At SocialOptic, we are committed to mitigating our environmental impact and contributing to the global effort to combat climate change and committed to achieving Net Zero by, or ahead of, the 2050 target of the UK Government and industry standard Carbon Reduction Plans, with key milestones on the journey to that target.
As a Software as a Service (SaaS) business operating without offices, our carbon footprint arises principally from two sources: the energy used by our home-based team, and the data centre power consumption behind our cloud platform. In alignment with our dedication to sustainability, we are undertaking the following initiatives as part of our commitment to achieving Net Zero:
Transition to Renewable Energy:
By 2025 100% of the data centre power behind the SurveyOptic platform had been transitioned to renewable energy sources. Microsoft’s market-based Scope 2 emissions for our Azure subscriptions are reported as zero, confirming this transition. We also implemented further optimisations to our use of external data centre equipment, lowering our Scope 3 emissions.
Energy-Efficient Infrastructure:
SocialOptic operates a deliberately small cloud estate, using auto-scaling, scale-to-zero services and the shutdown of idle resources. Between FY 2023/24 and FY 2024/25 the measured emissions of our cloud platform fell by over 90%, achieved through strategic infrastructure management, optimisation, and ongoing investment in more efficient technologies.
Serverless and On-Demand Technology:
We continue to migrate workloads to serverless and scale-to-zero services, so that compute power is consumed on demand rather than held as idle dedicated capacity. This migration is ongoing and progressively reduces our energy consumption.
Continuous Monitoring and Improvement:
SocialOptic is committed to regularly monitoring and evaluating our environmental impact. We will continue to explore and adopt emerging technologies and best practices to enhance our energy efficiency and minimise our carbon footprint.
Transparency and Accountability:
We will maintain transparency in our sustainability efforts by regularly reporting our progress and milestones towards achieving Net Zero. Our commitment is underpinned by a sense of accountability to our stakeholders, customers, and to the planet we live on.
Innovation and Research:
Our software development methodology includes resource consumption assessment and monitoring, which ensures that our code runs efficiently, as well as correctly and securely, and provides energy efficiency measures for our development team. We invest in ongoing research to identify and adopt sustainable technologies and operational approaches that further reduce our environmental impact.
Stakeholder Engagement:
We involve our key stakeholders, including employees, customers, and partners, in our sustainability initiatives, and encourage their participation in achieving shared sustainability goals.
Supply Chain Sustainability:
Through our long-standing commitment to the Good Business Charter, we are committed to working with suppliers who share similar environmental values and encourage sustainable practices throughout the supply chain. We incorporate sustainability criteria into our procurement process, asking suppliers to demonstrate their own sustainability practices, and learning from the initiatives they are pursuing.
We do not use carbon offsetting as we would rather focus our efforts on direct, sustainable reductions in our energy consumption, and making use of renewables wherever possible.
Our Carbon Reduction Plan
SocialOptic is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieving Net Zero by 2050 in line with the UK Government’s Climate Change Act 2008. This Carbon Reduction Plan outlines our current carbon footprint, reduction targets, and actions to achieve Net Zero, as approved by the SocialOptic board.
This CRP covers:
- Scope 1: Direct emissions from company-owned or controlled sources (e.g. fuel combustion). SocialOptic holds no vehicles, premises or fuel-burning equipment, so this is nil.
- Scope 2: Indirect emissions from purchased electricity and heat.
- Scope 3 (selected categories):
- Category 1 — Purchased goods and services: cloud hosting and software services.
- Category 6 — Business travel.
- Category 7 — Employee commuting and homeworking.
- Category 5 — Waste generated in operations: limited to occasional disposal of IT equipment.
- Categories 4 and 9 — Upstream and downstream transportation and distribution: nil. As a digital-only service with no physical product, we operate no logistics or distribution.
Methodology
Emissions are reported in accordance with the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, using the UK Government (DESNZ) greenhouse gas conversion factors for company reporting.
Cloud emissions from FY 2024/25 onward are measured directly using Azure Carbon Optimization, covering all SocialOptic Azure subscriptions. The FY 2023/24 baseline predates the availability of that tooling and was estimated using Azure’s BCDR guidance and Microsoft’s UK datacentre compliance data; the baseline and subsequent years are therefore not measured on a directly comparable basis, and the reduction between them reflects improved measurement as well as genuine reduction.
Targets
- Net Zero by 2050 or sooner, in line with the UK Government’s target.
- Interim milestone: to at least halve our emissions against the FY 2023/24 baseline before 2030.
- Emissions to be measured and published annually.
Reduction measures
SocialOptic will implement the following measures to reduce emissions:
- Continue to source cloud services from data centres powered by renewable energy.
- Reduce the energy demand of our own platform through right-sizing, scale-to-zero architecture and efficient code.
- Implement waste reduction strategies, including recycling, equipment life-extension and responsible WEEE disposal.
- Keep business travel minimal, and encourage low-carbon options where travel is required (public transport, cycling, electric vehicles).
- Support our home-based team in reducing the energy intensity of homeworking.
Baseline: Carbon Footprint Measurement (FY 2023/24)
| Emission Scope | Source | CO2e (t) |
|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 | None (no vehicles or gas equipment) | 0.0 |
| Scope 2 | Home office electricity and office electricity (Camberley) † | 0.8 |
| Scope 3 (relevant) | Azure cloud services * | 3.4 |
| Business travel (occasional trains, very occasional air travel) | 0.7 | |
| Total | 4.9 |
* Estimated using Azure’s BCDR guidance and Microsoft’s UK datacentre compliance data — see Methodology above.
† Reported as Scope 2 in the year of publication. Homeworking energy is more properly classified under Scope 3 Category 7, and will be reported there from FY 2025/26 onward.
Reduction Measures
A. Homeworking (Scope 2 / Scope 3 Category 7)
- Encourage switching to renewable tariff electricity providers.
- Promote energy-saving working habits when idle.
B. Cloud Hosting (Scope 3 Category 1)
- Use Azure UK data centres and Azure Carbon Optimization to track emissions per resource and per subscription.
- Implement auto-scaling, shut down idle resources, and right-size compute and storage.
- Schedule heavy workloads during low-carbon grid periods, following Microsoft’s carbon optimization guidance.
C. Travel (Scope 3 Category 6)
- Keep business travel minimal, with occasional rail trips only.
- Encourage videoconferencing for client meetings nationwide.
Our Successes To Date
Since starting our Carbon Reduction Plan we have reduced our measured platform emissions by over 90%, through changes to working practices and our supply chain. Part of that reduction reflects the move from estimated to directly measured cloud emissions, as set out in the Methodology above.
We will continue to reduce our residual emissions as far as is technically and practically possible, without using carbon offsetting, tree planting or carbon credit purchases. We recognise that a small residual footprint is unavoidable for any operating business.
Carbon Footprint Measurement FY 2024/25
| Emission Scope | Source | CO2e (t) |
|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 | None (no vehicles or gas equipment) | 0.0 |
| Scope 2 | Home office electricity and office electricity (Camberley) † | 0.8 |
| Scope 3 (relevant) | Azure cloud services * | 0.2 |
| Business travel | 0.5 | |
| Total | 1.5 |
* Measured using Azure Carbon Optimization, covering all SocialOptic Azure subscriptions.
† See note on the baseline table above.
This Carbon Reduction Plan was approved by Benjamin Ellis, the Managing Director of SocialOptic Ltd, for the financial year 2024/2025 to August 31st.