William Hare Group Limited has been awarded certification to the world class, ISO accredited CEMARS (Certified Emissions Measurement and Reduction Scheme) standard by the Achilles Carbon Reduction programme. Certification to CEMARS demonstrates William Hare's commitment to measuring, managing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a robust and credible way.

William Hare has achieved CEMARS for its operational carbon footprint for the year January to December 2010. Aligning to the company’s environmental and sustainability objectives, verification of the company’s operational footprint recognises the actions of William Hare to measure our greenhouse gas emissions understand our carbon liabilities and put in place management plans to reduce emissions across our UK operations.

Commenting on the successful certification process, Brian Hughes, William Hare’s Safety, Health and Environment Director noted: CEMARS has given us an effective means to establish and benchmark the metrics for reducing the carbon footprint of the business as a whole. In fact, the company had been collating its carbon data over a number of years, however prior to the implementation of CEMARS it had no effective means for independently verifying this.

The accreditation process has given us a broader insight into the underlying principles for successful carbon reduction, and together with support given by CEMARS itself has made the whole process an enjoyable and enriching learning experience from which we will reap many benefits in the long term.

William Hare recognises that the impacts of climate change through greenhouse gas emissions is a significant issue and in acknowledgement of this, the organisation considers carbon management as an integral part of the company’s management system. Key targets set by William Hare to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the coming years include a target to reduce emissions (relative to turnover) by 2.5% year on year. Reduction activities will focus on William Hare’s most significant emissions, namely electricity, road freight, natural gas and shipping freight. Promoting an energy-aware culture amongst the company, William Hare is working to balance environmental and financial priorities operation-wide in order to demonstrate regulatory compliance to existing and future legislation.

For further information on William Hare see www.hare.com

For further information on the Achilles Carbon Reduction programme and CEMARS certification see www.achilles.com/cemars