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Introduction
Some key terminology used in this section:
Carbon footprint – The amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere because of the activity of an individual or organisation.
Carbon neural – Causing no extra increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This can result from limiting carbon dioxide emissions and from removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Often used interchangeably with net-zero.
Carbon offsets – The process of compensating for the addition of carbon emissions into the atmosphere by using processes or technologies to remove the carbon that has been added, through carbon sequestration.
Carbon positive/ Carbon negative- The process of removing more carbon from the environment than an individual or organisation is adding, resulting in a net reducing of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, going beyond net- zero. The terms carbon positive and carbon negative are used interchangeably.
Net Zero Carbon dioxide emissions – The state in which no extra carbon dioxide emissions are being released into the atmosphere, either through a reducing in emissions or thorough it being balanced by the removal of greenhouse gases. Often used interchangeably with carbon neutral.
The business case for measuring and reducing your carbon emissions is continuing to grow with several reasons to act. Such as:
Higher and more volatile energy costs increase the value of energy savings
Needing to report carbon footprints to meet mandatory reporting requirements
Playing a vital role in you Corporate Social Responsibility
Enhancing brand value with the public increasingly concerned about the environmental actions of organisations
Increasing the attraction of your organisation to potential investors or other organisations who are looking for environmental conciseness
The several types of carbon footprints:
Organisational footprint (Scope 1 & 2 emissions- see below)
This measures the GHG emissions from all the activities across the organisation including energy use in buildings, industrial processes and company vehicles.
Supply chain footprint (Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions- see below)
This measures the carbon impact from you organisation and your wider value chain as well as the product itself.
Product carbon footprint
This measures the carbon impact of the whole life of an individual product.
There are a few methodologies for measuring and reporting your carbon emissions. For these resources, we have focused upon the Greenhouse Gas Protocol – corporate standard.
However, it is worth being aware of the other options such as the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) (ISO 14064-1:2018), the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) and The Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Standard is a widely used standard that sets out how to account for your greenhouse gas emissions. It is a tool that organisations can use to understand, quantify, and manage greenhouse gas emissions. It categorises your emissions into 3 ‘scopes’:
Scope 1 emissions: The direct emissions created by activities under your organisations control such as from gas boilers, vehicles, and fugitive emissions (such as refrigeration or nitrogen fertilisation).
Scope 2 emissions: The indirect emissions cause by the production of the electricity purchased and used by your organisation.
Scope 3 emissions: All other indirect emissions from the activities of your organisation, occurring from sources that you do not own or control. This includes organisation travel, waste treatment, employee travel and procurement.
Scope 1 | Scope 2 | Scope 3 |
Fuel combustion | Purchased electricity, heat and steam | Purchased goods and services Capital Goods Fuel and energy related activities |
Company vehicles | | Wasted generated in operation Business travel Employee commuting Upstream leased assets |
Process emissions | | Downstream transportation and distribution Processing of sold products Use of sold products End of life treatment of sold products |
Fugitive emissions | | Downstream leased assets Investments Franchises |
Calculating your direct emissions
Map out the carbon emissions produced from your own operations and energy consumption (your scope 1 and 2 emissions).
There are a couple of free online carbon calculators that can help you to understand your current carbon emissions:
The Carbon Trust SME Carbon Footprint Calculator
This is a free, simple to use calculator that is design specifically for SME to measure their scope 1 and scope 2 emissions to provide a carbon footprint for your business.
Carbon Footprint Carbon Calculator
Carbon footprint also offer the opportunity for smaller businesses to easily calculate your carbon emissions for free. This approach is more detailed that the carbon trust, breaking energy consumption down into more specific consumption activities. There is also the option for a more detailed look at carbon emissions for smaller and larger businesses at a cost. This also comes with extra resources to reduce emissions.
CBN Expert Carbon Calculator
This is a very quick and user-friendly carbon calculator that can display results in easy-to-read infographics. There is a fee for this service, starting at £15 a month, but they offer a free 30-day trial.
From this it’s worth identifying your hotspots, the main sources of your emissions, so that you can start to mitigate these.
It is also worth being aware that there are several organisations that can support you to calculate your carbon emissions and help to develop plans for a reduction in these.
Communicating your emissions
Emission reporting is the process of measuring and reporting the emissions that your organisation produces because of your activities.
Reporting your emissions is an effective way to understand where your organisation stands and measure your progress. There are a few steps that can help you to ensure you are undertaking good reporting:
Include a clear explanation of the methods used to calculate carbon emissions and what activities you have measured (Scope 1, 2, and/or 3)
Report as much as possible, going above the minimum legal requirements
Publicly disclose your reporting so that it is accessible by the public and other key stakeholders
Use reporting to guide targets set to reduce emissions
Reducing your emissions
While measuring your carbon emissions is a good place to start. It’s vital that organisations look to reduce their carbon emissions and work towards having net zero carbon emissions. These steps set out how to do this:
Decide a baseline year
A baseline year is the year from when your reductions start and will be used as a comparison to show you progress. It should be within the last two years (any historical emissions reductions that you have achieved can be acknowledged but should not be part of you next milestones, such as halving emissions).
Set a target and target year
Once you have decided that you want to reduce your carbon emissions, it’s important that you set a target for the level you would to reduce your emissions by.
It is suggested that a minimum pace should be to halve your emissions every 10 years, but preferably faster. To halve your emissions in 10 years requires a 7.6% year on year reduction. Halving in 5 years means 13% and 3 years means a 21% year on year reduction.
Develop a plan to reduce emissions
Decide on the order in which you plan to reduce your emissions.
Focus on the options that offer easy solutions and have the ability to make a bigger impact first. Energy efficiency and transport are often a good place to start.
Disclose your emissions and plan for reduction
Alongside reporting your emissions, it is important to publish your plan on how you’re going to reduce these. Doing so can help motivate you as well as highlight the environmental actions that you’re taking to others.
Evaluate results and progress
It’s important to evaluate your emissions and the progress that you are making year on year to ensure that you are on track to meet your target and can focus your attention on the areas where more work is needed.
Calculating scope 3 emissions
While you do not have to calculate your scope 3 emissions in order to work towards carbon net zero, calculating and reducing them is important to ensure that your organisation is having the smallest environmental impact. We suggest that you start by measuring your scope 1 and 2 emissions and once you have a hand on these, you can begin to measure and reduce your scope 3 emissions.
Calculating your scope 3 emissions can be a bit more complicated than calculating your own emissions as it requires looking at both the up and downstream activities related to your organisation, however there is an online calculator that can help you to do this.
Greenhouse gas protocols scope 3 (Value chain) Evaluator
A tool allowing you to estimate your scope 3 emissions. This allows you to estimate you wider emissions that are not captured by other calculators focusing on scope 1 and 2 emissions.
Scope 3 Evaluator | Greenhouse Gas Protocol (ghgprotocol.org)
They also have an in-depth guide to outline how to measure scope 3 emissions in line with international standards.
Scope 3 Calculation Guidance | Greenhouse Gas Protocol (ghgprotocol.org)
There are several organisations that can support you to measure your scope 3 emissions.
Reducing your scope 3 emissions
Reducing scope 3 emissions requires you take a similar approach to reducing your scope 1 and 2 emissions.
Decide of baseline year
A baseline year is the year from when your reductions start and will be used as a comparison to show you progress. It should be a year no more than two years ago.
Set a target and target year (e.g. half emissions by 2030)
Set a target for the level you would like your emissions to be reduced by.
It’s suggested that a minimum pace should be to halve your emissions every 10 years, but preferably faster. To halve your emissions in 10 years requires a 7.6% year on year reduction. Halving in 5 years means 13% and 3 years means a 21% year on year reduction.
Develop a plan to reduce emissions
Decide on the order in which you plan to reduce your emissions.
Focus on the options that can offer easy solutions and could make a bigger impact. As your scope 3 emissions include emissions that are outside of your organisation, such purchased goods, it may be that this plan must include communicating you desire for lower emissions to your stakeholders and working with them to reduce these. It may also include educating your employees on more sustainable commuting habits.
Disclose your emissions and plan for reduction
Alongside reporting your emissions, it is important to publish your plan on how you’re going to reduce these. This is important as it can help to motivate you and hold you accountable to your commitments as well as highlighting the environmental actions that you’re taking.
Evaluate results and progress
It’s important to evaluate your emissions and the progress that you are making year on year to ensure that you are making progress towards reaching your targets and can focus attention in the areas where more work is needed.
Useful links:
Make it Net Zero (Plymouth)
Plymouth City Council has fully subsidised the Make it Net Zero support offered by South West Manufacturing Advisory Service to allow Plymouth businesses to access free carbon calculations and advice on how to reduce emissions. Funded spaces of this support are limited.
Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust have many free resources that help to explain the process of calculating carbon emissions, outline the process of reporting emissions and explain how to develop plans to reduce emissions.
The SME Climate Hub
The SME Climate Hub highlights several resources that are available to support the reporting and reduction of carbon emissions. Their business playbook also contains lots of useful information around carbon monitoring and reduction. Additionally, further resources are made available if you commit to their pledge of halving emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050.
WWF Emission Possible
This guide by the WWF is a good place to start when looking to understand how to report emissions and includes some sector specific resources.
DEFRA Small Business User Guide
A guide for SME’s on how to measure and report your greenhouse gas emissions.