The 2023 Carbon Footprint Report is NRC's third annual report. It is critical to measuring, understanding, and monitoring our carbon footprint, to inform efforts to reduce our contribution to global climate change. This report offers an exhaustive breakdown of NRC's greenhouse gas emissions and a comprehensive comparison of performance against 2022 and our 2019 baseline report.
To ensure an accurate assessment of our carbon footprint, we diligently collected data from our operations globally. Emissions were calculated across 13 categories, as defined by the GHG Protocol, encompassing all aspects of NRC's activities, from fuels used for generators and our fleet, to business travel and procured goods.
The main findings of the 2023 report are as follows:
- NRC’s total carbon footprint for 2023 is 134 kilo tonnes of CO2e (compared to 147kt CO2e in 2022).
- We are becoming a more carbon-efficient organisation. Emissions per full time equivalent (FTE) staff member have decreased by 9.4 per cent since 2019, indicating that we are more carbon efficient and on track to meet our 2030 target of reducing carbon emissions by 20 per cent per staff member (FTE).
- Carbon emissions have increased 17.4 per cent since our 2019 baseline which reflects growth in the size of the organisation in that time. NRC is responding to humanitarian crises in more countries and on a larger scale.
- We are seeing positive trends downwards in the key areas such as business travel, which has decreased 14 per cent per staff member (FTE) since 2019.
- The biggest contributors to our emissions are our programme activities: construction materials, financial assistance, and food distribution, which makes up 73 per cent of our emissions in 2023.
As the majority of our emissions come directly from programme activities, it is important to recognise that our reduction efforts will require careful planning to avoid disadvantaging the people we serve. NRC seeks to incorporate environmental awareness and stewardship into all aspects of our work without changing our mandate or the communities we serve.
In 2024 we are focusing on two main areas:
- Working with country offices with the highest emissions to design, implement, and monitor tailored reduction strategies.
- Targeting particularly large emissions related to our operations by transitioning to renewable energy sources and reducing flights.
By implementing reduction strategies in these key areas and closely monitoring our progress, we can best assess our effectiveness in meeting our emission reduction targets.
