The Physiological Society’s Sustainability Policy

Background

Failure to act on climate change represents an existential risk to society and the global economy. In their 2023 Global Risks Report, the World Economics Forum places climate action failure and failure of climate change adaption in the top two risks by likelihood and by impact over the next 10 years, with extreme weather the top environmental risk within 2 years. The Paris Agreement, adopted by world leaders in 2015, aims to keep global heating to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100 and to strive for a maximum 1.5°C rise in global average temperatures. Most climate scientists now agree that, to avoid the worst effects of climate change, any rise needs to be limited to 1.5°C. The chance of temporarily exceeding 1.5°C has risen steadily since 2015, when it was close to zero. A new climate update issued by the World Meteorological Organization on the 17 May 2023 reports there is a 66% likelihood that the annual average near-surface global temperature between 2023 and 2027 will be more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for at least one year. To limit global warming to these levels, global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions need to halve by 2030, reach net zero around mid-century and be negative during the second half of the century. Net zero will be achieved when global emissions of GHGs to the atmosphere are balanced with removals of GHGs from the atmosphere.

All parts of our society are being encouraged to think about environmental sustainability, and the expectations on charities to address these issues are growing. Charities exist to further their charitable purposes by meeting the needs of the beneficiaries they exist to serve. However, charities such as the Society can act by increasing the sustainability of our working practices either directly as part of our charitable objects, or indirectly through the way that we run our organisation. A Sustainability Policy which the Society adheres to should also enhance our reputation with the membership by making a positive difference, whereas inaction could have a potentially negative impact.

Sustainability Policy Statement

The Society’s Sustainability Policy defines our commitment towards ethical and environmentally friendly practices within our organisation.

The Board of Trustees and staff of The Physiological Society are committed to building a sustainable organisation, which can be measured in economic terms i.e. reducing expenditure and hence saving money, but also accepts its responsibility towards environmental and social impact.

Guiding Principles:

• To comply with, and exceed where practicable, all applicable legislation, regulations, and codes of practice.
• To integrate sustainability considerations into all our business decisions.
• To ensure that all staff, Trustees and Volunteers are fully aware of our Sustainability Policy and are committed to implementing and improving it.
• To minimise the impact of all office and transportation activities on the environment.
• To make suppliers aware of our Sustainability Policy and encourage them to adopt sound sustainable management practices.
• To review, annually report, and continually strive to improve our sustainability performance.
• To ensure a balance between environmental and financial sustainability.

In general, we focus on the following primary areas:

1. Governance
2. Events
3. Travel and transport
4. Technology and facilities
5. Finance
6. Social responsibility

In delivering more sustainable working practices we will comply with the waste hierarchy which identifies ways to be more environmentally friendly, in priority order.

1. Eliminate – Avoid producing waste in the first place
2. Reduce – Minimise the amount of waste you do produce
3. Re-Use – Use items as many times as possible
4. Recycle – Recycle what you can only after you have re-used it.
5. Dispose – Dispose of what’s left in a responsible way

1 Governance

There has been an increase in online meetings, which provided cost and EDI benefits, and is also a more sustainable way of operating. Reducing face-to-face ‘business as usual’ meetings means less travel, both nationally and internationally, reducing emissions and the overall carbon footprint of any meeting. There is also less waste generated due to fewer consumables being required. However, while it is recognised that virtual meetings are not without costs in terms of the climate. It has been calculated that the costs of such meetings (network operation, videoconferencing equipment use, maintenance and replacement, video quality and number of people at the meeting) are at most 7% of the energy/carbon footprint of in-person meetings.

The default position for all Society governance-type meetings for example, Committee, Task and Finish and Editorial Boards will be online only. Exceptions to this will be as follows:

• Board (Council) meetings will remain in person only when they are with the Blue Plaque or Excellence in Physiology scheme which aims to raise the profile of physiology in universities across the UK and RoI.
• The annual Member Forum and President’s Lecture and Award
• The Journal of Physiology Senior Editorial Board meeting
• Two out of the four Finance Committee (FC) meetings to enable FC to meet with the Auditors and the Investment Management team.

Where feasible hybrid format (simultaneous online and in-person) will always be available for all in-person meetings.

2 Events

The Society recognises that conferences, congresses, workshops, and other kinds of scientific meetings are an important aspect of research and development, and they constitute a way for professionals to exchange their relevant findings and experiences in one place.

However, the downsides to the traditional in-person way of conducting scientific meetings are as follows:

• Potential substantial carbon footprint for each participant
• Time-consuming and costly to travel
• Food requirements
• Promotional material such as printing or manufacturing of single-use items like conference booklets, lanyards, posters, and beverage containers also carry an ecological footprint.

As with governance meetings, detailed above, any meeting that requires less travel from participants will be more sustainable in nature, and this applies to both Society organised events, but also extends to staff attendance of external events.

1. The first question that should be considered is: Does this conference or event need to be in-person, or could the same outcomes be achieved if it were held online? To note: due to the current costs of running fully hybrid events these are not feasible for the Society.
2. Where Society events are held in person, consideration will be given to the level of sustainability of the venue. However, this will not form part of the formal contracting process.
3. Where feasible, we will work to use venues that are easily accessible by public transport.
4. We will reduce waste by ensuring that online promotional tools are the default, but where this in not feasible promotional material can either be reused or recycled.
5. We will minimise our carbon footprint for all invited speakers, and only have required staff in attendance.
6. We will reduce our carbon footprint by selecting vegetarian meal options and avoid single-use plastic.
7. We will minimise the volume of shipping materials.

3 Travel and transport

A sustainable travel policy aims to reduce the overall number of journeys in favour of alternatives such as virtual collaboration tools (e.g. Zoom or Microsoft Teams). Where journeys cannot be replaced, low-carbon options should be used where feasible.

Our current hybrid working model means that staff are in the office fewer days a week and therefore the carbon footprint from daily commuting has been reduced.

Setting a few boundaries for our business travel could help us make greener choices and support sustainability as we minimise emissions. Business travel is a necessary part of the way we work (i.e. the exchange of ideas and improving partnerships) but the environmental impacts of travel need to be recognised and considered.

By minimising unnecessary travel and by encouraging staff and volunteers to adopt new technologies to collaborate with colleagues and clients remotely we should be able to reduce our carbon footprint.

Reducing travel emissions involves both reducing the number of journeys people make and looking for less carbon-intensive ways of working.

To help reduce the environmental impact of our travel, you should consider joining meetings remotely wherever possible. Where you have influence over the arrangements, you should consider whether a physical meeting is necessary or whether your objectives can be achieved with a remote meeting. In particular you should weigh carefully whether or not the benefits of meeting physically, such as the development relationships outweigh the environmental impact and accordingly.

Firstly, before arranging travel the following questions to be considered:

1. Can you achieve your goals using virtual methods?
   And if not
2. Can you achieve your goals more locally or use low-carbon transport modes?
3. Who needs to travel?

Principles for travel 

Where travel is required, you should choose the lower emissions option where practical, and where any additional cost, time commitment or impact on wellbeing is not disproportionate. For example, you should take public transport instead of taxis where it is safe and practical to do so.

• When travelling within the UK
  – For local and national travel, where available, public transport should be chosen over car use.
  – For national travel, train and/or other public transport should be chosen over air travel where feasible.
• Travelling to Europe

Train travel (including Eurostar and other international rail) should be chosen over air travel for travel to all European destinations that can be reached within 4 hours 30 minutes hour from HHH for staff and place of home or work for Trustees and other volunteers.

However, we recognise there may be occasions when it is not possible to follow the above principles. Appropriate criteria for deviation from the travel hierarchy could include for example:

• Safety considerations (e.g., in some countries/regions public transport may not be sufficiently safe).
• Caring responsibilities, where a longer time away would mean you are unable to make the trip.
• When following the sustainable business travel guidelines would be detrimental due to disability or health conditions.
• When obligations from external partners make following the travel expectations impossible.
• If the cost of travel by a particular method is prohibitively expensive, or outside of our control (i.e. reimbursing speakers).

4 Technology and facilities

The Society’s use of cloud technology has greatly reduced the use of running physical hardware, paper and related consumables, but it should be recognised that manufacturing electronic products also leaves a carbon footprint, as does the energy needed to power them.

The Society has already done much to mitigate its carbon footprint as noted below and their associated maintenance. We will continue to monitor the way the organisation is run to deliver more sustainable practices where it is possible to do so.

• Run proactive facilities maintenance across the organisation that ensures equipment in running as optimally as possible. Currently, our energy supply comes from 100% renewables.
• Waste recycling of all eligible recyclable materials, with no personal waste bins
• Automatic timing for air conditioning, ventilation, and lighting to reduce energy consumption
• Replaced most light bulbs with low-energy LED lighting.
• Purchase paper products made from recycled material.
• Reduced printing. For example, moving Board papers to iBabs makes the Board pack easy to navigate without having to print the papers.
• Paperless invoicing and expenses processes fully cloud-based
• Cycle To Work Scheme available to all staff
• We meet all building performance and energy efficiency standards.
• We only have vegetarian food at our onsite meetings.
• Water usage monitored

5 Finance

The Society has an Investment Policy and a Responsible Investment Policy which details the expectation for any prospective investment manager to adopt environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria when constructing their portfolios. The Policy aims to meet the expectations of the Society’s members regarding key ethical considerations related to investing, and how the Society should respond to challenges observed in the world today. At a minimum, and where feasible, the Society expects the Portfolio to be invested in enterprises that have credible and target-based plans to reduce their most materially harmful impacts on people and the planet (‘Act to Avoid Harm’). The Society’s preference, however, is to strongly favour investing in enterprises that not only act to avoid harm, but also generate various effects on positive outcomes for people and the planet. The Portfolio should therefore be invested in a mix of enterprises that ‘Act to Avoid Harm’ and ‘Benefit Stakeholders.’ The Society also retains the option to make investments that Contribute to Solutions, provided such investments align with the Society’s financial needs.

The Society believes there are some enterprises and industries that it would be incompatible for the Portfolio to invest into. Therefore, the Society is committed to excluding any investee enterprises that derive more than 5% of their revenues from the following sectors:

• Thermal coal
• Oil sand extraction
• Arms and weapons
• Retail of threatened species
• Tobacco
• Enterprises subject to severe environmental controversies related to pollution with no evidence of remedial action
• Palm Oil and Wood Pulp companies that do NOT adhere to such minimum social and environmental standards
• Production of drift nets > 2.5km
• Companies found to have violated one or more of the ten Principles of the UN Global Compact.

6 Social Responsibility

1. We will continually look to attract, develop, and retain excellent people.
2. We will carry out annual assessments of competence, training development, and performance.
3. We will be an equal opportunities employer irrespective of race, colour, marital status, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or belief, as outlined in the Society’s EDI Roadmap.
4. We will regularly update staff on the Society’s activities for example through the monthly staff meetings.
5. We will monitor and evaluate training activities and expenditure for staff, trustees, and other volunteers who work with The Society.
6. We will provide a safe and secure office working environment for all staff and comply with all relevant health and safety legislation.
7. Bupa as a staff medical benefit and wellbeing resource