getting started

Introduction

The most difficult part of taking action on the environment is getting started.

Once you have taken the plunge, you will very quickly learn what it all entails, how easy it is to make the transition to a more sustainable future and how remarkably diverse and substantial are the rewards.

On this page, we provide you with a brief walk through of the whole process.

Awareness

The first step is gaining an awareness of the issues.

We understand that, for many people, the taking care of the environment is an inconvenient distraction to their busy lives.

Unfortunately we live in a world where the news media delivers almost exclusively bad news. The negativity which surrounds climate change is so demotivating. It is all too easy to think that we’re doomed and there’s nothing that we, as individuals can do about it.

A more optimistic view is that mankind is embarking upon the largest and most exciting project in history.

The upcoming decades will see some fabulously positive technical innovation, a huge renaissance in the natural world and a widespread levelling up of impoverished people.

When we talk about awareness in this context, we mean trying to achieve a balanced understanding of the actual situation.

From there it becomes a lot easier to start thinking about how you can play a positive part in that future and take advantage of the many opportunities.

Motivations

For the majority of organisations, the benefits of taking substantial steps to reduce their carbon footprint far outweigh the costs.

Developing and working towards a clearly defined Environmental Strategy is already a legal requirement for larger companies and is likely to become so for smaller companies in the near future.

It is also increasingly becoming a contractural requirement up and down supply chains, with environmentally-aware companies being given preferential access to contracts.

Achieving a level of Environmental Certification can increase brand positivity, boost staff morale and drive increased sales, as well as enhance customer loyalty and price flexibility.

For the vast majority of companies, this process is pivotal to future prosperity.

Measurement

The next critical step in taking action on the environment is to quantify your carbon footprint.

This is surprisingly easy.

Virtually every time you spend money, some form of emissions are generated. To quantify your footprint we simply need to allocate your annual spend to various emission categories and apply appropriate multiplication factors.

The simplest calculation takes your total expenditure and multiplies it by a single approximate emissions factor, to provide a very crude estimation of your footprint.

A sensible mid-range approach is to split your expenditure across 10-30 different emissions categories and apply more finely tuned factors.

If you really want to reach an accurate figure, then we can break down each emissions category into any number of sub-categories. For example, ‘transport’ can be split out into ‘air, road, rail, sea’, which can be further subdivided into vehicle type (car, van, truck, bike), by power source (diesel, petrol, electric) and by size (mini, medium, luxury, SUV). Obviously there are diminishing returns to ever more detailed analyses, but it’s often worthwhile taking a close look when taking positive action on a particular source of emissions.

By quantifying your footprint, you will become more aware of heavy emissions areas where you might like to cut back and low emissions areas that you need not worry about too much.

In other words, measurement enables you to take control of your emissions, which is a very empowering and uplifting experience.

Reporting

The next step is for us to help you create an Environmental Action Plan, a document which is updated every year, alongside your regular financial accounts.

The report includes your overall environmental strategy, reporting of emissions, an analysis of the various positive actions that you may wish to carry out during each period, details of any carbon offsets that you may have purchased and notification of any carbon certification levels that you may have achieved.

These reports are described in more detail in the next article.

Positive actions

Once we have helped you to quantify your emissions and have sketched out the first draft of the report, you will be in a position to decide which positive actions you might want to consider for the first year.

These actions may include practical items such as “we intend to install solar water heaters”, behavioural items like “we intend to educate staff about cutting waste” or research options such as “we intend to review all our product suppliers to ensure they are the most environmentally sound choices”.

Some companies choose to be very proactive, implementing multiple actions each year to drive down their emissions.

Other companies are less proactive, either because they don’t have the time or because there isn’t much scope for reducing their already modest emissions. Sometimes it can be easier and simpler to simply purchase carbon offsets.

We have a directory of positive actions from which you can select and, in many cases, we are able to offer advice on which actions would be the easiest and most effective.

Carbon certification

For many organisations, one of the primary ambitions of taking action on climate is to achieve a level of carbon certification.

All three levels of certification (Carbon Aware, Carbon Neutral or Carbon Free) can be extremely positive for a brand and highly motivational for both staff and customers.

The vast majority of organisations are not yet able to achieve zero emissions, so they reach neutrality by purchasing carbon credits.

The end game

By the end of the process, potentially in just a few weeks, your company will have established a sound environmental strategy and a clear path towards sustainability.

Your brand will be enhanced and your staff will be motivated by this move.

You will be free to broadcast your new-found green credentials to your customers, which will help maintain existing contracts and open routes to new business.

You will have achieved all this for relatively little effort and surprisingly low cost. We will be on hand to guide you through every step and to continue to offer assistance into the future.

You will have plotted your path to a greener and more sustainable future.

Next article

Environmental reporting

In this section we discuss the various obligations and advantages of environmental reporting and explain how we can help you create a suitable reporting structure for your company.