4. Where are we now?

Our Baseline 

Calculating our organisational carbon footprint and understanding the key emissions hotspots is the first stage in reducing our impact on the environment.  We have worked with the Carbon Trust to calculate our carbon footprint for the financial year 2019-20 using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol methodology.

* Per the Carbon Reporting requirements, this does not include expenditure related to investments in partners.

• 2019-20 has been used as a baseline year to understand the Sport Wales carbon footprint in the pre pandemic period.
• Purchased goods and services (included within Scope 3 emissions) are the highest contributor to our carbon footprint – 1,172 tCo2e and 43% of our emissions.  This is typical across all types of organisation.
• Fuel for our buildings (electricity, gas and oil) is included within Scope 1, 2 and 3  contributing 40% of our carbon emissions.
• Employee commuting (included within Scope 3 emissions) amounted to 358 tCO2e and represents 13% of our carbon emissions.  Commuting reduced during the pandemic but will be partially offset by a new requirement to include the carbon impact of home working.
• Since the baseline period, Sport Wales has worked with the Carbon Trust to improve data collection processes, ensuring that our reported emissions are more accurately represented.
• Other changes since 2019-20 include improvements to our energy use driven by green energy works at Plas Menai.

The Future - Business as usual

We have worked with the Carbon Trust to understand the scale of the challenge in future years. The chart below maps the trajectory of Sport Wales’s carbon emissions.  This factors in decisions taken since the baseline, such as the installation of the ground source heat pump, and a reduction in staff commuting due to working from home.

Significant reductions in carbon emissions are required to deliver the net zero ambition by 2030.  This level of reduction will require changes to our ways of working and transformational change in some areas of our activity.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variety of life found on earth and includes all species of plants and animals.  Resilient ecosystems depend on biodiversity and underpin economic, social, cultural and environmental wellbeing.

A Resilient Wales

The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act defines the goal for Wales to become: “a nation which maintains and enhances a biodiverse natural environment with healthy functioning ecosystems that support social, economic and ecological resilience and the capacity to adapt to change.”

As noted above, Sport Wales has embedded key projects to maintain or enhance biodiversity into activities at our sites. 

Of particular significance are projects to establish wildflower areas across our sites to encourage bees and butterflies, the installation of bird boxes to attract native species and the maintenance of trees in accordance with the Tree Protection Orders in place.