knill james

Company name : Knill James
Country : England
Business sector : Financial Services
Certification : Carbon Neutral

Knill James is a substantial accountancy practise based in Lewes in the southeast of England. The company was established over 40 years ago and has an exemplary track record in providing financial services and business consultancy in a wide range of sectors.

The primary driver behind taking action on carbon is Chris Ketley, who has been a partner in the company since 1988.

”In our business we are very aware of the value of outside certification, there’s at least a dozen such endorsement in the footer of our website, mostly related to financial licensing and compliance.

”The whole issue of carbon certification was something we’d been thinking about for a while, but it never quite reached the top of our agenda. With the ever-increasing levels of awareness about climate issues, we knew it was something we would need to act on sooner rather than later.

”Although I’ve been around a long time now, I still feel it is of vital importances to keep the company forward thinking and agile. Taking action on carbon very much fits into our positive vision of the future.

”When the guys from squestr approached us, the timing was serendipitous, we were ready to get going. The fact that I have had long-standing business relationship with Joe’s father and grand-father really helped us to gain the confidence needed to underwrite such a relationship.”

Certification process

Knill James is a services company, working exclusively in financial services and business consultancy. All of their product is therefore virtual and does not produce a separate carbon footprint.

The whole of the company’s carbon footprint is derived from their indirect infrastructure, including their offices, equipment, staff, transport and associated extras.

This makes things simple from a carbon certification point of view, since Carbon Neutral is the only available option.

In order to achieve certification it was necessary for us to first carry out a full audit of the company’s emissions and create an Environmental Action Plan. Being accountants, they were very efficient in providing all the financial data we needed.

We also needed to have a meeting to discuss the options for Positive Actions that the company would like to undertake over the next year to reduce emissions.

From there we were able to deliver the Carbon Neutral certification, with the whole process being completed in just under two weeks.

Feedback

“After years of not getting around to taking action on carbon, I’m pleased to say that this whole process was incredibly slick and efficient.

”Personally, I’ve found the journey towards understanding what this is all about absolutely fascinating. After all the relentless fear-mongering in the media on these issues, it’s been really refreshing to learn about the global strategy for tackling climate change and how the simple process of planting trees forms an important part of that plan.

”The whole paradigm of ‘helping poor people in Africa’ may seem a bit tired to an old dog like me, but when you understand how these tree planting projects are being used to convert land to a better and more sustainable form of agriculture, whilst sequestering carbon and helping out local farmers, that really does seem like a win-win situation. And one that can hopefully proliferate.

”Joe is clearly a smart lad. I remember working with his grandfather’s heavy engineering factories and his father’s safari business. Now here’s the third generation running a conservation enterprise. Some evolution.

”I have to say that squestr has proved to be one of the most positive and efficient organisations that I have ever interacted with. They delivered the whole thing in no time, always friendly and approachable, completely hassle free.

”Next on the list, I need to travel out to Africa to visit our trees!”

Chris Ketley
Senior Partner, Knill James Limited

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