About Us

People & Planet

Aether’s impact

At Aether we are continually striving to minimise our own impact on the environment, maximise environmental improvement and support global social wellbeing, equity, diversity and inclusion. We regularly reflect and review our policies and our effects on people and planet, internally and externally, locally and globally.

Environmental management system

Aether has a rigorous environmental management system (EMS) with the aim of increasing employee awareness and engagement, reducing our carbon footprint, and offsetting our emissions where we cannot minimise our impact. We have an Environmental Champion who calculates, analyses, and disseminates our carbon footprint, and sets actions within the company to reduce our emissions.

Aether is committed to providing a quality service in a manner that ensures a safe and healthy workplace for our employees and minimises our potential impact on the environment. We will operate in compliance with all relevant environmental legislation and we will strive to use pollution prevention and environmental best practices in all we do.

Aether is a certified carbon neutral company, annually offsetting emissions from the work space, national/international travel, and commuting, which are calculated using a tool that meets the criteria set by the Quality Assurance Scheme. We reward staff for making sustainable travel choices through our Low Carbon Travel Reward Scheme which we have utilised since September 2011. It covers business travel and commuting. If a member of staff choses a less convenient mode of transport that is carbon saving, they will receive a financial reward for doing so. This is calculated by allocating a monetary value to the carbon saving between the chosen mode and the most convenient option. We review the scheme regularly to ensure it is current and impactful.

Aether signed the Low Carbon Oxford Charter in February 2014, which commits us to working together to create a low-carbon, sustainable Oxford. In 2021 we joined the SME Climate Hub.

SME Climate Hub

In 2021 Aether joined the SME Climate Hub, an initiative founded by the International Chamber of Commerce, the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, the We Mean Business coalition and the UNFCCC Race to Zero campaign. The aim is to support small and medium-sized businesses to build business resilience. We have signed the SME Climate Commitment, therefore committing to halve our greenhouse gas emissions before 2030, achieve net zero emissions before 2050 and disclose progress on a yearly basis. These targets include scope 1 and scope 2 emissions and a limit on offsetting of up to 10% of base year emissions. In the meantime, we will continue to offset residual emissions as we make efforts to reduce our total GHG emissions, to operate as a carbon neutral company.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Aether is committed to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and promoting a culture that actively values difference and recognises that people from different backgrounds and experiences can bring valuable insights to the workplace and enhance the way we work. Aether aims to be an inclusive organisation, committed to providing equal opportunities throughout employment including in the recruitment, training and development of employees, and to pro-actively tackling and eliminating discrimination.

At Aether, we understand a diverse workforce fosters a resilient working environment and we are always exploring how we can make Aether a more inclusive place to work. We have an annual EDI budget set aside to spend on receiving external training, reviewing and improving internal processes, and taking part in initiatives that align with our values. As part of our ongoing initiatives, Aether is proud to be a disability confident committed organisation (Level 1) and we are currently working towards gaining our Level 2 certification.

Carbon Footprint

Offsetting

We offset the following carbon emissions :

Work space energy use
National travel
International travel
Staff commuting

These emissions were most recently offset through Climate Care’s Climate+Care portfolio. Climate Care is a member of the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance, as well as the International Emissions Trading Association, producing good quality carbon credits in the form of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). These are verified by a tool that meets the criteria set by the Quality Assurance Scheme. This ensures the accurate calculation of emissions; use of high-quality carbon credits, and cancellation of carbon credits used to offset at the end of each calendar year.

Our sustainability policy statement can be downloaded here.

Testimonials

Don't just take our word for it...

“The support provided by Aether for this project was especially remarkable considering the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tools and methods used in order to engage local stakeholders really added value to the capacity building of the national team.”

Shanna Emmanuel, Saint Lucia BUR Project Coordinator

“Aether delivered training workshops and generated learning materials for our SSN members, providing technical content in a manageable and comprehendible format. We particularly benefitted from their extensive knowledge and ability to interpret the needs of our members into the training materials.”

Jennifer Anderson, Sustainable Scotland Network

“The professional service provided by your company was of very high quality and completed within agreed timelines.”

Matthew Dudley, UNFCCC Secretariat

“Saint Lucia embraces the professional approach with which this project was undertaken by Aether, particularly their ability to develop mentorship relations with local government experts. This provides a basis for ensuring that the pool of local experts remain engaged and recognized over successive processes.”

Annette Rattigan-Leo, Chief Sustainable Development and Environment Officer

“A heartfelt thank you to all the Aether team for this very comprehensive review – this is certainly turning out to be one of the most beneficial capacity building projects I have ever been involved in.”

Saviour Vassallo, Senior Environment Protection Officer, Malta Resources Authority

“The Aether team were a joy to work with and I would recommend the consultancy - the service provided throughout the process was exceptional.”

Clare Bayley, Defra

“Aether was a great asset in involving/engaging with Member States experts on highly technical subjects regarding GHG reporting. Very clear communication of issues and results.”

Andreas Pilzecker, DG CLIMA

“Chris was excellent to work with and always very pro active in making suggestions, taking work forward and applying his considerable technical knowledge in effective ways.”

Robert Vaughan, Defra Air Quality Team

“Engaging Aether to support us to develop the first GHG Inventory System and first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for the United Republic of Tanzania has been a rewarding experience due to their high level of professionalism, creativity, timeliness and value for money. We will definitely consider Aether in our future initiatives.”

Abbas Kitogo, Programme Specialist Energy and Climate Change, UNDP Tanzania

“The Aether team were a joy to work with and I would recommend the consultancy - the service provided throughout the process was exceptional. Where there were problems, they provided solutions. The team were working to very short time scales but were able to deliver a high quality piece of work within the specified time frame.”

Sefton Council - for the Merseyside Atmospheric Emissions Inventory

Get in touch

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