MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Cuningham has announced that their internal operations are now net zero carbon. After a four-year effort to better understand their impact on the global environment, Cuningham is now making a commitment to reduce and offset 100 percent of the firm’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from all Scope 1 and 2 sources, plus a large portion of their Scope 3 emissions.
Over the past four years, Cuningham watched and tracked the firm’s Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. Per EPA, Scope 1 includes emissions under a company’s direct control, typically including vehicle fuel and fossil fuel consumed at a company’s facilities. Scope 2 covers indirect emissions and includes primarily purchased electricity for offices and electric vehicles. Scope 3 is everything else that a company does. For the purposes of their study, Cuningham included air travel, travel to meetings and job sites, vehicle rental and ride share services, paper use, and electronic equipment.
During this time, the company’s GHG emissions fell from a high of 5.73 metric tons per employee per year to 2.21 metric tons per employee per year – a 61 percent reduction resulting from a combination of changes in company policy and work-from-home efficiencies.
While Cuningham has reduced their emissions by 61 percent, they continue finding ways to expand their analysis and reduce the firm’s GHG emissions across all three scopes. Cuningham is also purchasing offsets from Climate Vault for the small remainder of emissions they cannot eliminate on their own (i.e. leased real estate and goods and services contracted from third party vendors).
“At Cuningham, we have a clear and genuine shared belief throughout the firm that design must be regenerative, achieve ecological benefit, and promote social well-being,” said Jacqueline Dompe, Chief Executive Officer. “That is why becoming net zero carbon in our internal operations is done in parallel with our commitment to reduce GHG emissions in the projects and experiences we create.”
