A Dawlish company has been recognised for leading the way in sustainability after becoming the first marine engineering company in the UK to achieve carbon neutral status.

Dawlish-based marine construction and civil engineering firm TMS was awarded carbon neutral status under scope one and two of an internationally-recognised framework for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions called the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol.

Under the GHG Protocol, firms must measure and then offset all direct and indirect greenhouse emissions from their operations and energy use.

TMS achieved this by offsetting 469 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) by voluntarily investing in credits to support two initiatives: the Bank Farm Regenerative Project in the UK and the Vanga Blue Forest Project in Kenya.

This enabled TMS to support a UK sustainability project while investing in blue carbon, the result of nature-based carbon capture in oceans and coasts, which is aligned with the work of the marine engineering firm.

TMS hopes its achievement will encourage other firms to follow its lead as part of wider ambitions in the marine engineering sector to become net zero by 2050.

‘This is a huge step forward, not only for TMS as a business, but for the sector as a whole,’ commented TMS commercial director Roger Full. ‘As a marine engineering firm, we recognise our responsibility to protect the environment we work in, our oceans and the planet. Additionally, the UK government is seeking to reduce maritime emissions by 30 per cent before 2030, so it is important that companies take a proactive approach when it comes to mitigating their carbon footprint.’

Ashley Webber, director at Balanced Energy, the environmental consultancy that awarded TMS carbon neutral status (scope 1 and 2), commented: ‘By achieving carbon neutral status under scope 1 and 2, TMS has set a high industry standard that we hope other organisations in the sector will be encouraged to follow.’