able to make this pledge and make this commitment for future generations. It’s an exciting step and we look forward to being able to plant, many, many trees in the future.”

From our Clevedon-based office, and through Ecologi and tree planting alone, we hope to offset over 20 tonnes of carbon in our first year with this figure increasing as our business continues to grow.

Managing Our Carbon Footprint

Measured in kgCO₂e, our annually reported carbon output for 2021 was 13.64 tonnes.

This has been verified by the Carbon Trust and is based on our electricity and gas usage within our offices, our mileage for all office-related business including attending viewings, valuations and other related meetings including attending events etc. It also allows for carbon generated by couriers, people acting on our behalf and associated travel. It also includes staff travel to the office, however, in this instance an overestimation has been made.

With our hopes to offset over 20 tonnes of carbon in our first year in place we should be carbon neutral within nine months, and then carbon negative from then on, both annually and every year.

We will continue to update this page and our social media channels with our progress.

Last updated 13/1/2023.