CRP v1 · 18 March 2026

Carbon Reduction Plan 2026

Committed to Net Zero · Prepared in accordance with PPN 006.

1. Net Zero Commitment

GearedApp Ltd recognises the Climate Emergency and is committed to a full and lasting programme of greenhouse gas reduction, aligned with the Science Based Targets set out by the UNFCCC. As a Scottish digital agency specialising in public sector and civic technology, we understand that sustainable software delivery is both an operational responsibility and a signal of the values we bring to every client engagement.

We commit to the following:

• To achieve Net Zero emissions no later than 2040, with a stretch target of 2035 if technology, infrastructure, and supply chain conditions allow.
• To achieve a 50% reduction in emissions from our baseline by 2030.
• To set and review realistic short- and long-term targets designed to achieve these commitments.
• To report total Greenhouse Gas emissions at least annually, in accordance with PPN 006 and associated guidance.
• To be transparent about our progress, including where targets are not met, and to explain the actions taken in response.

2. About GearedApp

GearedApp Ltd is a Scottish tech-for-good software development agency with over 12 years of experience, specialising in mobile and web application development. We work primarily with public sector, scaleups and startups across Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Our core team of nine comprises our two founders, Andrzej Schmidt (Founder & Director) and Josh Carson (Founder & Director), alongside a team of seven developers and QA engineers. We operate as a remote-first business with no dedicated office estate.

As a remote-first, digitally-led SME, the majority of our carbon footprint is indirect: it arises from the energy consumed by cloud infrastructure, developer devices, and the digital platforms and services we depend upon. This profile shapes our reduction strategy, which prioritises green architecture, responsible AI usage, and supplier alignment over physical estate management.

3. Baseline Emissions Footprint

This is GearedApp's inaugural Carbon Reduction Plan, and this baseline has been established retrospectively using best available data. Our baseline year is 2022, chosen for two reasons. First, it marks a natural milestone — preparation to GearedApp's tenth year of operation — at which we took stock of our environmental impact in a structured way for the first time. Second, it is the year in which we began actively engaging with sustainability: participating in the Global Canopy project, introducing climate literacy into our team culture, and starting to advise clients on the environmental implications of their digital choices.

Scope 3 emissions in the baseline year were only partially captured, consistent with the limited supplier data and emerging methodologies available to digitally-led SMEs at that time. The figures below represent our best current estimate and will be refined in subsequent reporting years as our data collection matures.

Emissions figures have been calculated using DESNZ 2024 conversion factors. Spend-based estimates are used for cloud, SaaS, AI tools, and hardware where activity-based data is not yet available; these carry higher uncertainty and will be refined in subsequent reporting years.

The intensity ratio in the baseline year was 0.592 tCO2e per employee (based on an average team of 12). The current year figure of 0.347 tCO2e per employee across a nine-person team reflects both reduced absolute emissions and the elimination of office-based Scope 2 emissions. Both figures are reported for transparency.

4. Current Emissions Reporting

Reporting Year: 2025. This is the first year in which GearedApp has formally measured and reported its emissions against a published Carbon Reduction Plan. The figures above represent our best current data for the nine-person team operating in 2025.

Total net emissions for 2025 are 3.121 tCO2e, a reduction of 56% from the 2022 baseline of 7.110 tCO2e. This reduction is attributable primarily to the closure of the office (eliminating Scope 2 entirely), a smaller team, and a sustained remote-first working model. While reductions have been driven by structural changes such as remote-first working, the actions in Section 6 are designed to formalise and sustain these reductions.

Scope 3 remains the dominant contributor to our footprint, consistent with the profile of a cloud-native digital agency. The primary sources are cloud computing and hosting services, employee home energy consumption attributable to remote working, business travel (primarily rail), and spend-based estimates for software licences and digital tools.

AI usage (described further in Section 6) is an emerging contributor to Scope 3 that we have identified for dedicated tracking in the next reporting cycle.

5. Emissions Reduction Targets

In addition to our long-term Net Zero commitment, we have adopted the following near-term targets to drive continuous improvement:

• Reduce total net emissions by at least 15% year-on-year, with a cumulative 50% reduction by 2030 from our 2022 baseline.
• Reduce and maintain Scope 2 emissions to zero by 2026 by transitioning all office and co-working energy to certified renewable sources.
• Reduce Scope 3 cloud-related emissions by 30% by 2027 through green infrastructure commitments and code efficiency improvements.
• Establish a verified baseline for AI-related energy consumption by 2026 and set a specific reduction trajectory from that point.
• Achieve full supplier carbon reporting coverage across our top five vendors by 2026.

6. Carbon Reduction Actions

GearedApp has implemented, and plans to develop, the following initiatives. These are aligned with our strategy of tackling the “invisible carbon” embedded in our digital delivery model.

Architecture & Infrastructure

• Serverless & Green Architecture: We prioritise serverless and auto-scaling infrastructure so that compute resources are only active when needed. This eliminates idle power waste inherent in traditional server models.
• Performant Code Policy: We treat performance as a sustainability feature. Optimising code efficiency reduces CPU cycles and directly lowers the energy demand of our hosting environments. This is built into our development standards and code review process.
• Cloud Hosting Strategy: We commit to hosting on platforms that use carbon-efficient infrastructure and are powered by renewable energy. Where cloud providers publish sustainability data, we use this to inform our platform selection.

AI Usage & Monitoring

The use of AI tools, including large language models, code assistants, and AI-powered features within client products, is growing within GearedApp and across the industry. AI inference carries a meaningful and often underappreciated energy cost. We are committed to managing this proactively.

• Measurement: We will establish a baseline for AI-related energy consumption in 2026, drawing on published emissions data from AI providers (where available), usage logs, and spend-based estimation as a fallback.
• Efficiency-first approach: Where AI is used, we will prefer models and providers that publish verifiable green infrastructure commitments, and we will use the smallest capable model for any given task to minimise compute demand.
• Usage governance: We will introduce lightweight internal guidelines for AI tool use that include energy efficiency as a selection criterion alongside capability and cost.
• Annual review: AI-related emissions will be reviewed as a discrete category in each subsequent Carbon Reduction Plan, with a specific trajectory set once a reliable baseline is established.

Operational Practice

• Remote-First Culture: We operate as a remote-first business. This policy reduces commuting emissions, while shifting energy consumption to employee homes, which we account for within Scope 3.
• No unnecessary travel: We maintain a default position of delivering all support, development, and consultancy work remotely, reserving travel only for client engagements where in-person attendance is explicitly requested and cannot be replaced by digital collaboration.
• Paperless Office: We operate entirely paperless. All documentation, contracts, and client communications are managed digitally.
• Asset Management: We extend the lifecycle of hardware assets to five or more years, reducing e-waste and the embodied carbon of new device manufacturing. We prioritise energy-efficient devices (Energy Star or equivalent) for all new procurement.

Awareness & Training

• Climate Literacy Training: All employees undertake annual internal training on the environmental impact of digital services, including data processing, cloud energy use, and AI footprint. This is a mandatory part of our staff induction and annual review process.
• Leadership Commitment: Our response to the Climate Emergency is a standing item in quarterly board reviews, ensuring that environmental considerations are integrated into corporate strategy rather than treated as a compliance exercise.
• Green Committee: We are exploring the establishment of a sustainability working group to recruit from across the team, define purpose and responsibilities, and advocate for the implementation of this Carbon Reduction Plan.

Supply Chain & Data Collection

• Supply Chain Review: We will conduct an annual review of our primary technology vendors and software suppliers, with carbon reporting and sustainability credentials included as a formal evaluation criterion from 2026 onwards.
• Improved Data Collection: We will improve the quality and completeness of our emissions data year-on-year, reducing reliance on spend-based estimates and increasing the proportion of activity-based reporting.
• Scope 3 Digital Emissions: We have begun establishing a baseline for digital carbon emissions, including cloud hosting and software services. We will extend this to cover all material digital platforms and tools by the next reporting year.

7. Standard & Methodology

GearedApp categorises its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions as Scope 1, 2, or 3 as set out in the WBCSD/WRI Greenhouse Gas Protocol (revised edition, March 2014). Emissions are expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e).

Conversion factors are drawn from the DESNZ Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors for the relevant 12-month reporting period. Procured renewable electricity and gas is calculated in accordance with the WBCSD/WRI Scope 2 Guidance on procured renewable energy (2015).

Data used to generate this report has been collected from internal records supplemented by industry-standard assumptions for areas where primary data is not yet available. We are committed to improving data quality in each successive reporting year.

8. Declaration & Sign-Off

This Carbon Reduction Plan has been completed in accordance with PPN 006 and associated guidance and reporting standards for Carbon Reduction Plans. This is GearedApp's first formally published Carbon Reduction Plan. We have chosen to be transparent about that, including the retrospective nature of our baseline and the areas where our data collection is still maturing.

Emissions have been reported and recorded in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the GHG Reporting Protocol corporate standard, using the appropriate Government emission conversion factors for greenhouse gas company reporting.

Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions have been reported in accordance with SECR requirements. The required subset of Scope 3 emissions has been reported in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard.

This Carbon Reduction Plan has been reviewed and agreed by the board of directors.