Environmental Impact and Sustainability
Report 2024

Our commitment to reducing our environmental impact and enhancing our sustainability practices

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Reducing our environmental impact

Our commitment to environmental sustainability is integral to our operations and is reflected in our policies, practices and strategic goals. Netcall is committed to reducing its environmental impact and enhancing its sustainability practices.

Netcall is a developer of software solutions that are predominantly deployed in cloud data centres.

Employees usually work from home, rather than commuting to office locations that are leased rather than owned by Netcall. The company provides flexible working hours – or working hours that promote a work-life balance, including telecommuting, flexible working hours and reduced or compressed work weeks. Netcall has a policy to support the skills training and development of employees.

This method of operating minimises Netcall’s impact on biodiversity and activities that impact on native ecosystems and species, as well as the biodiversity of protected and sensitive areas.

A strategy to reduce waste

Netcall supports Highland Carbon’s native woodland restoration project, just to the south of Loch Ness and near the Great Glen in Scotland project, adjacent to a Site of Special Scientific Interest within the boundary of Affric Highlands Conservation Strategy.

Climate change represents commercial risks and opportunities for Netcall. We have developed new products and services that overcome the threats of climate change to the existing business model of the company, moving from solutions requiring on-premise hardware to those that operate in low and zero emission cloud environments.

Netcall has supported our customers in their climate change requirements with innovative products and services that improve efficiency, reduce travel and directly reduce the carbon impact of printing and posting materials. Netcall provides products and services that have positive environmental effects and are marketed as solving environment problems.

Netcall’s business strategy inherently reduces e-waste generated in operations. All electronic waste is disposed of by use of WEEE compliant contractors and is not a material element of emissions. General commercial waste is generated at our office sites with the supplier constantly looking to provide innovative and sustainable solutions to sort, treat and recycle all classifications of waste.

An Environmental Management System has been implemented at Netcall but not externally certified to ISO 14000. Netcall is audited and certified compliant with the ISO 9001 Quality Management standard with Environmental Management in scope.

Direct environmental investment & expenditures included £2,800 for Pending Issuance Units at the Loch Ness woodland restoration project.

Netcall is a “Company taking action” with the Science Based Targets Initiative, achieving a Near Term target consistent with the Paris Agreement to restrict global average surface warming below 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures. Netcall commits to reduce scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions 42% by 2030 from a 2020 base year, and to measure and reduce its scope 3 emissions.

Waste & emissions

1.

We follow the greenhouse gas (GHG) protocol for all our emissions classifications by type.

2.

No hazardous waste was produced. Total amount of non-hazardous waste produced was 3.0 tonnes.

3.

Due to the nature of Netcall’s activities, we do not report on initiatives to reduce, reuse, recycle, substitute or phase out SOx (sulfur oxides) or NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions. There were no NOx nor ozone-depleting (CFC equivalent) emissions.

4.

There are no relevant initiatives related to volatile organic compounds (VOC) or particulate matter less than ten microns in diameter (PM10) emissions.

5.

Netcall does not participate in emissions trading schemes that are not relevant for our software and services operations. There is no direct flaring or venting of natural gas emissions.

6.

Netcall is not involved in animal testing, either directly or indirectly. No material use is made of chemicals, toxic materials, hazardous, PBT (persistent bio-accumulative toxic) and PVC (polyvinyl chloride).

7.

Netcall has an Environmental Management Team performing functions dedicated to environmental issues. Members of the team include employees of the company, who are operational on a day-to-day basis and are not board committee (directors). All staff are required to confirm adherence with the Environmental, Social and Governance Policy.

8.

Netcall encourages its staff to carpool, use telephone, video and web conferencing, public transport, thereby reducing environmental impact.

9.

Environmental factors are considered in the selection and management of suppliers. Relevant performance, such as data centre emissions, are monitored.

10.

Netcall purchases renewable energy for internal use at the Bedford office. This equates to 86% of total electricity purchased.

11.

The company policy to migrate internal IT services to cloud solutions will improve energy use in operations.

Environmental policy & commitment

Netcall is committed to reducing its environmental impact and continually enhancing its environmental management systems.

Our goal remains to achieve carbon neutrality by the end of 2026.

Netcall’s long-term growth is underpinned by a set of value-based operating principles. These have regularly been reviewed and adapted as Netcall has developed. They centre on customer focus, innovation, integrity, quality and teamwork.

The culture of Netcall is characterised by these values. They are communicated widely including within the competency framework, which sets out how we want our colleagues to work within Netcall, and promoted throughout the organisation by managers in their daily work.

We consider our impact on living and non-living natural systems, including the air, land and water, as well as complete ecosystems. We use best management practices to avoid environmental risks and capitalise on environmental opportunities in order to generate long term value.

Netcall customers benefit from solutions:

  • that reduce resource requirements and associated office and transportation costs, such as home working contact centre agents;
  • such as Patient Hub that reduce carbon emissions with electronic communications, replacing printed and posted materials to directly improve NHS Trust emissions and help them meet their net zero promises;
  • using technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and Computer Vision to improve efficiency and lower the carbon intensity of operations; and
  • that are cloud-based, leveraging large-scale efficiency innovations.

Emissions reporting

Scope 1 Emissions (Direct):

  • FY2024: 32.5 tCO2e, consistent with FY2023. Scope 1 emissions result from gas consumption used for heating office buildings.
  • Historical Context: This figure remains unchanged from FY2023 but reflects ongoing efforts to maintain stability in our direct emissions.

Scope 2 Emissions (Indirect):

  • FY2024: 1.8 tCO2e, a reduction of 0.2 tCO2e compared to FY2023. Scope 2 emissions are related to the electricity purchased for our operations.
  • Historical Context: This consistent figure reflects our continued use of 100% renewable electricity in our Bedford office and the relatively low CO2 emissions from the generation of electricity used in our Poole office.

Total Scope 1 and 2 Emissions:

  • FY2024 Total: 34.3 tCO2e, a reduction of 0.5% from 2023 (FY23: 34.5 tCO2e). This is a 48.4% reduction compared to our 2020 baseline of 66.6 tCO2e.

Scope 3 Emissions:

  • Business Travel and Accommodation: For FY2024, emissions from business travel and accommodation increased by 4.9% to 82.4 tCO2e (FY23: 78.5 tCO2e) as employee numbers increased.
  • Employee Commuting: Responsible for 12.0 tCO2e, unchanged from the previous year.
  • Voluntary Reporting: We continue to report these Scope 3 emissions voluntarily to maintain transparency and accountability.
sustainability

Carbon offsetting initiatives

Direct environmental investment & expenditures included £2,800 for Pending Issuance Units at the Loch Ness woodland restoration project.

We have purchased 125 PIUs from the Highland Carbon Corriegarth Scheme at Loch Ness, representing 125 tonnes of carbon dioxide which are expected to be sequestered in the period 2037- 2047.

This represents an expected sequestration of carbon dioxide that, if verified and converted to Woodland Carbon units, will have a positive impact on our climate. Woodland Carbon Units are monitored and verified to the Woodland Carbon Code.

Corriegarth Project at Loch Ness:

Assignment Dates: 23 January 2024 and 28 April 2023

Vintage: 2037 – 2047

Project: Creation of new native woodlands over 63 hectares in Inverness-shire

Credits Purchased: 157 tCO2e

Serial Numbers:

  • 23 January 2024: WCC-WCU-GB-104000000027968-01052037-30042047-8911433-8911557-MER-0-P
  • 28 April 2023: WCC-WCU-GB-104000000027968-01052037-30042047-8907424-8907455-MER-0-P

Energy & waste management

Renewable Energy:

We continue to purchase 100% renewable electricity for our Bedford office, contributing to our stable Scope 2 emissions.

Waste Management:

Non-hazardous general commercial waste is generated at our office sites and allocated to Netcall as a proportion of building occupation. This was 3.0 tonnes in 2024.

Environmental targets & intensity ratio

Carbon Neutrality Target:

Netcall remains committed to achieving carbon neutrality by the end of 2026.

Intensity Ratio:

For FY2024, our carbon intensity ratio improved to 0.88 tCO2e per £ million revenue, an 8% improvement on the previous year’s 0.96 tCO2e per £ million revenue. This improvement is due to a small
reduction in emissions with an increase in revenue, reflecting our
successful growth strategies.

Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) commitment

  • Commitment: Netcall has taken a significant
    step forward in its sustainability journey by
    committing to the Science Based Targets initiative
    (SBTi), a globally recognised framework that helps
    companies align their climate targets with the
    latest climate science.
  • Clear and measurable: This initiative is
    particularly relevant as it provides a clear and
    measurable pathway for reducing greenhouse gas
    (GHG) emissions in line with the goals of the Paris
    Agreement.

Key aspects of Netcall’s SBTi commitment

  • Scope 1 and Scope 2 Targets: Netcall has committed to reducing its Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions by 42% by 2030, using 2020 as the base year. This target reflects a significant reduction in direct emissions from company-owned and controlled resources (Scope 1) and indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity (Scope 2).
  • Scope 3 Targets: In addition to reducing its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, Netcall is also committed to measuring and reducing its Scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 emissions include all other indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain, such as those from purchased goods and services, business travel, employee commuting and waste disposal.

This commitment to Scope 3 emissions highlights Netcall’s holistic approach to sustainability, recognising the importance of addressing emissions across its entire value chain.

By focusing on both direct and indirect emissions, Netcall is ensuring it contributes to
global climate action in a comprehensive and impactful way.

By 2030, Netcall aims to significantly lower its carbon footprint through a combination of energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy procurement and innovative operational practices.

Netcall’s SBTi commitment is listed on the official Science Based Targets initiative website.

Ecovadis medal

Ecovadis provides supply chain risk management solutions. They have awarded Netcall a bronze medal in recognition of the Group’s sustainability achievements.

This reflects the quality of Netcall’s sustainability management system. It means that Netcall is in the top 35% of all companies that have been assessed by EcoVardis in all industries in the world.

Demonstrating environmental and social value

Netcall’s solutions are not just about driving business efficiency; they also deliver significant environmental and social value. Some recent customer success stories which follow highlight the impact of Netcall’s offerings.

Project overview:

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust partnered with Netcall to implement Patient Hub, a pivotal component of their digital transformation journey aimed at enhancing patient experience, operational efficiency and environmental sustainability. By moving from paper-based communication to a digital-first approach, the Trust has significantly streamlined operations and reduced its carbon emissions.

Environmental and operational benefits:

  • Carbon footprint reduction: The Trust achieved an 88% reduction in manual processing, significantly cutting down on carbon emissions
  • Enhanced patient experience: Netcall’s Patient Hub enables patients to manage appointments and communications through a single, user-friendly platform, resulting in a more streamlined and accessible patient experience. Integration with the NHS App provides a single point of entry for services, resulting in a more consistent and empowered patient experience, with shorter waiting times and a more responsive healthcare system
  • Operational efficiency: Transitioning to digital communication improved clinic utilisation rates, 39% reduction in missed appointments (DNAs) and enhanced administrative processes, contributing to overall operational efficiency. Back-office non-cash and productivity savings expected > £2million.

“It was a partnership that we worked with Netcall. They were on every call with us, they were at the Board with us, they’ve done everything on the NHS App with us. They really helped us deploy at scale so we’re up to about 92% of services now.”

Rob Child

Programme Manager (Outpatient CSU), Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Project overview:

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust faced the challenge of managing 8,000 letter templates used for patient communications. This complex and environmentally unsustainable process was streamlined by Netcall, which reduced the number of templates to just three and digitised patient communications.

Environmental and operational benefits:

  • Template reduction: Reducing 8,000 letter templates to just three simplified the communication process and significantly reduced the environmental impact of paper use
  • Operational efficiency: The move to digital communications improved operational efficiency, saving time and resources previously spent on managing complex templates
  • Environmental impact: The switch to digital communications helped the Trust meet its sustainability goals by reducing paper consumption, transportation emissions and the carbon footprint associated with patient communications.
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

“We are already seeing the positive impact of this work for our patients, and the time staff previously spent on sending out appointment letters is being used to better support patients and make the most of every available appointment.”

Alex Whitfield

Chief Executive, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Project overview:

St. Helens Borough Council implemented Liberty Robotic Process Automation (RPA) through Netcall to streamline operations, reduce staff workload and enhance service delivery. Liberty RPA automates repetitive tasks, freeing up employees to focus on more complex and value-added activities. An innovative use case is with Children’s Services Case Notes, that allows Social Workers to send information immediately after a visit from their phone in their car. A vital benefit is that the record is updated in near real-time, which could enable better decisions concerning a child’s wellbeing.

The Social Care Team appreciate the extra capacity and faster updates from the use of the RPA bots suggesting further uses and improvements. An Ofsted inspection, soon after Fast Case Notes was introduced, was also extremely complimentary about this updating process.

Environmental and operational benefits:

  • Workload reduction: The RPA solution eased the administrative burden on staff by automating routine tasks, leading to faster service delivery and reduced operational bottlenecks
  • Resource efficiency: Automating processes allowed the council to reduce resource consumption, such as paper and energy, contributing to its environmental sustainability goals
  • Improved service delivery: Automation resulted in quicker processing times, enhancing the council’s ability to serve its community more efficiently.

“We’ve already used the RPA bots for completely different use cases; in social care we found an aspirational improvement in using the bots in an unexpected way to support our social workers; with rent increases, it was a classic use of RPA to automate data updates. It saved an awful lot of time and money. But, equally importantly, the bot made thousands of updates that a person would have had to sit and manually process. It was quicker and more accurate with the bot and the Revenues & Benefits Team were freed from a mundane task.”

Michael Roberts

Systems Support Manager – ICT and Digital Delivery, St Helen’s Borough Council

Project overview:

Scottish Forestry used Liberty Create to digitise the Forestry Grant Scheme (FGS) that offers financial support for the creation of new woodland and the sustainable management of existing woodland, enabling more customised and efficient handling of forestry management tasks. This digital transformation was part of a broader strategy to enhance operational efficiency, reduce the environmental impact and improve the experience compared with paper-based processes.

Environmental and operational benefits:

  • Digitised case management: Liberty Create enabled Scottish Forestry to transition from paper-based to digital case management, significantly reducing paper consumption and improving efficiency
  • Customised solutions: Liberty Create was tailored to meet Scottish Forestry’s specific needs, ensuring the solution was both effective and sustainable
  • Environmental impact: Reducing reliance on paper and improving process efficiency allowed Scottish Forestry to decrease its environmental footprint, aligning with its sustainability goals.

“Digitising and moving towards paperless systems is not about removing people from the equation. It’s actually freeing our people up, so that they can deal with enquiries really well, helping applicants through the process, rather than having hundreds of enquiries to deal with as fast as possible.”

Kyle Usher

Head of Innovation, Scottish Forestry

Project overview:

UK Power Networks serve 19 million people across 8.3 million homes and businesses and they must continue to meet growing demand inline with their business priorities to:

  • Tackle the climate crisis by connecting renewable energy, electric car chargers and low carbon heating
  • Meet customers evolving needs by improving services and go above and beyond for the communities served
  • Support customers in vulnerable circumstances.

UK Power Networks utilised the power of Liberty Create to quickly deliver many successful automated projects and revolutionised many services for customers. They then extended the use of Liberty platform, Netcall’s AI-powered automation and customer engagement platform, across the wider business to support new projects.

This includes a Priority Services Register, which helps vulnerable customers during a power cut. And two-way payments, to seamlessly receive and make payments to customers.

Smart Connect supports installers and customers in applying to connect one/multiple new low carbon technologies.

It supplies automated assessments to reduce processing times, issuing instant approvals when all criteria are met and sending automatic referrals to teams when required, with tracking and reporting capability.

Environmental and operational benefits:

  • Routine tasks are reduced – staff are free to focus on providing better customer experience
  • Manually completing an application for a customer took 12 minutes – the process was completely automated by Create, saving 12 minutes per application, saving 8,000 hours of manual data entry
  • Surveys, which took a member of staff 12-15 minutes to raise and book, have been reduced to 30 seconds due to the automated processes. Now all staff have to do is find a convenient slot on the planning board and Create takes care of the rest
  • The system populates information – so there is less repetitive manual work, beneficial for training, retention of staff and for business continuity
  • Processing applications is quicker, easier and with fewer errors and the customer journey is altogether smoother and slicker.
UK Power Networks

“We were able to fully adopt an agile methodology, release a minimum viable product, and then continually improve that to stem up from a viable product to a market-leading low carbon technology application system. We are processing more applications for low carbon technologies than other Distribution Network Operators and we’re doing it with the highest customer satisfaction scores from Ofgem.”

Ben Elmy

Product Manager for Domestic Low Carbon Readiness, UK Power Networks

Growing responsibly

As Netcall continues its upward trajectory in terms of revenue and staff numbers, the company remains committed to ensuring its carbon intensity does not grow at the same pace.

Key to this commitment is the strategic use of AWS’s renewable energy-powered cloud services. Amazon’s data centers are designed for energy efficiency and sustainability, with a focus on reducing carbon emissions through the use of renewable energy and innovative cooling technologies.

Benefits of AWS Cloud Computing:

  • Higher Energy Efficiency: AWS data centres are optimised for energy efficiency, using innovations like custom cooling systems and advanced power management to reduce energy consumption
  • 100% Renewable Energy in Europe: AWS has committed to powering its European data centers with 100% renewable energy, contributing to significant reductions in carbon emissions for companies like Netcall that host their solutions in the cloud
  • Reduced Environmental Impact: Cloud computing offers environmental benefits by consolidating workloads in highly efficient data centers, reducing the need for individual companies to operate less efficient, onpremises data centers.

This report for 2024 reflects Netcall’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, showcasing the company’s efforts to align with global environmental standards and its strategic focus on reducing carbon emissions while growing responsibly.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Baseline: Financial year ending 30th June 2020

Additional details relating to the baseline emissions calculations: No prior Scope 3 emissions reporting.

Baseline year emissions:

Financial year ending 30th June 2024

Additional details relating to the baseline emissions calculations: No prior Scope 3 emissions reporting.

2024 financial year emissions:

The carbon emissions reduction achieved by these schemes equates to 32.3 tCO2e, a 48% reduction against the 2020 baseline.

Future goals and outlook

Scope 3 Emissions Reduction: We remain focused on measuring and reducing our Scope 3 emissions. Our efforts include improving data tracking, enhancing energy efficiency and collaborating with suppliers and partners to minimise emissions throughout our value chain.

Continued Improvement: Netcall will persist in leveraging our technology and solutions to support our sustainability goals and help our clients achieve their environmental objectives.

Operations

Products & services

Customers & partners

Employees

We will take responsibility for our carbon, water, waste and land footprints across the way our products and facilities are sourced, manufactured, operated and managed at end-of-life. This includes our supply chain.

We will develop new technology and services driven by data, AI and digital technology to power environmental sustainability.

We will help our customers and partners around the world reduce their carbon, water, waste and land footprints through our learnings, technology and services. We will work with partners to explore greenhouse gases reporting using Netcall solutions.

We recognise that our employees are the most important asset and resource in advancing innovation and will create new opportunities for them to contribute to our efforts.

Netcall logo - white

“Netcall is committed to being a responsible corporate citizen, not only through its operational practices but also by delivering environmental benefits and enhanced experiences to its customers. We continue to strive to exceed the regulatory requirements that apply to us, showing our dedication to fostering sustainability and minimising the company’s environmental footprint.”

James Ormondroyd

CEO, Netcall

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Supporting our customers with sustainability

Taking the lead in sustainability, many large organisations are already actively looking for ways to face the challenge of climate change head on. Netcall’s customers, like them, are seeking new and innovative approaches to save energy and pivot to more climate-friendly ways of working.

Supporting our customers 023 Report

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