COP27: Tackling Climate Change

With this year’s UN climate change conference COP27 just around the corner, we’re taking a look at what we’re doing as a society to help tackle climate change (and what you can do too!).

What is COP27?

Taking place in Egypt from 6 to 18 November, the Conference of the Parties is the largest annual gathering on climate action, where world leaders come together to address the pressing environmental issues facing our planet.

The UK hosted last year’s COP26 and we got involved through colleague Amelia Crews attending the event and environmental ambassador Cal Major providing insights. This year, we’re committing to plant 1 million trees and asking members and colleagues to make 1 Change (you’ll find ideas for switches below) to help our planet.

Support our businesses and fight climate change

Community Energy
Renewable energy reduces our reliance on fossil fuels, protects us from market volatility and benefits the environment. Younity (the joint venture between Midcounties and Octopus Energy) is empowering local communities to set up their own renewable energy schemes, as well as insulating homes and providing energy efficiency advice. Your Co-op Energy customers support these actions by joining the Community Energy tariff.

Your Co-op Broadband & Mobile
Working with climate activists Ecologi, every month Your Co-op Broadband funds projects to offset up to 50kg of our broadband customers' carbon footprint (that's about 5% of the footprint of an average person in the UK). For mobile customers we offset 25kg per customer. In total through our Ecologi partnership, we have so far planted over 30,000 trees and offset over 1,200 tonnes of carbon.

Fairphone
Your Co-op Mobile partners with Fairphone to provide customers with a more ethical mobile option. Fairphone was the first electronics company to source gold (used in the production of smartphones) from Fairtrade-certified mines, which follow rigorous environmental and social regulations.

Electric Vehicles
Your Co-op Energy is committed to accelerating the transition to zero-emission vehicles, offering EV salary sacrifice schemes both for Your Co-op colleagues and for other employers.

Help us plant 1 million trees by 2033

To mark COP27, we have joined the Million Trees Pledge movement.

Tree planting is one of the best tools to tackle the climate crisis and trees also preserve the world’s biodiversity and prevent ecological collapse.

Sign up to Your Co-op Broadband & Mobile, and enable a tree to be planted each month working in partnership with Ecologi. To learn more click here.

Other things you can do to protect the planet

As a society, we aim to reduce our direct greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in the next five years. To achieve this, we’ll need to slash our energy use across trading sites. And that’s where you come in!

Keep up the great work

As we move into late autumn and winter, we need your support more than ever to help cut energy use and protect the environment. You can do that by…  

• Using heaters sparingly and turning them off when not needed

• Aiming to keep the temperature between 20 to 22 degrees

• Turning off lights when you leave the room or when not needed

• Keeping windows and doors closed and checking automatic front doors are working properly

• Following the energy-saving diagram at your site

Find out more about COP27 or learn more about saving energy at your site.