The story

Simply Sustainable believe that the call to action is clear, businesses have the largest part to play to achieve net-zero. Setting carbon reduction targets that are science-based demonstrate that a company is doing their fair share to achieve the ambitions of the UN Paris Agreement and limit the impacts of climate change to well below 2°C warming, whilst pursuing efforts to limit to 1.5°C.

In 2021, two years after the relationship commenced, Simply Sustainable supported The Gym Group with a materiality assessment to ensure they have a focused approach on the issues that count to their stakeholders and the business. Our support covered a transformative suite of services which included carbon footprinting, an approved submission to the Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi), and Carbon Neutral Certification. After working closely with The Gym Group to set the organisational boundary of Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, specialist guidance and recommendations were developed which set out requirements that The Gym Group must follow to report all material emissions in alignment with the science-based targets 1.5°C emissions scenario.

Our work also led to the successful SBTi submission and publicly disclosed commitment which clearly communicates to stakeholders The Gym Group’s greenhouse gas reduction programme in support of a net-zero economy. This translates vision into action and is consistent with achieving a net-zero economy by aligning targets to the latest climate science necessary to meet the goals of the UN Paris Agreement. We were particularly pleased to be a key advisor in The Gym Group’s attainment of becoming the UK’s first carbon neutral gym chain. We supported The Gym Group to calculate, account for, and verify the business’s carbon emissions to ensure responsibility for residual emissions. The Gym Group then selected socially-purposeful carbon reduction programmes, for example offsetting projects in Ghana. The gold and verified standard programmes work closely with local farmers to provide efficiency and mitigation benefits that contribute to the just transition.