Sustainability in Business: Calculating and Lowering Your Carbon Impact

These days we are all aware of the fact that we create our own carbon footprint, and for many businesses this can be substantial. It is for this reason that businesses now feel the need to try and reduce this by being more sustainable.

In this article, Mark Boardman, director of BEM Services takes a look at what your carbon footprint actually is and help you to find practical ways to reduce it.

What is a carbon footprint?

The carbon footprint of a business refers to the amount of greenhouse gas that you produce. This can come from a number of different sources, from your own processes to things like energy usage and transportation. Your carbon footprint is important because this is one of the leading causes of climate change, something which is causing irreparable harm to the planet.

Many businesses are now aware of the size of their carbon footprint and are feeling the responsibility to help reduce it and minimise the harm that they do to the earth. So, how do you work out how big your carbon footprint is?

How is your carbon footprint calculated?

Carbon footprints are talked about in units of weight, such as kilograms, tonnes and grams, but of course, it requires you to work out the amount of carbon dioxide that you are responsible for. This means that you need to consider the scopes for your carbon footprint.

Scope 1 covers the emissions that your business creates through direct actions, such as running heat systems.

Scope 2 and 3 cover indirect emissions, and so Scope 2 considers energy bought from external sources and Scope 3 looks at the emissions caused by business work like travelling.

To calculate your carbon emissions, you need to look back over the period of a year and record your energy consumption during that time. These records need to be converted into compatible units which can be entered into a carbon calculator in order to find your Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions.

Tips to reduce your carbon footprint

Once you know exactly what your carbon footprint looks like, you can then set to work finding ways in which you can reduce it.

Electricity consumption

The electricity consumption of your business is likely to be one of the biggest factors when it comes to your carbon footprint, so it is important to find as many ways as possible to reduce this. It could be through something as simple as ensuring that lights are turned off when people leave a room and switching off appliances at the plug when not in use, instead of leaving them in standby mode.

It is also possible to reduce the amount of electricity that you use by looking at the type of things that use energy and finding ways to make them more efficient. For example, switching traditional light bulbs to LED ones can make a massive saving.

In most businesses, it is impossible to cut out electricity usage all together, so instead look at where your electricity comes from.

Until recently, a lot of our electricity was the product of burning fossil fuels, but these days, it can come from much more renewable sources.

Look at how much of the energy that you are supplied with is renewable and possibly even consider installing your own solar panels so that you can generate electricity yourself.

Insulation

In the British climate, heating is still very important, and for many this requires the burning of fossil fuels for gas central heating.

Whilst you could consider switching your heating system to an air source heat pump, you could also reduce the amount of heating that you need by ensuring that your business premises are properly insulated.

This could be through curtains and blinds or adding insulation to loft spaces and cavity walls to help make the building as thermally efficient as possible.

Transportation

It is estimated that 34% of UK carbon emissions in 2022 came from transport, so it is clear that this is likely to be a big contributor for your business, whether it is transporting goods, visiting clients or simply getting staff to and from work.

This can be a difficult factor to measure, but there are things that you can do. Encouraging staff to walk or cycle to work can be good if they have the space to shower and change when they arrive, or you could encourage a car sharing scheme to reduce the number of vehicles being used to get to work.

If your business uses fleet vehicles such as company cars, vans or trucks, then it might be worth making the switch to electric. By ensuring that people who are working for you are using an electric vehicle instead of petrol or diesel, you can make an instant reduction to your carbon footprint.

Recycling

Waste is a big problem when it comes to emissions. By recycling as much as possible, we can not only save energy, but also reduce the number of materials that make their way into either landfill sites or incinerators.

Recycling can span many different things, so it is important to look at your options. Whilst many people automatically think of paper and cardboard, you should also consider recycling metal, plastic, fabric, food, glass and even batteries to make a real difference to the environment.

One thing that tends to be forgotten when it comes to recycling is electrical equipment, which contributed 53.6 million tonnes of waste alone in 2019, so it is important to find ways in which you can recycle this too.

Your carbon footprint may not seem huge in comparison to others around you, but if every business were to calculate the impact that it has and take steps to reduce it, the difference that it could make would be massive.

We all have to take responsibility for the effects that we are having on the climate change problem, and by making small changes in different areas, it is possible to chip away at the size of each carbon footprint.