Chestertons says it has moved a step closer to becoming the country’s greenest estate agency, after announcing that it has now been certified as Net Zero Carbon and will offset twice as much carbon as it produces.

After commissioning a specialist company report to establish its carbon footprint, Chestertons reports that it has now offset the 212 tonnes of CO2 it currently produces annually by putting money into special offsetting schemes which reduce carbon emissions across the world.

Chestertons staff were given the opportunity to vote on which schemes to use, and ultimately decided on three:

+ Production and distribution of water purifiers in rural Cambodia, to reduce the pollution and deforestation caused by wood fires that are currently used to boil water

+ Tree planting in the UK

+ Protecting the Amazon rainforest through the Brazilian Amazon Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) project

This latest move comes after Chestertons decided to replace all of its fleet with electric BMW i3s in 2019, which helped reduce its carbon footprint by over 20 tonnes per year.

Salah Mussa, chairman of Chestertons, said: “I am delighted that Chestertons is the first agency to be certified Net Zero Carbon in the UK and hope that we set a precedent for all businesses in our industry to follow our lead.  We set an ambitious target to achieve this milestone in 2021 and I am proud that our team have delivered on this important target”.

Dan Hill-Morriss of Carbon Footprint Ltd commented: “We were very pleasantly surprised at how small Chestertons’ carbon footprint was in relation to the size of the business, thanks to a number of forward-thinking initiatives the company has already introduced. It’s great to see the company taking the initiative to improve its environmental impact and we hope that other agents follow this example.”

Chestertons is now working on various new initiatives to further improve its environmental impact, with these expected to be announced over the course of 2021 and 2022.

Guy Gittins, Chestertons’ CEO, added: “Going carbon neutral is just another step in the right direction for Chestertons, and we are committed to continue to use our position to have a positive impact on the environment, not just by focusing on the business footprint, but also the impact of our staff, clients, suppliers and partners.”