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Towards net zero: Two years of sustainability progress

Trench Wood by Wendy Carter

Jack signs off on his time at Worcestershire Wildlife Trust and reflects on the progress he has made over the past two years in driving us to become more sustainable

It’s hard to believe how fast my time here has gone at the Trust. But now the end of my two year contract is up, it's a great time to reflect on the sustainability progress the Trust has made in this short space of time.

As with any new job, there was a lot to get my head around when I joined back in September 2023. I was following in someone else's footsteps and the Trust had already done lots of sustainability work. I was brand new to the conservation sector but it was exciting to dive into a new challenge.

Bridge in foreground with granary in distance by Paul Lane

Lower Smite Farm by Paul Lane

I started with getting to grips with the carbon calculator, which gives us the carbon emission figures and is the base of so much of our sustainability work. We then had the opportunity to have an energy efficiency audit carried out at our Lower Smite Farm office, from which we actioned the recommendation of replacing the lights to more efficient LEDs. 

A big success was helping to improve staff engagement in sustainability by leading a climate change adaptation session at a whole Trust meeting last year. It was fantastic to be able to have a dedicated session to discuss this topic with staff and trustees and to hear the great ideas everyone had. 

Birch woodland in autumn

Birch woodland in autumn ©Ben Hall/2020VISION

The most rewarding part of my role here has been working with the reserve officers on the ongoing woodland creation projects. As part of this, I also spent a lot of time doing a deep dive into our sequestration strategy. This involved using the Woodland Carbon Code to get more accurate estimates on how much carbon our proposed woodland creation projects would sequester and then running this alongside our annual emissions to get an idea of our progress towards net zero.

Linked to my work on carbon sequestration, I carried out soil sampling across four grasslands last year to understand how much carbon was being stored. This was a great opportunity to get out and visit some of the reserves that I would normally not have had the chance to see. A final focus of these two years was to push forward the work on climate change adaptation to make our reserves more resilient to droughts, floods or fires. One key success of this was the creation of a wildfire management plan with reserves officer Andy Harris for The Devil’s Spittleful nature reserve.

Lower Smite Farm wildlife-friendly garden by Paul Lane

Lower Smite Farm wildlife-friendly garden by Paul Lane

We have made significant progress towards our net-zero goal through energy improvements, our electric van, electric vehicle charge points and woodland creation. However, with the growth of the Trust, our digital carbon footprint and the further refinement of the carbon calculator, our target of net zero remains a difficult undertaking. The Trust will continue to work on mitigating its carbon emissions into the future. Climate change adaptation is on everyone’s mind here at the Trust and they will continue to work to improve the resilience of our reserves to climate threats. On a personal level, I have learned so much that I will carry forward with me into the future and I am so grateful for the amazing people I have been able to meet and work with here.

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