Supporting Sail Croatia with their carbon reduction strategy: a Business Surrey case study

Background: 

In 2024, Sail Croatia, a Surrey-based Mediterranean travel operator, approached Business Surrey for assistance in quantifying their carbon emissions and developing a carbon reduction strategy.

Despite their significant efforts to calculate their carbon footprint, they lacked confidence in their methodology and wanted external verification to establish a credible baseline before publicly sharing their emissions data or committing to further action.

Challenges:

• Without an inhouse sustainability expert, the business lacked confidence in the existing carbon footprint calculation methodology they had used.
• The team felt external verification was needed to ensure accuracy and credibility.
• The business had identified the need to develop a comprehensive carbon reduction strategy, including short-term and long-term actions.
• The senior management team knew that the sustainability plan would only be successful if it was to communicated effectively to the entire team to gain their buy-in and suggestions.

Solution: 

A decarbonisation consultant from Business Surrey was engaged to:

1. Verify and Strengthen Carbon Footprint Calculations:
   • The Business Surrey expert advisor reviewed and validated the assumptions and figures used in the initial calculations to ensure they were robust and accurate.
   • The advisor also provided recommendations for emissions calculators to track emissions from travel, fuels, third-party services such as laundry, and catering.
   • And suggested ways to help Sail Croatia’s chefs design lower-impact menus.
2. Develop a Comprehensive Decarbonisation Strategy:
   • Identified short-term wins and long-term actions for carbon reduction.
   • Proposed verifiable offsetting options for emissions that were difficult to avoid.
3. Effective Communication and Team Engagement:
   • Assisted in communicating the carbon reduction plan in a relatable way to the entire team.
   • Ensured team members’ involvement, especially those new to the company’s sustainability efforts, to align the workforce with the vision of building a more sustainable business.

Results:

• Enhanced confidence in the company’s carbon footprint data.
• A solid foundation for long-term sustainability commitments.
• Improved team engagement and alignment with the company’s sustainability goals.

Grant Seuren, Co-Founder/Director of Sail Croatia says, “Thank you for all your assistance, it has been really valuable to us. Overall, we now have a proper foundation that we can build on.”

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