Practical tips on eating the (carbon) elephant
It was a great pleasure to host our latest Deep Dive event last week where we covered sustainability and by looking further into the measurement and reduction of a business’ carbon footprint. Watch it back online, we talk about how to eat the carbon elephant and reduce the carbon impact of doing business.
The webinar
My main takeaways from the event were:
1. Do not let not knowing where to start stop you from taking action
2. Start with measuring your business/organisation’s existing carbon footprint
3. You can use data that is readily available to commence the calculations e.g. electricity bills, car fuel bills
4. You will need to engage with staff and suppliers for maximum impact
5. Terminology should not be a barrier (see further below)
6. There is help available in all forms, some without cost
7. There are a number of pull factors that have led businesses to embark on this journey including: customer requirements, staff expectations and expectations of the labour pool
Thank you to all who joined me for the event and I look forward to sharing some of our experiences (see below) and hearing progress from you all.
Jargon
One of the participants at the event had previously produced a jargon buster which I have summarised below for those interested in getting a feel for some of the terminology bounded around in the context of carbon reduction:
| Term | Meaning | Comments |
| Carbon Footprint | The term Carbon Footprint has become synonymous with calculating business/organisational total Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
A Carbon Footprint is also used as a way of measuring the environmental impact a business/organisation has. Previously any efforts toward Sustainability have been hard to quantify and measure – a Carbon Footprint gives a relatively straightforward way of measuring impact. It can also be measured on an annual basis to track progress. |
It can sometimes be unclear exactly what has been included/ excluded. For instance, sometimes a Carbon Footprint may exclude Scope 3 (see below), or elements of Scope 3. This is especially prevalent with larger organisations with complex supply chains. So, when a organisation says “our Carbon Footprint is XXX” we should really try to understand exactly what they’ve measured
Increasingly, businesses being asked for their Carbon Footprint and reduction plans when applying for public sector tenders etc. |
| Scope 1 | Direct Emissions
These are basically emissions from things you burn or gases that leak. Fuel in company owned vehicles or machinery (think lawnmowers, plant vehicles etc), gas in boilers, leaked refrigerant gases and other things like that. The emissions are usually calculated with the volume that you’ve used (e.g., our boiler has used XXX Litres of Gas). |
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| Scope 2 | Indirect Emissions
These are any emissions generated from the purchasing of Electricity, Heat, Cooling, Steam. For instance, when you use electricity, emissions come from the generation of that electricity. Again, the emissions are calculated with the volume that you’ve used (e.g., we’ve used 1000 kWh of Electricity) |
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| Scope 3 | Everything Else!
This is where it gets interesting – Scope 3 Emissions are more or less every other emission generated by your business. Whether that’s from staff travel/commuting, waste, or raw materials, it all sits in Scope 3. As you can imagine, sometimes this is a complicated area to look at. Funnily enough, it’s also quite often the biggest source of emissions in a business/organisation! Lots of people ignore this, when in actual fact it often where you can make a real difference. This is where Circular Economy principles are most likely to come in too |
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| Net Zero | A zero balance between any emissions generated and any emissions removed from the atmosphere (includes all Greenhouse Gases, not just Carbon). | An organisation could Offset their emissions, and claim to be Net Zero but definitely not in the spirit of trying to achieve Net Zero.
A common goal around the World is for countries (and within that businesses/ organisations) to achieve this no later than 2050. |
| Carbon Neutral | The principle is similar to Net Zero – It’s about a “Net Balance” between Carbon Dioxide emitted and absorbed (Offsetting, Sinking etc) from an activity.
Carbon only (whereas Net Zero includes all Greenhouse Gases, this is just Carbon Dioxide). |
There’s a Carbon Neutrality Certification! (PAS 2060). However, the meaning Carbon Neutral has been skewed and used by all sorts of organisations who haven’t followed PAS 2060.
For instance, some people will tell you that Carbon Neutral means you only need to measure Scope 1/Scope 2 and can ignore Scope 3 – see Carbon Footprint |
As a member of the green teams at PKF Francis Clark, I will be looking to share some of the initiatives that we are implementing as a firm, to reduce carbon emissions, as they may be useful to you and your business/organisation.
