What would meaningful climate action look like?
What would meaningful climate action look like?
A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about the origins of carbon footprinting, in which I suggested that we need to challenge the obsession with calculating our corporate carbon footprints and put more of our energy into practical action to tackle climate change and the ecological crisis. A few of you followed up and asked me what type of action companies could actually be taking, and whether there are tools beyond carbon footprinting that can help.
In the article on carbon footprints I said that,
…reflecting on what the data did teach us over the years, I can’t help but think that it would have been easier if someone had just given us a list of things to do.
Immediately after I wrote that, I thought of Adam Bastock and the practical advice that he is giving to businesses through Small99. So, when it came to writing this post, I asked Adam if we could team up to put some practical advice together for businesses to take real climate action. Adam kindly obliged, and here it is!
We’ve divided this up into two main sections of the things that are within your direct control and the things that you can influence as a business. Let’s dive in.
Changes within your control
Here’s a selection of climate actions that are often within the direct control of businesses to change. Every company is different so you always need to review what will work for you and adjust accordingly, but hopefully some of the following are applicable.
1. Change your products and services
The design of your own products and services is generally something that you can control. For example, you can pursue improvements in energy efficiency, more eco-friendly materials, alternative energy sources such as electric instead of petrol, and if you’re in the food industry then switching to ingredients that are more plant based or produced using more ecological agricultural practices.
Let’s look at an example. This could be a huge change, like changing your cafe’s menu to be entirely plant based. Based on Government spend-based emissions factors, if you spend £20,000 a year on meat products you’re generating around 12 Tonnes of CO2e (tCO2e). Changing this entirely to plant based reduces it to around 2tCO2e. However, this is a pretty significant business model shift which not everyone can make, understandably. A less drastic alternative would be to redesign your menu, so that the meat options are de-prioritised, but still available, with the plant based alternatives making up the bulk of the options. A subtle shift in design can nudge customers in making a subconscious decision and ordering plant based items just due to menu design. In this scenario, spending £15,000 a year on veg, and £5,000 on meat, would produce 5.2 tCO2e, a significant saving without actually changing your business model.
Equally, simply offering things you are currently throwing away for sale can generate new revenue streams and reduce your impact. Selling individual items that are leftover won’t be practical, however making them into “Mystery Boxes” of products not suitable for sale can be a great way to stop throwing out perfectly usable, but not perfect, items. Things like candles with damaged packaging, misprints, or leftovers from bundles can become exclusive and sought after rarities!
2. Limit your travel
Travel is often a large source of greenhouse gas emissions for many businesses and there are many opportunities to reduce it. This can be as simple as replacing some physical meetings with phone or video calls, but we can also make an active choice to choose the lowest impact form of transport when we do travel. As a rule of thumb, we should prioritise in the following order - Walking, Cycling, Train, Bus, Electric Car, Petrol or Diesel Car, Aeroplane.
There are schemes available to encourage employees to use more eco-friendly travel methods such as the Cycle to Work scheme in the UK and the Electric Car Scheme. Many studies have shown electric bikes to replace cars for many short trips too, and are a better alternative than Electric Cars in some situations.
The biggest single source of travel emissions though can often come from just a small number of flights, so putting in place a partial or full no-fly policy can make a big difference. You could define limited circumstances under which the company will permit flying, or if your business can survive without it (like Wholegrain Digital), then a blanket ban on flying can help keep emissions to a minimum.
Also, we appreciate that public transport isn’t always the most effective solution or appropriate alternative in your area. However, as a business you have significant influence over local authorities and have an opportunity to make a difference by advocating for the transport infrastructure that you need. Ensuring that authorities are aware of the demand for new infrastructure, be it bus stops or cycle lanes, or car clubs, is key in changing the system. You are unlikely to be the only one thinking it, or facing the challenge! A great website to start with this is Write to Them. More difficult, but more importantly, keep an eye out for local consultations on things like active travel schemes and make sure to respond as an organisation - your response will carry more weight than an individual.
It’s also worth being aware of what modes of transport your customers want to use and then taking steps to support low carbon options that meet their needs. A study in Berlin of business owners showed that 93% of customers came on foot or public transport, yet business owners thought over 20% drove in. This misunderstanding could damage their business, if for example they protested about car spaces being taken out when in fact, just 7% of customers came by car.
3. Switch to renewables
Switching electricity tariff to a 100% renewable tariff can be a low hanging fruit for many businesses. Switching tariffs often doesn’t cost anything extra and doesn’t take much time so it's worth doing if you are able to.
Some businesses don’t have control over their own energy supply, especially when using shared or rented premises, but there can still sometimes be an opportunity to influence the people who are in charge of the energy tariff. If your employees are working from home then you could provide an incentive for them to switch their home electricity to a renewable tariff, creating a win-win for everyone.
If you are in the lucky position to own a premises as a business then you could also consider installing solar on your property, which could help reduce energy bills and directly feed solar energy into your operations. If not possible on your roof, consider a solar carport in the car park instead. It also ensures cars stay cool and clean during the summer!
Natural gas is more tricky as there is no such thing currently as truly renewable gas (although Ecotricity are working on it), but if you own your premises then you may be able to explore alternative heat sources such as heat pumps or biomass boilers. If you use a lot of water, then Solar Thermal can also be a great option.
4. Reduce energy consumption
Energy efficiency can be a commercial as well as environmental win for businesses as money invested up front in insulting buildings, changing lighting or updating equipment and processes can pay back over the long term in reduced energy costs. As energy costs have risen drastically this year, the payback time on energy efficiency improvements is likely shorter than ever. If you’re looking for a place to start, then just like at home, simple efforts to reduce drafts and insulate lofts can be easy wins.
LED Light bulbs can save hundreds a year, and pay back for themselves in as little as 18 months even for large installations. There’s a handy LED Saving calculator from Phillips (click on the price tag on the results screen to enter in your energy tariff).
If you’re a tenant, it can be difficult to get smart meters installed. However, Smart Plugs sit between the plug socket and the device, giving you quick and flexible information on how much energy is being used.
They also let you schedule timings, such as when you’re out of office to save power. Individual devices are around £15, allowing you to quickly start gathering device specific data.
5. Eat different food
Food is a sensitive topic when it comes to climate action because it is so deeply ingrained in our cultures, in our family values and in our own habits. However, food does have a huge impact on the environment.
In particular, animal agriculture is one of the biggest causes of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and ocean dead zones globally so switching to more plant based foods can significantly reduce environmental impact. This might not be relevant for all businesses but if you are in the food or catering industries then you can look at the foods you offer to see whether changes could be made.
For other businesses, look at your company catering for events, canteens and business meals to see if some sort of food policy (like our veggie policy) could be designed that offers people reduced environmental impact, better health and great taste. Also look to see whether you can source foods that are produced more responsibly, for example from organic farming practices.
The thing with food is that there will always be edge cases where the most environmentally friendly option is not the plant based one, or the organic one or the local one, but it’s important not to let perfect be the enemy of good. Take action and adopt an approach for your business that means that on average, you are better than average.
On that note, food miles and packaging account for just 10% of the footprint of typical food, so going local may not always be the lowest carbon option, even if it has other benefits. What you eat is often more important than where it came from.
The beauty of food is that you can have fun with it. Focus on enjoying new things rather than cutting things out - why not have a plant based office-day where all the food is Indian, Moroccan, Lebanese or Ethiopian? Themes of food like this can overcome any initial hesitation against a dish being “no meat”, with a huge range of interesting vegan and vegetarian dishes that many would not think twice about digging into.
6. Innovate for a better future
It’s clear that business as usual cannot be sustained, and that means we need to do things differently. We need pioneering businesses to take risks in developing new business models, technologies and products that can help us solve the ecological crisis. Areas of innovation to explore as a business could include:
More energy efficient and circular products and technologies
Business models that support a more circular economy e.g. Reusing, repairing, restoring and reselling items, including your own products
Products that do not rely on fossil fuels (e.g. electrification)
New energy storage technologies and products
Clean energy technologies and products
Scaling up existing green technologies
Generating demand for existing green technologies
To meet corporate and governmental Net Zero targets, we need to transition a huge amount of technology and infrastructure, and that includes a large amount of capital. There is a lot of money to be made in the shift, so if that’s what motivates you, there’s profitable work to be done in climate innovation.
The scale of shift needed is akin to that of the industrial revolution, only this time you can see exactly what the problems that we need to fix are. And remember, businesses have existed for thousands of years to solve problems!
Change you can influence
In addition to the actions that we can take to change things directly within our own control, we can also influence positive change. Here are a number of ways that businesses can use their influence to make progress on tackling climate change:
Advocating for change within our industries by making conscious purchasing decisions and influencing our supply chains to offer lower impact products and services
Engaging with suppliers to ask for their sustainability actions, and helping them form them if they don’t have them
Contacting local councillors and MPs to support low-carbon initiatives. Too often positive action gets delayed because local authorities don’t have confidence in them due to a “silent majority” who support it never saying so. Instead, a vocal minority get their way.
Supporting initiatives to influence government policy, such as the Better Business Act or Local Electricity Bill
Joining climate campaigns such as Business Declares to have a larger shared voice on climate issues
Supporting employees in their own activism by allowing time off and training in non-violent direct action
Sharing knowledge on best practices and creating open tools for your industry to accelerate change
Supporting employees in making positive personal change such as changing their home energy, cycling to work, taking holidays without air travel and giving them an opportunity to try different types of foods with a lower environmental impact
Divesting any corporate investments from fossil fuel companies and offering your employees a green pension option, as well as switching to a business bank that doesn’t invest your money in fossil fuels
Using your resources and influence to provide education about environmental issues
Bringing carbon and environmental impact into everyday decisions. Every purchase decision you make is either working with or against your environmental targets. Bring KPIs and things like transport measurement into every day meetings and discussions. If a decision needs to be made on anything, ask the team: what is the environmental impact?
Investing in the environment
Beyond direct actions within our business operations and influence we can have more broadly, we can also take action as a business to support the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems. This could take place in many forms including funding or volunteering with rewilding projects. There’s a balance to be struck between cost effective impact at scale, which can often be best achieved by funding projects overseas, and the benefits of getting employees, suppliers and other local stakeholders engaged in the issues which might be better achieved locally, with projects that they can see and participate in directly. There’s no right answer, so do what feels right. Or do both! Often investment in environmental action is highly cost effective, and can be a compelling brand story.
Many businesses engage in carbon offsetting schemes and we’d suggest that these are looked at through the lens of supporting nature rather than “undoing” the emissions of your business, so choose your offsetting projects mindfully to ensure that you are supporting projects that you believe in.
Mitigate or adapt?
Finally, we want to acknowledge that we're now at a stage in history where significant climatic changes are already locked in. We can take action to limit these changes, but we cannot stop them entirely. Therefore, we need to think not just about how to prevent climate change, but how to adapt society to the changes that we are going to face. This is not just an environmental issue but a societal and business security issue.
Think about scenarios such as whether your business can function effectively during a heatwave, or whether your supply chains would be disrupted if your factory in China had to stop production due to hydropower failure from droughts (which happened in August 2022 to Tesla and Foxconn). It isn’t so easy to provide a list of tangible actions to do on adaptation, but localisation of your supply chain, developing more circular supply chains and provision of your own renewable energy supplies are good places to start.
It’s time to take action
We hope that this article has given you some ideas of where you can start taking action. There are plenty of options within your control, but perhaps more importantly within your influence. One of the biggest barriers with small businesses taking climate action is confidence, and this mostly stems from not talking about sustainability with other businesses. Use your voice to open up conversations with others and influence their thoughts in any small way you can.
Remember, this isn’t about seeking perfection. There are many valid reasons why you can’t take action, many of which are far out of your control. That doesn’t stop you from discussing this with others, and celebrating the actions that you have taken and can take.
All you need to do, is be better than you were yesterday!
To wrap up, we want to acknowledge that this list is not exhaustive and we would love to hear your ideas for how businesses can take meaningful, practical action on climate change. Please do share your ideas and experiences in the comment below.
P.S. There’s no audio recording this week as this post didn’t fit the audio format so well.
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Brilliant article. Literally can't think of anything I would add. There is so much that businesses can do without having to make massive investments. Policy changes, supplier changes and influencing are all largely free to do, don't take a lot of time and can even save money. We need more of this kind of messaging.
Another excellent and most importantly, actionable article. There are things in here that every business can do. Sometimes we see the problem as being so big that it is overwhelming. Breaking it down into actionable steps that we can take makes it much more manageable and achievable.