Why us? Why now?
This is the crux of the what I'm often asked in relation to our net-zero ambitions. To which I respond… if not us, then who? If not now, then when?
The reality is we all have a role to play in advocating, educating, and acting in relation to climate change. The online betting and gaming sector is no place for exception. Our contribution matters, particularly as the world’s largest operator in our sector, and this is our opportunity to become a climate leader by playing our role in the global decarbonisation journey.
At Flutter, Go Zero is our way of doing right by the planet. Our goal is to reach net-zero by 2035.
Despite a rise in popularity of net-zero targets across nearly all businesses, there hasn't historically been a commonly agreed definition for companies to work to, which has fuelled a lot of confusion and led to varying credibility (sometimes claims of greenwashing) around targets.
We want our ambition to be a trust builder, not a trust buster. That's why we decided to align with the SBTi - a collaboration between CDP (what used to be called the Carbon Disclosure Project), the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute, the World Wide Fund for Nature, and the We Mean Business Coalition. The SBTi defines and promotes best practice in science-based target setting and independently assesses and approves companies’ targets. The SBTi’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard is the world’s only framework for corporate net-zero target setting in line with climate.
To track against our target, we need to measure and understand our emissions to take action on them. We also report those emissions, as this helps increase transparency and accountability in global climate action, improves our stakeholder awareness of our carbon footprint, and reveals opportunities to reduce emissions and mitigate climate risks. We align our calculation methodology to the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, which is the most widely used international carbon accounting framework. Our emissions are categorised into three groups or 'Scopes' - these scopes are a framework that helps organize business activities that produce GHG emissions across our corporate value chain.
Breaking emissions into these more manageable and measurable categories helps us pinpoint the sources of our emissions—for example, retail shops, offices, vehicles, commuting, business travel—and the most significant opportunities for reductions. The better we understand an emissions source—and whether we directly or indirectly control that source— the better we can measure, then mitigate those emissions to reduce our impact.
