Coller Capital first achieved carbon neutral status, through reduction initiatives and purchased offsets, as a firm in 2019 (for year-end 2018 operational carbon emissions). We have retained this annual status to date.
As in previous years, the firm’s operational footprint (including emissions data for Scope 1, 2 and 3 activities) was independently measured for the 2024 calendar year and subsequently offset. This assessment has been updated annually by an external third-party specialist and the scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions by AUM across our global operations amounted to the following:
It is noted that 2019 and 2024 were busy fundraising years, and that 2020 and 2021 were years affected by Covid-19. We believe that higher carbon emissions seen in certain years, such as 2023 arose due to greater travel for fundraising (where that was possible outside of lockdown restrictions arising from Covid-19) but also our growing staff head count and global office footprint. We also note that Carbon emissions have been displayed by annual AUM to fairly represent the direction of travel, as total emissions is increasing year on year in line with the firm’s growing AUM and number of employees.
In addition to our carbon reduction initiatives, we offset our emissions through a certified carbon offset programme, typically involving exposure to forest protection/conservation or restoration and re-forestry.
Total net emissions of 5,366 tonnes of CO2e were offset to maintain our firm-level carbon neutral status through a forest protection project in Colombia, verified by the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standard (CCBS).