Sustainability Report
2026
Odgers is pleased to present our annual sustainability report. We are committed to our science-based targets and are delighted to report on the progress we have made thus far.
What is the Science Based Targets initiative?
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a corporate climate action organisation that enables companies and financial institutions worldwide to play their part in combating the climate crisis. They develop standards, tools and guidance which allow companies to set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions targets in line with what is needed to keep global heating below catastrophic levels and reach net-zero by 2050 at latest. The SBTi is incorporated as a charity.
Per the SBTi, Odgers is one of only 9,245 companies globally to have set science-based targets under the initiative. Odgers were the first global executive search firm to have received accreditation for our science-based carbon targets.
Key Reporting Changes
Through updates in SBTi’s reporting requirements and shifts in our own understanding, we have had to make two key changes to how we calculate our baseline and report our annual emissions. We had previously included the Franchised and Investment offices with equal weighting to our fully owned/operated offices in our baseline and annual results.
This is no longer required by SBTi for Investments and allows us to only include their carbon emissions proportionally. We have recalibrated our baseline year to reflect this. Now, we only include Investment’s emissions at the percentage of equity we own, and all Franchise emissions are included in our Scope 3 (indirect emissions) emissions.
Furthermore, most Scope 3 items are no longer included for Franchises and Investments - only their Electricity, Natural Gas, Owned Company Vehicle emissions are.
For Scope 1 and 2 (our direct emissions), we now must present both ‘location based’ and ‘market based’ data.
Location is more traditional, as each country’s electricity grid has an average factor for that year which we multiply our kWh of electricity use by to get the associated CO2 emissions.
Market is more specific, taking the average emissions from our selected energy provider and tariff as the factor we multiply electricity in kWh by, for each particular office. This allows us to correctly reflect our switch to renewable energy in our London head office, Birmingham, Leeds, and our Australian offices with a multiplier of zero.
Our targets
Scope 1&2
Odgers has committed to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 50% by 2030.
Scope 3
Odgers has committed to reduce its Scope 3 GHG emissions by 28% by 2030.
What initiatives have we put in place this year
Scope 1 and 2
- Our Sydney and Melbourne offices transitioned to GreenPower in September 2026 - a voluntary government accreditation program that guarantees electricity use is matched with power from renewable electricity sources.
- Our Tokyo office joined its landlord’s Renewable Energy program in April 2026. The office expects to receive the "Non-FIT Non-Fossil Certificate" for the April–June 2026 period in October 2026.
- The UK offices’ electricity emission factor was reduced by 36%, and the UK gas emission factor was reduced 9%.
Scope 3
- Purchased goods and services is now the largest area of emissions for us – bigger than business travel. This is in part because of our Sustainable Travel policy, where we’re encouraging either reduced travel or more sustainable forms of travel.
- Taxi usage has halved and there has been a significant drop in hotel usage.
- Business class flights are still booked more often than economy, but the distances travelled now are 2 to 3 times lower than in 2019.
- We have moved to renewable energy in our London headquarters and in our regional Birmingham and Leeds offices. We have also put in more energy efficient air conditioning systems to our London office to decrease our overall energy usage.
Our progress so far
Scope 1&2
Location based: Against the base year of 2019, the group saw a reduction in Scope 1&2 emissions by 31%
Market based: Against the base year of 2019, the group saw a reduction in Scope 1&2 emissions by 62%
Scope 3
Against the base year of 2019 the group saw a reduction in Scope 3 emissions odecreased emissions by 40%
What plans do we have for the next 12 months
Purchased goods & services
This remains our biggest area of emissions, which we will need to be mindful of as we continue to grow and plan our annual budgets. We can minimise these supply chain emissions by first utilising our in-house workforce, such as further utilising our excellent marketing and IT teams, rather than incurring the Scope 3 emissions from external suppliers (who use their additional office space, electricity etc).
Energy usage
We intend to switch all UK offices to renewable energy. However, this will not decrease our location-based emissions. Only a decrease in the actual electricity use would achieve this e.g. with more efficient IT Hardware and modern air conditioning units.
Annual reporting
Given how manual and intensive the reporting model is, there is software we could use instead – our consultant has recommended some good options.
Our sustainability journey
Reduction base year.
We submitted a letter to the SBTi establishing our intent to set a science based target for the reduction in our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We worked with Carbon Intelligence, a UK based consultancy now part of Accenture, to develop an emissions reduction target suitable for our global business, in line with SBTi’s criteria.
In early 2023 the group presented its targets to the SBTi for official validation and in the summer of that year it received its accreditation. Details can be found on the SBTi’s dashboard contained on its
Odgers has committed to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 50% by 2030. It has further committed to reduce its Scope 3 GHG emissions by 28% within the same timeframe.