The pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine have both pushed the climate crisis from the headlines over the lats couple of years. But the need to be more environmentally friendly is still a huge priority for all of us, both individually and collectively.
The trouble is, not only can going green take a lot of effort, the latest data from the British Business Bank shows the vast majority of smaller businesses in the UK don’t understand common environmental terms such as ‘net zero’, ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘carbon footprint’ or how they apply to their businesses.
Let’s cut through the jargon and give you some useful tips to help cut your carbon footprint and fight climate change from your office.
Do you understand ‘carbon jargon’?
A survey of 1,000 senior decision makers in smaller businesses found more than half (54%) believe the language, terminology and information around carbon emissions reduction are unnecessarily complex.
Almost two-thirds (61%) said they would find more information and advice about taking action to measure and reduce their business’ carbon emissions helpful, with more than half (53%) of those wanting advice on measuring their business’ carbon footprint. A similar proportion (51%) wanting information to help work out if reducing carbon emissions makes financial sense for their business.
Nearly half (44%) of those surveyed don’t know where to get information on reducing their carbon emissions and how best to approach related commercial or financial opportunities.
And then there was the issue of ‘carbon jargon’. Here are the terms most misunderstood by businesses:
Greenhouse gas emissions
87% of businesses did not have a full understanding of the term and what it meant for their business.
There are four main types of greenhouse gas emissions:
- Carbon Dioxide.
- Methane.
- Nitrous Oxide.
- Fluorinated Gases.
These gasses trap heat and contribute to the climate change that causes extreme weather, disruptions to food supply disruptions, increased wildfires are other issues. They also contribute to respiratory disease from smog and air pollution.
Decarbonisation
78% of businesses did not have a full understanding of the term and what it meant for their business.
Decarbonisation is simply the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions through the use of low carbon power sources to help cut the amount of greenhouse gasses that enter the atmosphere.
Carbon neutral
69% of businesses did not have a full understanding of the term and what it meant for their business.
Carbon neutrality means having a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in carbon sinks.
Net zero
74% of businesses did not have a full understanding of the term and what it meant for their business.
Net zero is the target of removing the same amount of greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere as we produce. We’ll reach net zero when the amount we add is no more than the amount taken away. Although it’s similar to carbon neutral, it’s more far reaching.
Carbon footprint
59% of businesses did not have a full understanding of the term and what it meant for their business.
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our everyday actions. The average carbon footprint per person in the UK, per year, is 12.7 tonnes CO2e.
Get #GreentoGrow
The British Business Bank has launched a #GreenToGrow campaign, to help demystify and alert smaller businesses to the commercial benefits of investing in decarbonisation.
Resources include a new ‘Green Decoder’, an online guide co-created with Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University to help smaller businesses decipher the terminology surrounding decarbonisation.
The British Business Bank’s online Finance Hub also provides a series of guides and information about sustainability issues and how smaller businesses can start their journey towards net zero.
How to cut the carbon footprint of your office
If you run a small business, it could be easy to assume that what you do doesn’t make a big difference to the environment. This could be true in isolation, but The British Business Bank’s Smaller businesses and the transition to net zero report, found that smaller businesses account for around half (50%) of total emissions from UK businesses.
Solving climate change is an international challenge. However, an individual contribution makes the biggest difference, and the best place to start reducing the carbon footprint is your office. Reducing Carbon Emissions means minimising the CO2 contribution, and fortunately, there are plenty of long-term changes that your business can implement to become more sustainable. We’ve outlined some simple ways to help your company save energy and reduce your greenhouse gas footprint without breaking the bank.
Minimise employee travel
One of the quickest ways to reduce emissions is to reappraise business travel. There are many ways you can use the web, telephone or video-conferencing to avoid the unnecessary trips. Also, you can provide flexible work arrangements to your employees, such as working from home, which would reduce the employee commuting time and carbon emissions related to business travel.
To add, consider a carbon-offset program for your business. Encourage employees to use car pool, public transport or cycling as alternative ways of travel, and hold meetings via conference call, instead of getting everyone to come into the office. Hybrid working has become popular since the pandemic, and every little helps.
Switch off all office devices
Bring good habits to work! If you can turn off all devices when you leave home, you can easily do the same at work. Nowadays, computers have power management options so they can be set up to turn off automatically. Keep in mind, a single computer left to operate all day produces 1,500 pounds of CO2 per year. Another quick fix is to use the lights when you need them. Install motion-sensitive lights or simply switch off the lights when you leave and reduce your average energy bills by up to 19%.
Reduce paper use
Nowadays, a paper-based working has been replaced by various electronic devices. Scanners, computers and faxes made cutting paper waste easy. If you do need to print, switch to double-sided printing and re-use one-sided copies for drafts and notepads. Also, consider paper recycling. Recycling is one of the simplest ways to reduce your Carbon Footprint immediately. If your business team consists of 20 or more people, switching to recycled paper could have the same effect as taking 70,000 cars off the road for one year.
Involve your staff
Employee education might be one of the most important elements in your business sustainability strategy. Make sure everyone in your team is equally informed and instructed to follow the new environmental strategy from the very beginning. Develop an incentive scheme rewarding individual employees or a team which reduces the most waste. After all, it is the team, their ideas and actions that will make a real difference.
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