Corporate report

Environment Agency: eMission - our sustainability strategy

Published 12 February 2026

Applies to England

Transforming for sustainability

eMission is our sustainability strategy. It outlines key sustainability commitments for our own operational work and defines our contribution to Defra Group’s sustainability ambition.

Our corporate strategy EA2030: change for a better environment sets out a vision for transforming the Environment Agency over the next 5 years and beyond, including our commitment to sustainability. Central to the transformation set out in EA2030 is the need to deal with the increasingly complex environmental challenges ahead. It reflects our shared commitment to protect and enhance the environment whilst also enabling sustainable growth – so that people, nature and business can thrive together.

As we accelerate the EA2030 transformation, we must also evolve our operations and supply chains to lead by example in delivering in a sustainable way. Upholding sustainability standards in our own operations strengthens the trust and credibility required to achieve our long-term goals. eMission embodies this commitment to sustainability. We will focus on one priority internal sustainability commitment, beneath each EA2030 goal. These are:

• healthy air, land and water supporting nature’s recovery – we will play a key role in halting the decline in nature and support nature recovery, through our own operations and across our estate
• sustainable growth – we will transition our operations to a circular economy, acting on the risks and opportunities within our supply chains
• a nation resilient to climate change – we will play our part in reducing the scale of climate change by becoming a net zero organisation by 2045 to 2050, which includes ambitious mid-term 2030 milestones, and we will take action to adapt to a changing climate

Our leaders will drive a sustainability culture that improves the delivery of our sustainability ambition. Our commitments – spanning nature, climate and the circular economy – will transform how we operate. They will create space for innovative ideas and fresh solutions, whilst driving us to work more efficiently and effectively. In doing so, we not only advance our own sustainable practices but also show others what is possible.

These commitments also extend to the people and communities that connect with our work, reflecting our promise to serve with care. By protecting nature, responding to the changing climate and moving towards a circular economy in our own operations, we generate meaningful social value – making a positive difference to people’s lives and communities, while achieving our organisational goals. These commitments are underpinned by targets which we will achieve over the course of our corporate strategy, aligned with the government’s Environmental Improvement Plan.

Commitment 1: halt the decline of nature and support its recovery

Our operational activity will play a key role in halting the decline in nature and support recovery and improvement across our activities, estates and supply chain. We will ensure our staff and contractors protect the environment and optimise improvements, and we will measure our contribution.

Healthy ecosystems benefit everyone. Safeguarding and improving them means that life is supported and natural processes will continue to provide clean air, land and water while supporting nature’s recovery.

The way we carry out our work will support nature recovery. We will both protect existing nature as well as take action to enhance it. This ensures we are compliant with our statutory duties to protect nature and undertake mandatory enhancement (for example, biodiversity net gain), including operating a sustainable supply chain. We will also take action to conserve and enhance biodiversity as we undertake our operational role, ensuring we are compliant with the strengthened biodiversity duty on public authorities, as outlined in the Environment Act 2021. In actively supporting nature’s recovery we will play our part in ensuring the environment can thrive whilst supporting and enabling growth.

Our work both impacts and depends on the natural environment. Measuring our nature footprint, highlights key impacts and dependencies across our operations and supply chains, guiding science-based action, aligning with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and contributing to global biodiversity goals.

To ensure our people understand what nature recovery means and how to embed it into their work, we will:

• make Nature Literacy learning available to our staff and our supply chain by 2028
• improve capability and embed a consistent approach to natural capital across all decision making and delivery in our work by 2030

To improve the natural environment through our work, we will:

• comply with the biodiversity duty, including putting in place relevant actions and policies to conserve and enhance biodiversity through our work - these will be set out in an action plan by 2026 (reflecting our 2024 consideration statement on the biodiversity duty)
• contribute to achieving the Greening Government Commitments on nature, including delivering Government Estate Nature Plan actions across our estate, by 2030

To understand and then reduce our nature footprint and ensure our supply chain supports nature recovery, we will:

• determine our nature footprint, including that of our supply chain by 2027
• use our nature footprint to understand our impacts and set evidence-based targets to transparently measure, report and improve on our nature-related impacts by 2028
• disclose and manage our nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities in alignment with the TNFD by 2030

Commitment 2: support circular economy principles

We will sustainably manage our use of resources in line with planetary limits across our activities and supply chains. We will do this by understanding the whole-life sustainability impacts of our decisions, and using less, to promote and contribute to a circular approach.

A circular economy is where:

• materials are kept in use
• waste is eliminated
• ecosystems are regenerated

Adopting a circular economy approach can lower capital and operating costs, reduce pollution and waste, strengthen community and ecological resilience, and create new jobs and skills. To realise these benefits, we will extend product and material lifetimes and prioritise solutions that keep resources in use across Environment Agency sites for as long as possible.

Transitioning to a circular economy means we will need to make better choices, create behaviour change and view things from a new perspective.

We will manage resources in line with planetary limits across our operations and supply chains, prioritising whole-life sustainability in our decisions and reducing consumption through circular design and procurement. A large share of our annual expenditure flows through the supply chain, especially our infrastructure programme. These contracts represent the greatest opportunity and risk to meeting our sustainability commitments. We will therefore work with suppliers to restore nature, address social risks and needs, accelerate decarbonisation and drive sustainable economic growth.

To reduce our consumption and adopt circular economy practices, we will:

• establish our Resource Consumption Footprint to measure and prioritise areas for resource reduction by 2025
• reduce our consumption by 15% across our priority resources (signature spend categories) by 2030
• reduce consumption of single-use items in our operations and supply chains, including scientific sampling and analysis equipment, by 2030

To purchase products, services and materials that are the most socially and environmentally responsible throughout their lifecycle, we will:

• routinely include responsible sourcing and circularity requirements into the procurement of contracts and frameworks rated as high or medium impact by 2025
• analyse our top 5 to 7 high impact resources allowing us to understand the opportunities to reduce their use or improve their sustainability by 2026
• have a plan to act on the outputs of our analysis of the high impact resources by 2027

To prioritise products that are designed to be re-used, repaired, disassembled and re-purposed, we will:

• establish the proportion of circular accredited materials that we are purchasing across the organisation by 2026
• procure additional products as a service by 2030, for example renting rather than buying, keeping resources in use at their highest value
• increase the purchase of circular accredited materials by 25% across the organisation by 2028

Commitment 3: strengthen our resilience and contribute to government net zero targets

How we respond to the changing climate for our own operational activities means striving to achieve net zero carbon in our operations and supply chains by 2045 to 2050. We also need to ensure we are resilient to the changing climate. We will reduce the amount of carbon we emit in line with the Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5°C.

We are committed to deep cuts in our own carbon emissions, and to that end we have set ourselves the challenging target of achieving net zero by 2045 to 2050. Our robust target follows the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) definition, requiring at least a 90% cut in carbon emissions, including those from our wider supply chain (scope 3). We will use UK, nature-based projects for offsetting the remaining 10%, applying existing voluntary carbon codes where our projects meet the criteria. Where codes don’t yet exist, but we are confident our activities sequester carbon, we will use our own peer reviewed monitoring, reporting and verification regime to measure the amount of carbon we have removed from the atmosphere.

We must ensure our own organisation is fit for the more extreme weather caused by rising global temperatures. This means building resilience and adapting to climate change, in line with the Climate Change Act and National Adaptation Programme. We will develop and implement resilience plans for all our high-risk buildings, land and operational assets to ensure we can continue to operate. We will also support our staff in their understanding of adaptation and resilience actions and how to integrate them into our work. How the Environment Agency is adapting to the changing climate is covered in the Environment Agency’s climate adaptation reporting fourth round: climate resilience for a better environment.

We will continue report on our net zero delivery and climate risks and opportunities across our operations and statutory duties in line with the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) framework.

To ensure our assets and ways of working are prepared for climate-related impacts, we will:

• develop resilience plans for all existing high-risk assets by 2027, and apply this approach to all new buildings, land, and operational assets
• implement resilience plans for all existing high-risk buildings, land, and operational assets by 2030
• assess and take action to manage the risks posed by a changing climate to our operations and supply chain by 2030

To reduce our emissions to become a net zero organisation by 2045 to 2050, we will:

• reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 (all direct and supply-chain) emissions by 45% by 2030
• reduce Scope 1 (direct) and 2 (purchased energy) emissions at least 80% by 2030
• operate a zero-carbon-emitting fleet (cars and vans under 3.5 tonne) by 2027
• operate a zero-carbon-emitting 4x4 fleet no later than 2030
• become net zero as defined by SBTi, between 2045 and 2050 and at the earliest point possible within this window – this means we have reduced our emissions by 90% and removed at least 10% of our baseline emissions from the atmosphere year on year through UK, nature-based projects

Contributing to social outcomes through our commitments

We create social value through many of our core activities. For example, our flood risk management work makes communities safer, enhances wellbeing and provides opportunities for inclusive local engagement. We routinely consider social impact and create public benefit through our work. This is most evident in procurement and projects, where we are guided by the UK Government’s Social Value Model and procurement guidance which ensures our efforts and public spend support inclusive growth. Using evidence-based metrics to demonstrate the social impact of our work will help ensure accountability and compliance with statutory reporting requirements, including the forthcoming Taskforce on Inequalities and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD).

Safeguarding those who work for and with us from modern slavery and exploitation is central to this commitment. We apply transparency and due diligence across our supply chains, reinforced by our modern slavery reporting. Our partnership with Slave Free Alliance is deepening our understanding of social risks, and we are taking steps to mitigate them in our modern slavery action plan. This work both fulfils our legal obligations and strengthens our role as a responsible public body, helping to build a fairer, more resilient society alongside a healthier environment.

A systems approach to change

Achieving eMission requires us to take a systems approach so that we embed sustainability into everything we do. This approach ensures sustainability becomes a core part of how we operate, creating opportunities for improved organisational efficiency and resilience. To support this, we have developed a roadmap outlining the specific actions we will take, targeted at key intervention points in the system. This approach is supported by our ISO14001 Environmental Management System and our sustainability commitment statement.

Openness and transparency are paramount in sustainability and to ensure we are credible and trusted. We will:

• strengthen governance and reporting to meet both current and emerging standards in a transparent and efficient way
• have clear measures to track progress aligned to our organisational performance framework and sustainability reporting obligations

Within the roadmap, we will also include actions related to system-wide interventions to efficiently hardwire this lasting change into all our activities. We will:

• show strong leadership, inspiring and empowering colleagues to take action
• improve collaboration, driving innovation through our partnerships
• invest in training colleagues and our supply chain, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to achieve our sustainability commitments
• integrate sustainability into our policies, processes and tools for effective decision making
• be led by the latest science to support evidence-led decision-making, baselining and reporting
• use digital technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accelerate progress, taking account of the sustainability impacts and managing these responsibly

We will also review our strategy regularly to stay agile and respond to the latest science, innovation, practical experience, and evolving policy and funding decisions.