Carbon Footprint – Where to Start?

Climate change and our impact on the environment is without doubt, one of the most relevant issues of our time. This article aims to share Bishop Fleming’s environmental journey in calculating our carbon footprint for the first time, and offer some practical guidance based on our recent actions in this area.

Whilst United Nations COP summits debate what countries should do to limit climate change, each of us as individuals and as organisations, has a responsibility to minimise our impact on the planet.

A BEIS UK survey (Autumn 2022) highlighted that 83% of people are concerned about climate change. This is confirmed by YouGov surveys that record over 70% of people feel it is important that the businesses they buy from take climate action. In addition, 70% of millennials said they would prefer to work in a company with a strong sustainability agenda.

In the words of Elvis Presley, public opinion would like to see, “A little less conversation, a little more action, please.”

But where to start?

There is an adage in business, that if you can’t measure something, then you can’t manage it. A good place to start therefore is to understand your current carbon footprint. However, whilst many businesses recognise the benefits in measuring this, the landscape on how to do it can seem daunting and incredibly complicated.

Having just measured Bishop Fleming’s carbon footprint at 802 tCO2e (tonnes CO2 equivalent) for our financial year-ending May 2022, the following are lessons we learned as ‘first timers’ in the process.

• Understand the language - read articles, google websites, attend webinars, speak to peer members – it helps if you can gain a basic understanding of terms used and core definitions. You will read a lot about ‘net zero,’ ‘carbon neutral,’ ‘carbon offset’, ‘scopes 1, 2 & 3’ etc – try to familiarise yourself with what some of these mean.

• Do not be put off! Every organisation, even the most advanced in their environmental journey, had to start somewhere. Start by looking at the things that your organisation does that has the greatest environmental impact and assess what actions you may already have undertaken to reduce them. For instance, over the last 10 years, we have measured our business mileage, electricity and gas, and paper consumption as three priority areas to focus on.

• Seek advice – whilst you can calculate your carbon footprint yourself, there is an emerging new industry sector of professionals and consultants who can assist in the process. Not only will this give you timely advice, but most will also have software to help you easily record the data and convert it into CO2 equivalent. In addition, they should be able to independently verify your figures which enhances your public credibility. We are working with Net Zero Now , who have developed an accountancy sector protocol with industry bodies such as the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales).

• Understand what emissions fall under the three Scopes. Every business uses heat and light – these normally fall into Scopes 1 and 2. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from stationary sources that use fossil fuels such as natural gas, refrigerant coolant from air-conditioning, or vehicle fleet emissions. Scope 2 includes emissions from purchased electricity, heat, or steam. Calculating your Scopes 1 and 2 emissions is a good start-point as you should be able to find utility bill invoices and vehicle expense receipts relatively easily.

• Scope 3 is the harder stuff. This is basically everything else such as – purchased goods and services, capital goods, waste, public transport, hotels, employee commuting, and third-party delivery services. It is certainly the most daunting, but you will be surprised where data on these areas can be found – most will be in your annual accounts, expenses, or management information systems. You can determine commuting and home working data from a staff survey and set up future systems to capture data when none is currently available. Also remember, not everything that could fall under Scope 3 will be relevant to your business, so focus on what’s material and prepare an ‘inventory’ of areas to measure.

• As legislation on carbon reporting will inevitably become mandatory for more businesses, it is a good idea to base your results on your financial year-end.

• Whether or not you feel ready to commit to a Net Zero or a Carbon Neutral agenda, set some targets in the key areas that will have the greatest impact. Having said that, also embrace ‘quick wins’ and some of the ‘small stuff’ – it may not dramatically reduce your footprint, but it could help win hearts and minds of staff and demonstrate that you are acting as a responsible business.

• Engage with your staff and customers. These two stakeholder groups will welcome the fact you want to measure and reduce your environmental impact. It’s OK not to have all the answers but staff are a fantastic source of ideas. For instance, as part of a commuting survey to establish how our people travel to work, we also asked them for ideas on how we should reduce our footprint.  Many of these have formed the backbone of our environmental action plan.

• Be realistic and transparent on where you are and what you hope to achieve. It takes time to change things, particularly when balancing multiple business priorities and economic pressures.

At Bishop Fleming, we are on a long journey to reduce our environmental impact and do not profess to have all the answers. However, if you found this article useful and would like to discuss the challenges you face or share how you’ve overcome them, we’d love to hear from you. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with Ewan McClymont, at emcclymont@bishopfleming.co.uk.