Celebrating recognition from the Carbon Trust: Cadent hits major milestone on path to net zero

• Cadent has achieved the Route to Net Zero Standard Taking Action certification by the Carbon Trust.
• UK’s largest gas network delivers an 11 per cent reduction in carbon emissions over the three-year period of assessment.
• 'Taking Action' is a public commitment to delivery of net zero ambitions.

Cadent, the UK’s largest gas distribution network, has achieved the Route to Net Zero Standard Taking Action certification by the Carbon Trust.

This entry to the pathway demonstrates that Cadent is starting its journey towards Net Zero.

This tier includes a reduction in operational emissions, a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, and foundational carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e) management practices.

To achieve science-based targets, the Route to Net Zero Standard will support Cadent in the development and evolution of action plans, helping to measure and manage emissions, inform carbon reduction strategies and align targets for the future.

The Carbon Trust’s Route to Net Zero Standard is the only certification that recognises an organisation’s progress on the journey to Net Zero and climate leadership.

Achieving this certification is no small undertaking and follows a rigorous assessment and audit process against defined criteria, with the Carbon Trust assessing Cadent as ‘working towards’ the first tier of certification recognised as ‘Taking Action’.

To meet the 'Taking Action’ tier of certification, Cadent demonstrated emissions reductions and sound carbon management, scoring a positive result on the carbon management part of the assessment, across the Governance, Implementation, Measurement and Stakeholder Engagement processes and activities.

Cadent also achieved an 11 per cent reduction in carbon emissions over the three-year period of assessment. This certification is a public commitment to the delivery of Cadent’s Net Zero ambitions – in addition to the audit itself – it also demonstrates a level of independent assurance of data standards, governance, policies, and targets.

Mark Belmega, Director of Social Purpose and Sustainability at Cadent, said: “It’s fantastic news that we are being recognised for this achievement following extensive engagement with our customers and expert stakeholders in this space. We are proud to reach this milestone, which holds us to account to the highest standards, as we develop a transparent and best practice climate plan to decarbonise our business.

“We know that accuracy and transparency in environmental performance reporting is incredibly important. We worked closely with the Carbon Trust to develop science-based targets for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions and will seek to have these targets externally validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) once the SBTi’s methodology for oil and gas companies has been developed.”

Cadent is already making significant progress in developing exciting new technology for leakage detection, such as mobile detection fleet including vehicles, robots, and drones. Other network measurement tools are also being tested to replace the historical method of calculation of leakage with an accurate, real-time measurement-based system.