How to build an effective Carbon Reduction Strategy
Sharing our energy consulting team’s real-life experience in Carbon Reduction Strategy development
Working in partnership to help build your carbon reduction plan
Drawing upon the practical expertise of our consulting team, refined through hands-on development of Carbon Reduction Strategies in close partnership with our clients, our goal is to empower sustainability professionals and energy managers with the essential knowledge needed to craft a comprehensive and holistic approach for responding to climate change and the realisation of net zero emissions.
The role of a Carbon Reduction Strategy to navigate your transition to Net Zero
A strategic carbon reduction plan empowers organisations to navigate the complexities of decarbonisation, align with global climate goals, and drive positive environmental impact. There are even more good reasons to implement a strategy.
- Consumer Demand: Consumers increasingly seek eco-friendly products and responsible corporate behaviour. Companies that demonstrate commitment to carbon reduction can retain and attract environmentally conscious consumers.
- Investor Expectations: Investors now consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when allocating capital. A robust carbon reduction strategy is now essential to attract to investors to any organisation.
- Regulatory Landscape: Carbon management legislation is highly likely to increase. Proactive organisations can stay ahead of the curve by adopting emission reduction targets.
- Competitive Advantage: Organisations that reduce CO2e emissions position themselves competitively. As larger organisations drive carbon reduction in supply chains, businesses with a carbon reduction plan gain an edge.
- Public Perception: A growing number of people value the importance of taking action in response to climate change. Organisations with environmentally sustainable values and practices resonate with customers and future employees.
Customer Retention and Winning New Business: Many organisations now stipulate that a supplier must have a Carbon Reduction Strategy to bid/tender for new business or contract/service renewals. Suppliers must demonstrate a clear commitment to reducing their carbon footprint. The procuring organisation need to protect their scope 3 (supply chain emissions).
Planning and developing your Carbon Reduction Strategy
The success of your carbon reduction plan or net zero strategy depends on the consideration of a number of critical elements.
Organisations must define a specific and achievable ambition. The overall goal will guide actions and provide a roadmap for a carbon reduction plan. Each organisation’s strategic objective will vary from the next, some want to get to net zero carbon emissions as soon as possible to help play their part in reducing the impacts of climate change and some have a few motivating factors that focus efforts on particular sources of emissions only.
All carbon reduction strategies should address near-term, and long-term time frames. Near-term targets can provide gains and changes that build a solid foundation for the long-term goals, which will be more comprehensive and impact the more challenging areas of carbon emissions reduction.Organisations may prioritise their aim to reduce emissions from sources directly owned or controlled by their operations, Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Emissions related to supply chain and other indirect activities, Scope 3 typically represents the largest source of emissions.
Different industries will need to approach setting their targets with varying levels of ambition. Sectors such as fashion, infrastructure, manufacturing, power generation, and services will have a different combination of emissions sources, some of which will be much more complex to reduce than others. Understanding industry dynamics and tailoring strategies accordingly is essential.
Accurate measurement of greenhouse gas emissions is critical so that the targets set are meaningful and will stand up to scrutiny. Building a trusted data source you can integrate with other business intelligence (BI) tools will help to align your carbon and energy reporting with your business strategy. Organisations must transparently report their emissions data, track progress, and make informed decisions ensure this is based on up-to-date information, ideally ‘real-time’ rather than only updated annually, is key to the continued successful implementation of any Carbon Reduction Strategy.
Improving energy efficiency within your infrastructure and operations is often the most cost effective way to reduce emissions. Implement energy-saving technologies, optimise processes, and manage energy demand effectively.
The pitfalls and challenges that can impact a Carbon Reduction Strategy
A net zero strategy will face several pitfalls and challenges; overcoming them will shape your future carbon reduction planning and the overall success of your strategy. Varying from one organisation to another common pitfalls include:
Weak Carbon Accounting
- Data – If the carbon accounting is based on inconclusive or inconsistent data then tracking and reporting emissions effectively will be a struggle.
- Emissions Calculations – Not using a standard approach to calculating emissions and adapting to changes in available data will cause problems
- Re-baselining – Not comparing current emissions with a consistent baseline after organisation or data changes will result in meaningless performance comparisons
- Emission Intensity – Inappropriate basis for emissions intensity metrics also will result in meaningless performance comparisons
Supply Chain Complexity
Coordinating with suppliers to understand emissions and ensure supply of low-carbon materials and practices can be challenging. Lack of transparency in supply chains can create a Supplier Emissions Data Gap which can hinder the ability to fully understand and manage your carbon footprint.
Embodied Carbon
Focusing solely on operational carbon emissions while ignoring embodied carbon (associated with materials and construction) can be a pitfall. Addressing both is crucial.
Materials Selection
Choosing high-carbon materials (e.g., cement, steel) without considering alternatives can hinder progress. Consider choosing low-carbon materials like timber or recycled content.
Cost and Perception
Low-carbon solutions may be perceived as expensive. Balancing cost-effectiveness with sustainability is essential.
Policy and Regulation
Inconsistent policies and regulations across regions can create uncertainty. Advocacy for supportive policies is necessary.
Lack of Awareness
Stakeholders (employees, contractors, customers, partners) may not fully understand the details of the carbon reduction plan and their part in supporting it. Education, engagement and awareness-building are vital components.
Collaboration, innovation, and following industry standards and best practice in Carbon Accounting are key to overcoming these challenges and building effective carbon reduction strategies.
Our best practice approach for developing a Carbon Reduction Strategy
A carbon reduction strategy is a plan of how your organisation will get to net zero from where you are today.
Our Net Zero and Carbon Reduction Consultancy services help organisations to define, shape and monitor a carbon emissions strategy designed around their operational needs and challenges. Our experienced carbon reduction consultants work with organisations across a range of industries to create and support the delivery of bespoke carbon reduction and net zero strategy plans. At its core, our services cover four stages:
Before starting any carbon reduction journey, it is important to understand what within your operations and infrastructure is responsible for your emissions. This can be a challenge, especially for large, multi-site organisations with extensive supply chains – how do you know what to include in your scope?
As part of our carbon consulting service we will help you to review your existing operations to define the organisational boundaries, and establish where the responsibility lies for Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions across your operational infrastructure. As part of this assessment, we will typically conduct both buildings and process audits of your operations to gain an understanding of your Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.
Once your scope is established, we will calculate a Greenhouse Gas Footprint and work with you to set a realistic baseline for your operations, taking into consideration anomalies from periods where normal business operations have been affected.
For each item in Scope 1, 2 and 3 we will select or determine an appropriate methodology from the source data available to calculate the associated carbon emissions. We will also help you establish a data collection framework and methodology to support the ongoing collection of your consumption data for GHG reporting.
When starting on your carbon reduction strategy, it is important to take into consideration your organisation’s objectives and if you have any sustainability or net zero based commitments in place already, this will help shape the timeline of your journey.
We will determine your target ensuring it is appropriate and realistic to your organisation. If required the target can be Science-Based (detailed below) to support your overall carbon emissions aims. This can then be submitted for formal validation by The Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
We will then provide final strategy documents which set out specific GHG targets, actions to proceed with to achieve them and a community strategy for engaging stakeholders and relevant parties.
Monitoring, reporting on and celebrating the success of your carbon reduction achievements is just as important as the journey to get there. So you can continue to see and share your plan’s success, we will provide ongoing GHG reporting against your targets.
We will conduct a project review on the initiatives implemented from the Carbon Reduction Strategy report, and deliver an annual scope review with suggestions on where to realign your strategy against changes in your organisations structure and business aims.
What about Scope 4 emissions?
The concept of Scope 4 emissions or ‘avoided emissions’ is gaining eminence alongside the traditional greenhouse gas emissions categories identified by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol).
In 2019 the World Resources Institute (WRI) introduced a framework to cover the measurement and disclosure of GHG emissions that stem from a product or service, including avoided emissions.
The importance of a Carbon Reduction Strategy first
The WRI recommends that organisations should initially focus on a carbon reduction strategy of calculating and reporting their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions to establish a comprehensive understanding of their total emissions profile and creating a carbon reduction plan to reduce.
Currently, reporting Scope 4 emissions is not mandatory. The GHG Protocol, which sets the standard for emissions reporting, has yet to officially recognise Scope 4. However, voluntary reporting of these emissions can provide a more comprehensive view of an organisation’s environmental impact and progress in sustainability.
Meet our Sustainability Experts
Our in-house, professional, energy consultants are the independent experts behind our carbon reduction, net zero, emissions reporting and decarbonisation services. Each consultant has the breadth of skills, cross departmental expertise and sector experience to support the development of your carbon reduction strategy.
Ready to build a robust, data-driven
carbon reduction strategy?
Call us on 01908 041511 to find out how we can help