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Which? is committed to championing sustainability on behalf of UK consumers and to being a credible source of expertise and advice on sustainable choices and behaviours

Most directly, we help consumers reduce their environmental impact by helping them choose more sustainable ways to travel, use energy, make food choices, buy and use products and services, and deal with old goods and plastic waste. 

Yet there is so much more Which? does behind the scenes. We are actively influencing policymakers in government, manufacturers and retailers, as well as the finance sector, to make better decisions and choices available, to help us all move towards a more sustainable future. Simultaneously, we are reducing our own business carbon footprint, while helping our employees to live more sustainably too.

Progress in our focus areas in the past financial year

1. Enabling consumers to make more environmentally sustainable decisions

Which?’s content provides trusted, independent, everyday advice to help consumers make the best choices with confidence - and our suite of sustainability advice is no exception. We've embedded sustainability into our research and editorial teams in order to provide consumers with advice on how to make greener decisions across the breadth of Which?'s content, while a dedicated sustainability research team continues to investigate the biggest issues. All of this content is brought together in our sustainability hub, giving consumers free advice on how to buy better and live better.

Our sustainability-related online content is proving extremely popular, reaching an audience of more than four million viewers in 2022/2023 (3.94m vs 3.2m in 21/22). Our most popular online content reflects the issues most relevant to Which? users - particularly energy-saving solutions and green energy alternatives. The most read pages of the year include: 

We have made a number of other key strides in developing our sustainability content, including: 

What’s next for consumers?

With energy bills still sky-high, we will be prioritising energy efficiency advice for households. We’ve got advice for all budgets - from small, cheap changes consumers can make to their everyday habits or larger renovation projects that offer long-term returns, such as professional insulation, solar panels or heat pumps. Clear cost analysis and information about how to ask the right questions of your installer are crucial in order for households to be able to make the right decisions. 

Investigations due to be published in 2023/24 span a wide range of topics. We’ve got a behind-the-scenes look at the brands Which? members consider to be sustainable, looking to see if their eco-credentials stack up. We’ll be looking into the prevalence of palm oil - what it is, where it comes from, and whether it should be avoided. We’ll be assessing the value of the EPC and whether it’s fit for purpose. And we’re scoping out tests of heat pump models to deliver solid consumer advice on this much-discussed but confusing new market.

Annual energy use information will be added to more of our product reviews, and we’ll be continuing to assess products with our strict Eco Buy criteria, so that consumers can feel confident that they are making the most sustainable choices no matter what they are buying. While our investigative researchers will be digging behind the scenes in service industries to find out where the biggest sustainability issues lie and how customers can avoid them - coming up soon are results for banks and energy providers.

2. Influencing businesses, government and policymakers

Consumers are pivotal in the transition to net zero, with almost half of the policies in the Government’s Net Zero Strategy relying on personal action. Which? has a vital role in ensuring the needs of consumers are at the heart of these changes, which we know will involve complex and costly decisions. We need to see support from government and businesses in the form of information and advice, strong protections and in some cases, financial assistance.

In 2022/23, we ensured the consumer voice was represented in four consultations from government, parliament and regulators on issues including: 

  • Extending the energy companies’ home insulation scheme.
  • Consumer protection in the green heating and insulation sectors.
  • The government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
  • An independent review of the government’s approach to its Net Zero targets.

In the electric vehicle sector, we are feeding into government regulations to make it easier for electric vehicle drivers to find charge points and pay for charging, as well as improving chargepoint reliability and getting support if something goes wrong.

You can read our report which highlights some of the challenges that consumers currently experience when using public charge points, that we have shared with government. 

We also continued to call out unwarranted green claims and challenged companies making questionable claims about energy savings. In at least two cases, the companies have changed their marketing.

In March, we brought together more than 30 stakeholders from business, civil society and government to identify the barriers facing consumers that want to improve the insulation of their homes and to discuss possible solutions. We also contributed to a consultation by the Competition and Markets Authority into consumer protection in the green heating and insulation sectors. We were pleased to see that many of the actions, and the recommendations that the CMA made to the government, aligned with what we were proposing.

Looking ahead, in 2023/24, we will be expanding our work on sustainable home heating.

What’s next for our influencing?

There are some key areas where we will focus our upcoming influencing work.

Home heating is a major source of carbon emissions. Alongside the advice Which? is giving to consumers we are also stepping up our policy and advocacy work to support consumers to insulate their homes and adopt new low-carbon forms of heating.

Home insulation is a big priority, in the interest of sustainability and also because high energy costs are putting enormous pressure on households. We will be engaging with the government and businesses to make sure the consumer voice is heard around the need for greater support. We are also looking for additional opportunities to tackle some of the key barriers that consumers have identified. These include helping with the high upfront costs of some insulation projects, making tailored information and advice more available, and making it easier for householders to identify installers they can trust.

More information on consumer-related sustainability issues can be found in our Consumer attitudes, behaviours and barriers towards sustainability report.

3. Reducing our own carbon footprint

Since we began measuring in 17/18, at a Group level, we have reduced our direct (scope 1) and energy-related (scope 2) CO2e emissions by 77.5%. This has been achieved by actions such as switching energy suppliers in our London head office to a supplier that has a 100% electricity renewable fuel mix and also reducing our property footprint. 

In 22/23, our emissions have fallen slightly compared to last year, primarily due to a full year of green tariffs for electricity at our London office. 22/23 was the first year we categorised and estimated our scope 3 carbon emissions (those related to third parties). This year we’ve introduced food waste and glass recycling options into our London office, and work is underway to optimise solar power generation. In our Cardiff office, we’ve improved signage to help improve our split between recycling and waste.

Annual Carbon Footprint, Scopes 1 and 2

22/23 was the first time Which? had been certified as PAS2060 carbon neutral. Since then, the debate around statements of carbon neutrality and offsetting has evolved. Carbon neutral or net zero claims are increasingly seen as difficult to substantiate and misleading for consumers. This is supported by guidance from the ASA and reports from the Climate Change Committee. Furthermore, carbon offsets are often based on interventions lasting many years, against carbon that is being emitted right now.

So instead of committing to carbon neutrality, going forward Which? will be focusing on reducing its actual emissions. Which? is committed to reducing its carbon emissions, and for 2023/24, we have set ourselves a 5% reduction target, while we also work on our longer term reduction plans.

In 23/24, we are onboarding an integrated carbon measurement platform to better track our emissions and improve our data collection from suppliers. The platform will also enable us to survey staff and incentivise them to reduce emissions related to hybrid working.

4.Supporting our staff to live more sustainably

We embrace the concept that sustainability begins in the workplace and are committed to providing advice and tools to help our staff reduce their own carbon footprint.

As part of this, we have a network of dedicated volunteer Sustainability Champions across our London and Cardiff offices. Together with our People Team, they have worked to promote sustainable choices and developed a series of articles and activities aimed at helping our people to get involved with sustainability-based actions. 

Dies beinhaltet:

  • Launching a thermal camera loan scheme to help staff find out where their homes may be leaking heat, and signposting staff to help and advice on energy efficiency measures to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
  • Developing and publishing guidance on staff travel for business purposes, in line with our carbon reduction plans.
  • Launching an annual Sustainability Champion Award as part of 2022’s annual staff Values Sharer Awards. This was won by a member of our Cardiff Member Services Team for their work in improving our return-to-sender magazine process.
  • Other internal initiatives have included tips on interesting places to visit, organising a vegetable and herb growing challenge, launching a book swap area in both of our offices and running an Autumn nature photo competition in collaboration with our Feel Good Champions network. We also published a series of blogs from Sustainability Champions to mark two years since the publication of Which?’s sustainability commitments, as well as articles with sustainability tips and advice to mark key environmental days like World Environment Day.

Summary

With our history in product quality, reliability and repairability, Which? has long been involved in how consumers can make more sustainable choices. Reflecting a growing demand from consumers, we are now taking further steps to be a trusted home for everyday sustainable advice. We are committed to influencing businesses and policy-makers in areas where bigger change is needed, and we will continue to reduce our own carbon footprint as an organisation and help our people to reduce theirs. We are pleased with the progress made in 2022/23, but there is still much more to do.

Thank you for your continued support.

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