COP26 is considered to be the most important meeting to secure the future of our planet. It is a gathering of world leaders and influential politicians; the topic of discussion is the measures that will be taken to limit warming to below 2C. This year, the UK is hosting the summit in Glasgow running from 31 October to 12 November 2021.
Businesses have a key part to play in reducing emissions and developing solutions needed to address the climate crisis. In the Business West QES survey, 70% of participants agreed that climate change is a business issue which needs to be actioned and half intended to do something over the next 12 months to reduce emissions.
This is incredibly positive, but we also found out that there are many hurdles that businesses face, including the lack of finance, lack of expertise and competing priorities.
Not acting on the climate crisis is no longer an option, as Colin Skellett, Chief Executive of Wessex Water, told over 250 businesses at a COP26 business event in Bristol “Net zero makes business sense!”. If your customers are not asking you to demonstrate how you intend to reduce carbon they soon will. Ignoring the issue is not an option.
Drawing on our own experience, that of Bristol Climate Leaders and our members, we have 26 practical tips to share with you on how to begin that journey to net zero.
1. Get familiar with the jargon
Businesses setting off on this route will encounter lots of new terms: net zero, carbon neutral, zero carbon, scope 1, 2, 3 emissions, carbon footprint to name a few. Take the time to understand the terms and how they apply to your business. Learn more.
2. Measure and track carbon emissions
Measuring business carbon emissions (carbon footprint) allows for effective and focused reduction efforts. This measurement process analyses current activities and derives the associated greenhouse gases. Emissions are created directly by an organisation (Scope 1), indirectly through electricity consumption (Scope 2) and indirectly through its supply and value chain (Scope 3). By calculating a carbon footprint, businesses can identify the best approach to reducing emissions and setting robust targets, beginning you on your journey towards the net zero transition and readying you for the demands this will bring. Any data gathered is useful in planning ahead and measing impact. Learn more.
3. Aim for net zero
Be ambitious. By law, every business in the UK will need to be Net Zero by 2050, and the likely trajectory is that this will need to be met sooner. Businesses are being asked to sign up to the #RaceTo Zero target, this means committing to cutting those carbon emissions in half by 2030 and to reach ‘net zero’ by 2050 (net zero means that you are putting no more carbon into the atmosphere than you are taking out of it). Sign up to #RaceToZero here.
4. Set a strategy
Net zero can seem like a huge, unattainable goal, but approaching it with the right mindset will make success more likely. Some businesses will prefer to act in areas aligned to their customer or supply chain preferences, others will look at the data and focus on reducing their biggest sources of carbon emissions, others will begin with the “quick wins”. All are valid places to start. Click here to learn more.
5. Share your progress
Share your approach, demonstrate to your clients, stakeholders and supply chain that changing the direction in which your business is going means they are taking part too. Celebrate milestones, when your business hits an interim target, celebrate, and share the news just as you would if the business had a boost in profits or expanded into a new area. Make it clear that your goals around emissions reductions are taken as seriously as other business goals.
6. Engage your senior management team
Senior management teams and boards will play a central role in deciding the direction and speed of net zero carbon transition. To be effective, boards require a case for change, become a platform to consider scenarios, risks and opportunities and activate executive management for strategy development, setting of targets and implementation plan. Without buy in from the top, progress will be limited. Find out more.
7. Engage employees
Whether you are a big sized company or an SME it is key that you get your staff involved. Your staff know your systems and procedures and can be best placed to identify ways to reduce and design carbon out of our business. Getting them actively involved in the carbon reduction journey will bring a better chance of success. Learn more.
8. Consider becoming a B Corp
Becoming a B Corp embeds climate action within the business. Becoming a B Corp signifies that a business has the best available verified social and environmental performance.
9. Switch to renewable energy
For many businesses, switching to a renewable energy supplier is a quick way to reduce their emissions. Today, renewable tariffs are competitive. Installing your own renewables and even battery storage is an option for some businesses who own their own building, have a long lease, are able to finance and have the right geography for the technology. Learn more.
10. Insulate and draft proof buildings
Non-domestic buildings are responsible for 9% of UK greenhouse gas emissions every year. Properly insulating your windows, walls, doors, roof, chimneys, and pipes will reduce your energy use, cutting emissions and saving you money on bills. On average, most companies see payback in 4 years.
11. Switch to more efficient plant and equipment
Having more efficient equipment reduces energy consumption which reduces carbon emissions from your business (Scope 2). Switching to LED can deliver carbon reductions of up to 80% for your business. Here is a list of energy efficient products.
12. Behaviour change and controls
Greater energy efficiency reduces business carbon emissions (Scope 2), this can be done through behaviour change, examples include: setting your thermostat correctly; making sure systems are turned off when the building is unoccupied; turning air conditioning off if you have a window or door open; keeping radiators free from obstructions. For larger premises, you could consider installing a Building Management System to control heating, ventilation and air conditioning. For more info click here.
13. Switch your fleet to EV
Switching to an Electric Vehicle will reduce your business carbon emissions. There is an ever-growing range of vehicles available from cars to vans and the charging infrastructure continues to grow. To learn more about EVs for business use see link: www.actionnetzero.org
14. Help employees to lower the emissions of their commute
Commuting makes up Scope 3 emissions. Businesses can encourage and help staff to take lower carbon modes of transport by creating a company travel plan. A travel plan is a package of actions that encourage safe and sustainable travel options. Businesses can encourage commuting by bus by signing up corporate ticketing schemes, in Bristol and Bath there is a Commuter Travel Club offering discounted tickets.
Active travel can be encouraged by having showering, storage, cycle maintenance and lockers within the workplace and employees. Support your employees to cycle to work through a salary sacrifice scheme. This is better for your employees’ health and well-being and better for the planet. The Cycle to Work Scheme is a tax-efficient, salary-sacrifice employee benefit. You can also save on reduced National Insurance Contributions on the cost of cycle hire.
For those who are self-employed a bicycle can be purchased using capital allowances.
Many employees don’t feel safe commuting by bike, sign up to the Cycling Works Bristol campaign to call for segregated and continuous cycle lanes through the West of England.
15. Talk to your supply chain
Your supply chain emissions make up your business indirect emissions (Scope 3). Supply chains are global and vast.
This refers to emissions created from your suppliers or caused by the use of your sold products. It makes up part of a business’s indirect emissions (Scope 3) and usually represents the largest share of a company’s total footprint. The first step is to identify and quantify your supply chain emissions, then it is to communicate the direction your business is taking on climate change. Followed by collaborating with suppliers. Each of them will be on a different step of their journey. The aim is to align culturally and commercially so that you both make progress. Expectations should be set and tested during the procurement process. Partners should have ‘back to-back’ targets for carbon reductions so they can share in the business’ success in reducing carbon as well as risks and cost.
16. Embed good food practices to reduce emissions
Almost every organisation has food within its supply chain. How our food and drink is produced, transported, prepared and disposed of all has an impact on the indirect emissions of a business. Food is a good place to make progress.
17. Go circular and design waste out of your business
By embarking on the net zero journey, businesses will be evaluating all their systems and processes with respect to carbon emissions. This presents an opportunity to design waste out of your business.
Waste isn’t only bad for your bottom line, it’s bad for the environment and makes up your business indirect carbon emissions (Scope 3). Most production processes contribute to carbon emissions, and if products cannot be reused or recycled, then incinerating or landfilling discarded plastics and other rubbish releases more carbon and potentially other harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. For more info here.
Circular Business Models and Life Cycle Analysis are processes that can unlock innovation and help develop new products, services and business models with reduced emissions and environmental impacts.
18. Enable communities to act
Communities are the core of our societies. Once you can get the community around you and your business involved in the project, the leaps and bounds you can make in carbon reduction and climate action become much larger.
19. Find solutions from nature
Some businesses are growing forests or are rewilding lands themselves or through schemes. Done properly this locks in carbon, protects and enhances nature.
20. Offset the carbon you can’t reduce
Businesses should focus on making changes to cut its own emissions as far as possible. However, some emissions may be very hard to tackle in the short term.
In this case, businesses can consider paying another organisation to help avoid, reduce or capture carbon elsewhere through methods like tree planting or renewable energy projects. As well as reducing net emissions, these projects can have other benefits, like increasing biodiversity, and delivering on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
21. Keep learning
There are many sources and guides out there that can help your business achieve these environmental goals and provide more detailed information. Here’s a few.
22. Join a network
There are several other business and companies that have committed to achieving net zero and climate action. Networks are valuable to learn what works from others.
23. Keep it fun
All the ideas listed are good ways to get to take climate action in your business but some of them can take a lot of time and the passion can be lost along the way. That’s why it’s important to not forget to have some fun whilst coordinating a participating in these activities. You can do things from having a zero-waste pizza making challenge when developing your good food practices to naming the trees that you plant to exploring your community with staff and co-workers on the bikes.
24. Call for better cycle infrastructure
Many employees as well as some business owners cycle to work daily. Cycling to work is a healthy and carbon emission free alternative to driving a car or taking public transport. Therefore, to encourage this form of transportation and make it more convenient, we must call for better cycle infrastructure in our towns and cities.
25. Avoid greenwash
By sharing your progress it is demonstrating that the business is moving forward towards net zero. It builds trust. There are many ways to do this, through social media, websites, briefings. Business must take care that what they are presenting is not misleading and is doing more for the environment than it is in reality. Learn more.
26. Don’t fear making mistakes
The route to net zero is not clear, the technologies, behaviours and business models have some way to go still. As businesses make more progress to net zero, they will increase their awareness and are likely to find other, previously overlooked sources of carbon. We are all on a big learning curve.
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