This page publishes Hawthorne's Carbon Reduction Plan, version 1.0, approved on 17 August 2026 by Andrew Threadgold, Co-Owner and Director, and owned by our Managing Director. It is a proportionate plan for a small field service business: measure honestly, reduce what we actually control, and report annually. You can also download the signed plan as a PDF.
Our commitment
Hawthorne supports the UK's target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Our commitment is practical: we will measure our emissions from the records we already hold, publish a baseline, reduce the impacts we control, and report progress annually. We will not publish figures we cannot evidence.
Our footprint
We are a nine-person security and fire systems company operating from a single unit at Alston Road, Hellesdon Business Park, Norwich, delivering installation and maintenance across East Anglia. Our material emissions are:
- Scope 1: fuel used by our vans. This is the dominant source for a field service business.
- Scope 2: electricity at our premises.
- Scope 3 (material categories only): purchased equipment and its packaging, waste, and supplier deliveries. As a small business we note these and manage them through the initiatives below rather than attempting full Scope 3 accounting.
Baseline
Baseline year: financial year 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026. Method: DEFRA greenhouse gas conversion factors applied to metered and invoiced consumption once litres and kWh are captured; until then the baseline is stated in spend, taken directly from our accounts.
Baseline as recorded: vehicle fuel £14,544.37 (prior year £15,629.27); premises electricity £5,845.05 (prior year £5,364.73); premises gas £1,185.83; water £1,108.40. Fleet at baseline: six vans, one fully electric, five diesel of which two are Euro 6.
Commitment: litres of fuel (from fuel card statements) and kWh of electricity (from bills) will be captured for the baseline year, and emissions in tonnes of CO2e calculated and restated in this plan by 31 October 2026.
Reduction initiatives
In place now
- Route and schedule planning that clusters jobs geographically, so visits share journeys rather than generating dedicated round trips.
- Van stock management aimed at first-time fixes, avoiding repeat journeys for parts.
- Digital job management end to end (quotes, job sheets, service records, invoicing), keeping contract administration effectively paperless.
- Policy from approval of this plan: every failed or removed item of electronic equipment is disposed of through a licensed WEEE-compliant route with waste transfer notes retained, batteries are segregated, and no electronic waste goes to landfill.
- Premises: no efficiency measures are claimed at our unit today. Electricity use is in the baseline and will be reviewed with the landlord once kWh data is held.
Planned
- Replace each van with an electric or hybrid vehicle as it reaches the end of its cycle. One of six vans is already fully electric.
- Track mileage and fuel per job once the baseline is set, and use it as the working efficiency measure.
- Ask key distributors for reduced and take-back packaging options.
- Prefer lower-power, longer-life equipment when specifying replacements for clients, and provide condition-based lifespan reporting so clients replace assets at end of life rather than early.
Targets and reporting
- Publish the measured baseline, restated in tonnes of CO2e, by 31 October 2026.
- Set a numeric reduction target against the baseline within 12 months of publishing it, using an intensity measure of fuel per completed job. We do not commit to a percentage blind.
- Review and report annually each August, owned by the Managing Director. Progress and data are available to clients on request.
Offsetting
We do not currently offset our emissions. Offsetting an unmeasured footprint proves nothing, and for a business of our size the same money spent on an electric van reduces emissions we can see. Once the baseline is measured we will review offsetting of residual emissions annually alongside this plan.
Document control
Version 1.0, dated 17 August 2026. Owner: Managing Director. Review due August 2027, then annually. Approved by Andrew Threadgold, Co-Owner and Director. Hawthorne is certified to ISO 14001:2015 (ITCC, certificate 4155420). Questions about this plan can be sent to our contact page.