Client: Baillie Gifford

Investment managers Baillie Gifford recognize the key part companies like theirs play in creating a more sustainable future. As a result, they are taking action to improve the sustainability of their operations. 

An integral part of this vision was to take full responsibility for their climate impacts and become 100% carbon neutral. The firm turned to Climate Impact Partners to help them meet this goal and set a positive example.

About the client

A private partnership and investment firm, Baillie Gifford maintains high governance and sustainability standards to make sure their clients enjoy successful, long-term investments. 

They wanted a partner who could help them become carbon neutral and share their program’s positive outcomes with staff and clients.

What we did

Connecting with employees and clients is important to the success of Baillie Gifford’s carbon neutral program. 

We worked with the company’s Environmental Sustainability Group to come up with an inspiring project, through which they could take responsibility for their climate impact by offsetting emissions, while delivering a host of benefits for people, wildlife, and the environment.

Together, we chose the Gola Rainforest Project – a unique initiative in one of West Africa’s last remaining biodiversity hot spots. By keeping conservation areas safe and allowing smallholder farmers to grow cocoa in harmony with their environment, the project protects the Gola rainforest’s communities and rich variety of flora and fauna, all while cutting 500,000 tonnes of CO₂ each year.

Importantly, Baillie Gifford could be completely confident that the accuracy of our carbon offset process was watertight. 

Not only are carbon credits for all our projects independently verified in line with internationally-recognized standards, but we also carried out our own rigorous due diligence process. Additionally, we provided materials, like case studies and photographs, to help the team communicate the project’s story in a compelling way.

What positive outcomes did we deliver?

By helping Baillie Gifford to offset its residual emissions and become carbon neutral, Climate Impact Partners helped the company to demonstrate a sense of environmental responsibility in a vivid and powerful way. 

The program also gave Baillie Gifford’s staff and clients clear evidence of the credibility of their offsetting.

The transformative effects of their carbon neutral program extend far further though, delivering a wealth of positive outcomes for communities, wildlife, and animals in Sierra Leone.