Across the world businesses are facing increasing environmental compliance requirements, heightened demand for environmental transparency in transactions, and growing expectations from clients and customers regarding sustainability.
It can be easy to look at these requirements as yet another demand on the business, with time, resources and money needed to meet them.
However, the balance sheet benefits of reducing your carbon footprint in reality often far outweigh the investment needed to achieve it.
So, what are these benefits? Well, we’ve compiled a list of some of the biggest ones so you can decide for yourself:
Cost savings due to reduced energy usage and waste disposal
Reducing your business’s carbon footprint will, ultimately, help cut your bills and save you money. How can you do it? Often, it’s simply a case of seeing where you can make immediate improvements and then pushing for everyone to play their part in changing behaviours.
Audit your current energy use:
Start with an energy audit. This will show you where money is being wasted - for example, are you still using inefficient incandescent bulbs, or are there big gaps where heating or AC is escaping? Plus, it will give you the data to start encouraging energy-saving habits amongst staff.
Here are some top tips:
- Reducing heating and/or air conditioning usage, and ensuring windows and doors are shut when not needed - so hot or cold air doesn’t unnecessarily escape.
- Replacing lighting with LED alternatives and installing timers or movement sensors to activate them - so they are only ‘on’ when needed..
- Making sure lights are switched off in rooms not in use - and turning down heating / AC in those empty rooms
- Ensuring computers and other office equipment are powered down at the end of every working day
- Upgrade appliances and equipment to more energy efficient models - so boiling that kettle each time starts to cost a lot less.
Audit your current waste output and processes:
Reducing waste is also an area that can bring cost savings to the business, with less frequent waste disposal services being required. Initiatives such as the below can really help make a difference - but again, start with an audit so you know just how much stuff you are currently binning - and how much of each type: recyclable, non-recyclable, organic etc.
- Going as paperless as possible - no more printing out, but sharing via email or showing on screens.
- Eliminate single-use materials e.g. throwaway plates and cutlery used at lunchtimes
- Compost organic waste on-site when possible
- Ensure recycling facilities are available for employees to use - and auditing what is being thrown away. Bins should be for different types of waste so you can continue to measure and improve.
Improved reputation and brand value amongst your customers
Research shows that consumers are invested in sustainability and prefer to buy from companies that are environmentally and socially responsible. Ensuring that you are transparent about your efforts to reduce your carbon footprint and communicating this effectively to consumers can often have a significant impact on your reputation and the value that consumers attribute to your brand.
Rather than hiding your carbon emissions credentials on a website footer page, you can make a real feature of your sustainability in your marketing and communications strategy. Finding engaging ways to let people know about your carbon footprint reduction credentials can bring long-term benefits to your brand image.
Some simple rules to follow when talking about your sustainability status and plans include:
- Be factual, honest and transparent; don’t exaggerate or imply environmental claims that aren’t real, measurable and provable. It’s OK to say it’s a hard task but you are working on it!
- Use clear and straightforward language when talking about your carbon footprint and the steps you’re taking to reduce this. Using vague terms such as ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘green’ is not recommended.
- Provide supporting documentation and accreditations for environmental claims you make about your business e.g. B Corp certification.
Being sustainable opens up new market opportunities for tenders/partnerships or investment, and it will help you keep and strengthen your existing ones!
Operating more sustainably will become an ever more legal requirement for many businesses.
Over the next few years, big Enterprise scale companies will increasingly be required to measure and actively reduce their carbon footprint under legislation being introduced around the world including EU, UK and USA. Larger companies - for example listed entities - will have to follow the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Scope 1, 2, and eventually 3, reporting requirements. You can read more about it here and download our free whitepaper definitive guide.
While many SMEs are currently under no legal obligation to measure and report on their carbon footprint in the majority of countries, the Scope 3 requirements referenced above - and which are due to start coming into play in the coming few years, also require bigger businesses to report on the carbon footprint of their upstream and downstream activities. So, if an SME’s clients or operations include bigger companies, there will soon be a need for those businesses to measure and try to reduce their own footprints - and share that date with their larger partners.
This of course has knock-on consequences - namely that businesses that don’t start to measure and reduce their CO2e emissions, will find it harder to work with bigger businesses that are required to report.
However, it also means that SMEs can give themselves a competitive edge in tender and bidding processes - and contract renewals - by getting ahead of the curve with this.
The same logic also increasingly applies when it comes to securing investment. If you’re looking for potential investment for your business, having a strong sustainability plan already being implemented can give you access to a wider pool of potential partners and make you a more attractive prospect for investors. A recent survey by EY found almost 80% of investors want businesses to focus on ESG initiatives - even if it hits short term profitability - as it’s see as a key driver for long term success.
Improves business resilience and risk mitigation
By addressing your business carbon emissions now, you can also mitigate potential future risks to your company that could come from things such as changing regulations, energy cost increases, scarce resources and other challenges.
Taking action sooner rather than later on areas like energy use can put you in good standing in the years to come, making you less reliant on things beyond your control, such as global energy prices. For example, installing solar panels and battery storage systems to meet part of your energy needs, along with alternative solutions such as heat pump appliances, can help future-proof your energy needs for the foreseeable future.
Increase employee engagement
An often-overlooked potential benefit of working on your sustainability is to increase engagement with employees by empowering them to get involved as much as possible in your carbon emission reduction journey.
By asking for input from employees on decisions and asking them to share ideas and suggestions for how the business can reduce its carbon footprint, you can benefit from their emotional investment and sense of ownership over what is trying to be achieved together, along with getting some great new ideas you might not already have considered. This can also help employees be more open to the changes that need to be made to meet your sustainability goals and outcomes, and may have a positive impact on workforce morale and productivity.
What’s more, it also helps with recruitment and retention - which are major costs on a business.
Getting started with reducing your business carbon footprint
The idea of working out your current business carbon footprint can be a confusing task because there are multiple aspects to consider. The good news is that we’re here to help make it easy for you to estimate your emissions, then start making a plan to reduce them in a cost-effective way that can bring multiple benefits to your business, as well as to the environment.
Use our Carbon Footprint Estimator to get started.
