ClimatePartner to accompany international recruitment expert Hays on its sustainability journey

The cooperation draws on ClimatePartner´s comprehensive expertise in supporting international service companies and auditing carbon emissions data

ClimatePartner is excited to announce its new partnership with Hays plc, helping to advise and support on their sustainability journey. Hays – the world’s largest specialist recruiter, with a presence in 33 countries – will become a carbon neutral company by the end of 2021 and is committed to becoming a Net Zero company as a second step. As part of its journey, Hays is calculating the carbon footprint of all 257 of its offices worldwide, including relevant scope 3 emissions.

ClimatePartner will audit Hays’ CO₂ emissions, encompassing its scope 1, scope 2, and relevant parts of scope 3 data – this includes energy usage at company facilities, business travel, employee commuting, external data centres and more. The resulting carbon footprint report will allow Hays to identify possible reduction or avoidance opportunities to be taken into consideration in addition to its existing strategies to reduce its emissions. Those emissions that cannot yet be reduced or avoided are offset through one of our certified carbon offset projects, an afforestation project in Guanare, Uruguay, where degraded grassland is transformed into healthy forest.

By becoming carbon neutral this year, Hays is taking a brilliant step on its sustainability journey and making significant progress on its route to Net Zero.

Hays has created an internal Global Net Zero Working Group, consisting of senior directors from each Hays region, tasked to permanently reduce the company’s GHG emissions. This Group has already identified numerous new policies, including:

• Sourcing office electricity from renewable sources. Many of Hays’ countries have moved to renewables, including their largest markets of Germany, UK & Ireland and Australia. Hays is committed to using only renewable electricity, where there is an available market solution, by 2022.
• Embedding video and virtual meetings in its workflows to materially – and permanently – reduce all forms of travel.
• Targeting a 40 % reduction in Group flights, versus pre-pandemic levels, by 2025. 
• Increasing the proportion of hybrid and electric vehicles in their fleet, and ensuring all new entry-level cars are not internal combustion engine vehicles.

Emilien Hoet, Head of ClimatePartner UK: „We are delighted to be supporting Hays on its sustainability journey and it is very exciting to see such dedication in taking bold climate action. We hope this announcement and the initiatives that underpin it will inspire others in the industry to do the same, following Hays’ market-leading example.”

David Phillips, Head of ESG at Hays: „We have had a tremendous response to our Net Zero commitment from our colleagues, clients and other stakeholders. We are determined to de-carbonise our operations and deliver sustainable long-term growth. We selected ClimatePartner based on their passion, deep environmental knowledge and our shared values and look forward to working together.”