Our Carbon Action Plan 2025

The Pankhurst Trust (incorporating Manchester Women’s Aid) are committed to sustainability, aiming to engage in business practices that are resilient, cohesive, and safe. We will balance these priorities with affordability and environmental sustainability, to ensure that we can keep delivering safe trauma-informed support for our service users. 

Climate change represents a significant challenge now, and for our future generations. Over the past few decades, global temperatures have risen, leading to severe consequences such as more frequent extreme weather events, droughts, and rising sea levels.  

But climate change is not just a global issue; it is also affecting communities across Greater Manchester. As a charity dedicated to advocating for women's rights and social justice, The Pankhurst Trust (incorporating Manchester Women’s Aid) recognises the urgent need to address climate change and its impacts on the communities we serve.  

Our commitment to sustainability is not just about reducing our carbon footprint; it is about ensuring a healthier, safer, and more equitable future for the people we serve.  

Our baseline emissions  

In line with the GHG Protocol, we are adopting an operational control approach to our carbon reporting. ​​This means, where possible, we will account for all emissions from operations over which we have control. ​​ 

This is the first year which we are publishing our carbon footprint.  

Our emissions for 2024 have been estimated as 557 tCO2e, the majority of which stem from purchased electricity.​ 

Our plan 

Our vision is to be carbon neutral by 2038, in line with Greater Manchester’s target. 

In order to reduce our emissions as far as possible we have developed a list of targeted actions that we as an organisation can take. We will publish annual progress reports detailing the actions taken and assessing the relevance of future actions. 

Responsibility for this will sit with the Audit and Risk Committee.  

This plan will be reviewed in May 2027. 

Our commitments

• Engage with our energy supplier to understand their product range and identify opportunities to move onto renewable energy tariffs.
• Explore funding streams that would enable us implement energy saving measures for reducing fuel consumption at the Pankhurst Centre.
• Implement systems to monitor and report waste quantities and disposal mechanisms.
• Implement systems to track and report emissions from business travel regularly.
• Locate local opportunities within Bee Network to encourage cycling for business purposes.
• Run campaigns to raise awareness about the environmental impact of business travel and promote sustainable alternatives.
• Provide incentives for employees who choose sustainable travel options or reduce their travel frequency.
• Commission a new travel survey to collect data on employee commuting patterns and modes of transport.
• Review ability to increase facilities such as bike racks, showers, and lockers to encourage cycling and walking to work.
• Organise commuter challenges and reward employees who use sustainable commuting methods.
• Write an organisational travel policy.