Rightmove’s purpose is to make home moving in the UK easier and in doing so, we will innovate to help our consumers and customers use technology to save time and resources, reducing their own environmental impact and carbon footprint. Our ability to reach the largest UK property market audience and professionals, gives Rightmove an opportunity to contribute to the reduction of the UK’s carbon footprint, as well as to focus on our own operations and our own emissions.
Alignment with the UN SDGs
Our latest ESG report provides full details of our environment strategy and reporting, including our TCFD statement and our validated SBTi targets.
Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting
Methodology
Rightmove plc is required to report its energy use and carbon emissions in accordance with the Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018. The data detailed in the table below shows emissions and energy use for which Rightmove plc is responsible and has operational control over, including energy used in offices and fuel used in company vehicles. We have used the main requirements of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard to calculate our emissions, along with the UK Government GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting 2023. There are no overseas operations. We have restated our comparison year’s 2022 emissions to ensure consistency with the latest calculation methodology followed for the 2023 calculations.
| 2023 | 2022 | |
| Total kWh | 1,282,135 | 1,093,581 |
| Scope 1 Company Car Travel and Natural Gas(1) | 209.51 | 169.77 |
| Scope 2 Electricity (location-based)(1) | 84.77 | 78.06 |
| Total Scope 1 + Scope 2 (location-based) | 294.28 | 247.83 |
| tCO2e (Scope 1 + 2) per employee (location-based)(2) | 0.40 | 0.38 |
| tCO2e (Scope 1 + 2) per £ million turnover (location-based)(3) | 0.81 | 0.75 |
| Scope 2 Emissions from purchased electricity (market-based) | 0.00 | 3.13 |
| Total Scope 1 + Scope 2 emissions (market-based) | 209.51 | 172.90 |
| tCO2e (Scope 1 + 2) per employee (market-based)(2) | 0.29 | 0.27 |
| tCO2e (Scope 1 + 2) per £ million turnover (market-based)(3) | 0.58 | 0.52 |
|
(1) Scopes 1&2 are reported in tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. (2) Based on average number of employees throughout the year 2023: 727, 2022: 647. (3) Based on revenue of £364.3m for 2023 and £332.6m for 2022. |
For further information, including our Scope 3 emissions, please refer to the Environment section of our latest Annual Report.
SBTi Near-Term and Net-Zero Targets
Rightmove plc has approved near and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets with the Science Based Targets initiative. These targets can be found at https://sciencebasedtargets.org/companies-taking-action and are as follows:
Timeframe
| Net-Zero | reduce absolute scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions by 90% by 2040, from a 2020 base year, and reduce absolute scope 3 GHG emissions 90% by 2040 from a 2020 base year. |
| Near-term | reduce our absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 47.6% by 2030, compared to our FY2020 base year and our absolute scope 3 GHG emissions 42% within the same timeframe. |
We are aiming to reach net-zero in our direct operations (Scope 1 and 2) ahead of this, by 2030.
Please see our Annual Report for progress against these targets.
Long-term targets to achieve Net Zero
In order to meet our net zero commitments, we will conduct an annual analysis of the Group’s Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, and have committed to the following climate action plans:
| EMISSIONS | ACTION |
|---|---|
| SCOPE 1 | Company Car travel
Company cars to be ultra-low emission 75% by 2025 100% by 2028 Customer contact policy to allow a minimum of two days a week on the road. Replace company cars with electric vehicles or equivalent emissions by 2030. |
| SCOPE 2 | Office electricity – transfer to renewables
Ensure all offices are powered by renewable electricity. ESOS stage 3 review recommendations to be evaluated |
| SCOPE 3 | Outsourced Data Centres
Work with one data centre provider to move to renewable energy Continue rack reduction in all data centres Transition to hybrid cloud data solution over three years with a cloud provider using entirely renewable energy. Commuting and homeworking Hybrid working policy – maintain flexibility of office working to reduce commuting emissions (which are lower than homeworking emissions). We will continue to monitor and review our hybrid working policy to optimise the use of home and office working for operating performance, employee welfare and environmental impact. Supply Chain We have identified Rightmove’s top suppliers in marketing, market research and information services and launched a carbon emissions survey. A key area of focus going forward will be working with our suppliers to actively reduce expenditure on marketing channels associated with high emissions intensity and encourage information services suppliers to improve environmental reporting and move to renewable energy, as we have with cloud services. |
TCFD
We are committed to reporting in line with the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (‘TCFD’) and its recommendations. Our latest TCFD Statement can be found in the ESG section of our latest Annual Report.
Governance
Our climate governance is incorporated into our main governance structure with oversight from the Board. The Chief Financial Officer has executive responsibility for implementing Rightmove’s ESG strategy and chairs the Risk Committee. Our Governance structure can be found here.
Strategy
Rightmove’s purpose is to make home moving in the UK easier by innovating in ways that help our consumers and customers to use technology in a way that makes the home moving process more efficient, saves time and resources and helps to cut carbon emissions. Our ability to reach the UK ’s largest property market audience and professionals gives Rightmove a rare opportunity to contribute to the reduction of the property market’s carbon footprint, as well as focusing on our own operational efficiency and emissions.
Risk Management
The Board has overall oversight and responsibility for Rightmove’s Risk Management Framework, which supports the identification, assessment and management and control of the risks facing Rightmove – this is described in detail, together with the Board, Audit Committee and Risk Committee responsibilities, in the Risk Management section of our Annual Report. The Risk Management Framework includes ESG and climate-related risks, which are established as their own risk categories and fully integrated into the risk register. The Board and Audit Committee review all significant and emerging risks semi-annually.
Metrics and Targets
Please find our Energy and Greenhouse Gas Report above. Our environmental targets and our progress against these can be found in our latest Annual Report.
The UK’s current target is to become Net Zero by 2050, and 25% of the UK’s emissions are directly attributable to property¹.
As consumers and other stakeholders become increasingly concerned about the environment, sustainability will become a key discriminator in land, build, property selection and homeowning/financing. Policymakers and companies will face greater pressure to act.
Using our market leading information and data for the benefit of all industry stakeholders to progress sustainability and to reach our internal company targets. Please turn to our latest Annual Report for further details on our Go Greener strategy.
Greener Rightmove
Continue to make our business more sustainable by minimising our environmental impact and becoming a Net Zero business by 2040 and in our direct operations by 2030
Greener Data
Become the leading source of green data and insight and create owned and partner opportunities across Rightmove’s ecosystem
Greener Homes
Become the leading trusted voice for home movers, landlords, agents and new homes developers to help them understand the challenges, opportunities & benefits of going green
Greener Buildings
Lead the way in helping commercial tenants and investors to discover sustainable buildings
Our Go Greener employee group was launched in 2023 to embed the Go Greener initiative across Rightmove and to create bottom-up momentum and ownership of environmental projects.
Are homes in the UK going greener? Are we making progress towards making homes more energy efficient? The government has a target to get as many homes ‘as practicable’ up to an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C by 2035. Our data shows that 60% of homes for sale on Rightmove – and 50% of homes available to rent – have an EPC rating of D or below. If EPC improvements carry on at the current rate, it would take 43 years for 100% of the houses that are currently for sale across Great Britain to reach an EPC rating of A-C, and 31 years for houses that are currently available to rent.
Rightmove Greener Homes Report is an in-depth study that looks into the challenges and behaviours to creating more sustainable homes in the UK. We’ve asked thousands of home owners and landlords to share their views on the practical challenges to creating more sustainable homes, and to find out more about the energy-saving changes they’re already making.
Rightmove reports against the following indices: