Net Zero

Our plan to reach net zero.

Thornton FM Group works in buildings every day — running them, maintaining them, improving them and keeping them safe. That work carries an environmental cost, and we believe the businesses best placed to reduce the UK's building stock emissions should start with their own. This is our plan to get there: practical, measured and honest about what we know and what we still have to work out.

Why we're publishing this

A plan, not a promise

Plenty of companies put a net zero date on a website and leave it there. We've chosen to write our plan out in full instead — the stages, the priorities, the things we already do and the things we haven't got to yet — so our clients, suppliers and team can hold us to it.

This plan is a living document. It will be revised as we complete our measured baseline, as technology changes, and as we learn what actually works on real sites across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Where a commitment depends on data we don't yet have, we say so rather than inventing a number.

Our starting point

Where our emissions come from

Thornton FM Group delivers facilities management, utilities, telecoms, construction and refurbishment nationwide, with fire safety controlled by our sister company Thornton Fire. That work generates emissions in a few predictable places: the vehicles that carry our people and materials to site, the energy used in our own premises, the materials we buy and the waste those materials create, and the goods and services we purchase from our supply chain.

Because most of our work is planned and reactive maintenance rather than large-scale new build, our footprint is dominated by transport and purchased materials rather than construction of new structures. That shapes the plan: our biggest levers are how we move, what we specify and how we waste less.

Scope

What we count — and how we'll count it

We follow the Greenhouse Gas Protocol structure that underpins most UK net zero frameworks, counting our emissions in three scopes.

• Scope 1 — fuel we burn directly: our vehicles and any gas or plant we operate ourselves.
• Scope 2 — the electricity and energy we buy for our own premises.
• Scope 3 — everything else we influence: purchased materials and services, waste from our works, supplier deliveries, water and the travel our people do on our behalf.

Stage one

Measure before we manage

The first stage of this plan is to establish a full baseline across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 for our most recent reporting year. Fuel records, utility bills, mileage, waste transfer notes and supplier information all feed into it. We would rather publish one honest baseline a little later than a confident estimate that can't be defended.

Once the baseline is set, it becomes the yardstick for every reduction target in this plan. Each subsequent year is measured against it, using the same boundaries and the same method, so progress is real progress rather than an accounting change.

Stage two

Reduce: energy and our own operations

Our own premises are the most controllable part of our footprint. The plan is to move every Thornton FM Group location onto renewable-supplied electricity, replace remaining lighting with LED fittings with sensible controls, and manage heating and cooling against actual occupancy rather than fixed timers.

These are unglamorous measures with known paybacks. They come first because we can start them immediately, they save money as well as carbon, and they demonstrate to clients that we ask of ourselves what we recommend to them.

Stage three

Reduce: fleet and travel

Vehicle movement is likely to be our single largest source of direct emissions, so it receives its own workstream. Our approach is staged and practical:

• Route and job planning that groups works by geography, cutting wasted mileage across our nationwide coverage.
• Replacing cars and vans at end of life with electric equivalents where the range, charging access and duty cycle allow.
• Driver behaviour and vehicle maintenance standards that improve fuel efficiency across the remaining diesel and petrol fleet.
• Charging infrastructure at our own premises so electric vehicles are practical from day one, not just on paper.

Stage four

Reduce: materials, waste and circularity

Planned works create less waste than reactive ones — that principle already shapes how we deliver, and it is also our main environmental lever on materials. Correct materials specified first time, competent hands on site and coordinated programmes all reduce rework, skip loads and embodied carbon.

Beyond that, the plan commits us to designing waste out of our jobs: reusing and redistributing surplus materials where we can, segregating what remains, and keeping the documentation that evidences compliant treatment and disposal. Waste is the visible end of a longer chain of decisions, so we make those decisions earlier — at quotation and planning stage, not at the skip.

Stage five

Engage: our supply chain

Most of our footprint sits in the goods and services we buy, so this plan cannot succeed without our suppliers. We will ask every significant supplier for their own environmental data and commitments, build carbon performance into supplier selection alongside price, quality and compliance, and prefer local suppliers and labour wherever the work allows — which cuts transport emissions and keeps value in the communities we work in.

This mirrors the standards set out in our supply chain page: consistent expectations, direct management and auditable records. Environmental performance now joins competence and compliance documentation in that framework.

Stage six

Enable: the buildings we look after

Our influence extends well beyond our own footprint. Every energy-efficient heating system, LED retrofit, well-sealed building fabric or properly maintained plant we deliver reduces emissions for the client too — often with no capital project required, just competent maintenance done at the right time.

We will develop this into a structured offer: helping clients understand their buildings' energy performance, prioritising the measures with the best return, and delivering them through our existing planned and reactive maintenance programmes. The buildings sector cannot reach net zero without the people who look after the buildings — and that is us.

Milestones

Our staged commitments

These milestones are our draft commitments, subject to confirmation once the measured baseline in stage one is complete. They are deliberately staged so each one builds on the last.

• Year one — establish the measured baseline across Scopes 1, 2 and 3; switch our own premises to renewable-supplied electricity; publish this plan and review it annually.
• Years one to three — fleet replacement plan in place with charging infrastructure at our premises; carbon criteria embedded in supplier selection; waste segregation and reuse standards applied on every job.
• Years three to five — demonstrable year-on-year reduction against baseline in Scopes 1 and 2; structured client energy-efficiency offer launched; supply chain engagement covering the majority of our spend.
• By 2040 — net zero across our operational emissions (Scopes 1 and 2), with a substantial measured reduction in Scope 3 and credible residual offsetting only for what genuinely cannot be eliminated.

Offsetting

Last resort, not first resort

Offsetting comes at the end of this plan, not the beginning. Our priority is to eliminate emissions at source — through efficiency, electrification and better materials — because that is what the climate actually needs and what our clients' own reporting can count on.

Where genuinely unavoidable residual emissions remain as we approach 2040, we will use recognised, independently verified offsetting schemes, and we will be transparent about what was offset and why. We will not use offsets to claim an early finish the underlying work hasn't earned.

Accountability

Governance, reporting and review

This plan is owned at director level within Thornton FM Group. Progress is reviewed annually, the plan is updated with actual measured figures rather than intentions, and material changes are published rather than quietly absorbed.

Environmental performance also sits within our wider governance approach: one accountable partner, consistent expectations for every supplier and subcontractor, and records that stand up to audit. When something needs to be evidenced, we can evidence it — including our own progress.

Your buildings

What this means for our clients

If you manage a portfolio, this plan should matter to you in two ways. First, it means the contractor working in your buildings is measuring and reducing its own footprint, with the documentation to show it. Second, it means you have a partner who can help with yours — from the maintenance measures that cut energy waste to the planned works that avoid the embodied carbon of premature replacement.

If your organisation reports on its own carbon, we can support that: our records, waste documentation and approach to works planning are designed to feed into your reporting rather than complicate it.

Read our wider ESG approach, see how we work with suppliers, or learn more about us.