Thornton Tomasetti’s 2024 Carbon Emissions Report

We've crunched the numbers and can now report our 2024 progress toward carbon neutrality. 

Thornton Tomasetti conducts an annual emissions inventory to measure our operational carbon footprint, track progress toward our carbon-reduction targets and develop effective strategies for reaching our goals. In pursuit of our aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, we continue to reduce emissions wherever possible and purchase carbon offsets – representing permanent, verifiable emissions reductions or removals – to cover the rest.

Our 2024 Emissions Progress

Since our 2018 baseline, we've reduced total emissions by 25%. Per capita emissions are down by 43%, to 2.66 MTCO2e. And we've expanded our approach to renewable energy to include both U.S. and U.K. office operations in our renewable energy certificate (REC) purchasing program. Now 89% of our office electricity use is either from renewable sources or covered by RECs.

To bring our carbon inventory into closer alignment with Greenhouse Gas Protocol, we added purchasing and fuel- and energy-related activities to our Scope 3 operational boundary. We also made our air-travel and employee commuting values more comprehensive by including well-to-tank emissions. Emissions from recycling are now included in our waste emissions numbers. 

Improving Workplace Energy Efficiency

We’re improving energy efficiency in our workplaces by fitting out new offices to LEED standards and implementing energy-efficient retrofits in existing ones when possible. Company policy requires that all new offices of 4,000 square feet or larger pursue LEED Silver or Gold certification. Ten of our current offices, and four former locations, have been green-building certified or fitted out to similar standards.

Last month our San Francisco office became our latest LEED Gold location. Several of our in-house sustainability experts worked on the certification effort. They performed a life cycle assessment, or LCA, on the building materials and furniture; conducted an energy analysis to measure energy savings; and carried out a daylight assessment to quantify the extent of naturally daylit areas within the space and develop glare-reduction strategies.

Green champions – employees who donate time to support corporate responsibility initiatives – help their local offices become healthier and more sustainable. We have more than 80 green champions in 33 offices worldwide.

Changes recently introduced by our green champions include high-efficiency lighting retrofits, the addition of energy-monitoring devices and efficient appliances, and access to bike-share memberships. They also contribute to climate-action education by organizing events like Earth Week and Daylight Hour (when we extinguish all artificial lights for one hour to raise awareness about energy efficiency). Many of these initiatives were funded through corporate grants.

Encouraging Low-Carbon Transportation

To improve access to low-carbon transportation, we’ll continue to lease office spaces near transit hubs. We also encourage staff to travel efficiently and to take advantage of the bike and mass-transit benefits offered by the firm. Part of our operational sustainability strategy involves sharing quarterly air-travel emissions reports with senior leaders. 

As a consulting firm, we’re aware that the projects we work on may be associated with significant greenhouse gas emissions. And although (in keeping with Greenhouse Gas Protocol guidance for service companies) we don’t include them in calculations of our carbon footprint, we do work to advance industry efforts to reduce emissions from the building sector. 

Industry Leadership in Reducing Embodied Carbon

Thornton Tomasetti is an inaugural member of the Structural Engineers 2050 Commitment (SE 2050) and a co-founder of its precursor, the Structural Engineers 2050 Challenge. We measure the embodied carbon in our structural projects each year – and we're one of the largest contributors of project data to the SE 2050 database on embodied carbon in structures. And since 2024, we've also been a contributing member of the AIA 2030 Commitment, an industry initiative that tracks progress toward the Architecture 2030 vision of net-zero emissions in the built environment.

Learn more about our Sustainability services