The 2017 UK conversion factors are released  

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The arrival of the much-anticipated 2017 Defra UK conversion factors for greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting confirms a step change in the carbon intensity of the UK electricity grid and will pose a significant challenge for businesses when they disclose their emissions performance later in the year.

The headline drop of 14% on the electricity consumption conversion factor compared to 2016 will benefit businesses reporting performance on location-based emissions considerably. It will, however, also pose a challenge to articulate, with businesses across the board expected to report greatly reduced electricity emissions (the most major emissions source for many). Not getting internal and external commentary around annual performance right risks:

  • Internal momentum on energy efficiency being lost against a background of seemingly stellar performance, or alternatively;
  • External articulation of performance to stakeholders becoming shrouded by the reducing conversion factor; diluting the recognition of the tangible emissions reduction actions taking place.

Given the rapidly decarbonising grid (the UK electricity conversion factor has fallen 23% since 2015), 2017 could be a trigger year for more businesses moving to market-based reporting and target setting. This would ensure that carbon reduction successes are more directly correlated to proactive business decisions, rather than the influence of macro energy market investments and government policy.

So what else is new for 2017? In the latest edition, keen reporters will also find that:

  • Plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles now have distance based factors available across scope 1, 2 and 3 (transmission and distribution)
  • Hotel stays have been added on a per room per night basis for 24 global markets
  • Domestic and short haul flight conversion factors have decreased by an average of 4% whilst long haul flights from the UK have increased in intensity by an average of 3%
  • Overseas electricity continues to be absent from the factor set, with users signed posted to the IEA to source factors. Scope 3 electricity transmission and distribution factors are still available.

All in all, there is considerable work ahead for reporters this year as they find the right narrative to explain their 2017 emissions performance, adapt to the alignment of CDP questionnaires with the TFCD (Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosure) recommendations and increase the breadth of their ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) disclosures in response to the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive.

 

If you have any questions related to UK or IEA conversion factors, CDP disclosure or wider ESG reporting, get in touch [email protected] / 0207 048 0450.

Daniel Murray
Daniel Murray

Sustainable Development Goals – how should businesses act?  

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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are ultimately aimed at “freeing the human race from the tyranny of poverty and healing and securing our planet”, present a supremely ambitious and transformative vision to be pursued and achieved by all sectors of society, including governments, businesses and the public, by 2030.

With very low public awareness, and government action more or less non-existent, progress on achieving the SDG’s within the UK to date has been primarily driven by the private sector. This isn’t particularly surprising given the SDGs have been called the greatest economic opportunity of our time. Forward thinking organisations have finally realised the cost of inaction will ultimately be far greater than action.

But with 17 targets and 169 sub-targets on topics as diverse as gender equality, zero hunger and climate action, if you don’t have a dedicated team working on your sustainability agenda, where do you even begin?

Here’s our four-step process for getting the SDGs off the ground in your business:

  1. Assess the materiality of each SDG to your organisation & align with your existing strategy

The good news is that whilst the SDGs are necessarily far-reaching, it’s likely that not all 17 SDGs are entirely relevant to your organisation.

Take one of our FTSE-listed clients – a recruitment company – as an example; whilst their existing CSR strategy hasn’t been aligned with the SDGs, it already has a keen focus on SDG #5 (gender equality), #8 (decent work and economic growth) and #13 (climate action). Given their sector and existing strategy, these three SDGs are clearly the most material to their organisation and could easily be aligned with their existing strategy.

For some of our other clients, SDGs such as #7 (affordable and clean energy) and #12 (responsible consumption and production) will be clearer areas of focus. Identifying the SDGs which are material, relevant, and upon which your organisation can influence, will allow you to focus your efforts and work efficiently.

 

  1. Demonstrate the business case

Whilst increasingly we are seeing more and more organisations, particularly consumer brands, shift to a purpose led model, where success is measured by more than just share price, the bottom line is that profitability is a key component of long term sustainability.

Conveniently then, its estimated that achieving the SDGs will open up $12 trillion in market opportunities and generate 380 million new jobs by 2030. As the Financial Times put it: “it is a paradox that the most profitable companies are not the most profit-focused”. Time and time again, we see that purpose-led businesses, who act ethically and put consumer expectations at the heart of their business model, outperform profit-driven competitors, where the ends tend to justify the means. Making progress towards the SDGs shouldn’t be seen as an entirely altruistic exercise, the truth is that whilst achieving the SDGs will benefit society, it will also improve your businesses profitability and long term sustainability.

  1. Establish buy in at a senior level

In almost every case, the organisations with the best track record in terms of sustainability, tend to be those with passionate and committed leadership who are wholly bought into the concept of sustainable growth.

Think Paul Polman at Unilever, Elon Musk at Tesla or Marc Bolland at M&S. It’s rare that sustainability truly flourishes without strong top down leadership. Establishing support from your businesses leadership, whether that be through highlighting the positives or the likely consequences of not evolving, will be crucial to ensuring that your organisation does more than just pay lip service to the SDGs.

 

  1. Set targets and KPIs to measure your success as a purpose-led business

Whichever SDG you decide to pursue, setting a time bound target and putting the appropriate KPIs in place to track progress is crucial to not losing momentum.

For SDG #13 (climate action), this could be as simple as setting a carbon reduction target (which your organisation may well have anyway), and tracking performance by reporting your carbon footprint annually. On the other hand, the targets and KPIs implemented for other SDGs may require more thought as to what you actually want to achieve as an organisation and what success actually looks like.

Reporting in this manner has various benefits for the organisation, including improved transparency, the generation of positive news stories and creating the incentive for success. Furthermore, this approach compliments a number of existing reporting requirements which large businesses are obliged to undertake anyway, such as reporting GHG emissions (the Companies Act), social, human rights and diversity information (Non-Financial Reporting Directive) and producing an annual slavery and trafficking statement (Modern Slavery Act).

The SDGs represent a unique opportunity for businesses globally. With an increasingly complex regulatory landscape continuing to develop globally, the SDGs offer a broad framework against which organisations can align their medium to long term strategy and reporting with stakeholder expectations whilst driving innovation, future proofing the business model, increasing profitability and ultimately contributing towards sustainable development. When viewed through this lens, the question really becomes why wouldn’t you be acting on the SDGs?

 

To learn more about what the SDGs are and why they were set, read our blog here.

Carbon Smart works with BAFTA to improve what’s ‘on the box’  

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Have you ever stopped to wonder what’s being done about the environmental impact of the programmes on television?

The environmental impact of producing media is huge – from the fuels used, power, lights, heating and visual effects, to the emissions associated with logistics, not to mention the waste produced from catering, props and costumes. Rest assured; a consortium of industry frontrunners, including the major broadcasters and production companies, are making huge inroads into sustainability in the production and broadcast industry.

The BAFTA albert Consortium actively encourages broadcasters and media producers to understand and reduce the impact of the shows they produce; and grasp the opportunity to influence audiences towards a more sustainable future. One way the Consortium do this is by hosting the albert carbon calculator tool. Production companies use albert to collate their environmental data and enable them to understand the carbon emissions associated with each show they make. This allows them to identify the areas of their carbon footprint they can reduce the most and kick starts their sustainability journey. Those that show high levels of commitment will receive a Sustainable Production certification.

To assist BAFTA in driving forward the quality of the environmental monitoring already underway; Carbon Smart verifies the data that productions submit via albert, benchmarking production performance and spotting any data anomalies early in the process. Carbon Smart also appraises the ambition of the environmental actions each production company takes forward – ensuring that the requirements of the certification process are met. We ensure high environmental reporting standards are maintained across the media community and provide the required independent adjudication of the certification scheme.

A few stand–out examples recognised by albert certification include:

  • Red Dwarf used hybrid vehicles during the production of their UKTV show and engaged their crew, cast and audience using videos that explain their green actions
  • ITV’s Loose Women source their energy from a 100% renewable tariff and have halved the amount of paper they use
  • BBC’s Have I Got News For You use low energy lighting, which reduce electricity and cooling demand during production

‘People who make TV are not environmental experts, but remain crucial components of the carbon reduction process for their industry. To ensure the data we collect is credible and useful, we need an external check on all project data. Carbon Smart’s verification is an integral part of our processes, providing the whole industry with confidence and reassurance on which the project stands.’ – Aaron Matthews, Industry Sustainability Manager at BAFTA

Through the Consortium’s work it is clear that momentum is growing – the BBC is one of the leaders – recently announcing that all of the programmes they commission must use albert – a noteworthy statement of the BBC’s commitment to helping content producers improve both the environmental impact of making TV; but also increasing exposure to green issues within the actual content.

The influence of TV and film on audiences is considerable and poses a huge opportunity to change the actions of generations of viewers every day. A round of applause is due to BAFTA’s albert Consortium for leading the way.

Just received your CDP summons? Our top tips for scoring success in 2017  

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Last week, over 5,800 global companies received their annual call to action from the CDP. Over the coming months, the reporting community will gather strategic, qualitative and quantitative evidence to respond to their investors regarding environmental performance.

But, how do you score well without spending every waking moment perfecting your response? Here are our top tips to take the pressure off:

  • Plan ahead – your CDP response should be a collection of your sustainability successes throughout the year; try writing up your journey as you go along rather than scratching your head at the end of the year for good news stories
  • Keep abreast of barriers to success – the CDP framework means you can’t access top marks without embedded targets and third party verification; so ensure you have engaged the right internal and external parties to achieve these
  • Live and breathe the scoring matrix – a key stumbling block for businesses is lack of knowledge of the how the CDP responses are scored. Even the most well crafted responses can still score poorly if they miss out the basic requirements – spend time studying what CDP is looking for before you put pen to paper
  • Ask for help – we have worked with a range of FTSE listed organisations, consistently helping them to improve their narrative and boost their scores

Carbon Smart has helped clients to maximise their CDP results year on year – whether your business needs strategic advice on how to boost your scores, assistance to manage the response process, or to gain third party verification of your sustainability reporting in time for the deadline, Carbon Smart are ready to step in and help.

Marie Broad, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at SThree Plc said:

“We were really pleased to work with Carbon Smart on our CDP submission this year and increase our score from an E to a B. We find the team very professional and efficient in helping us progress on our environmental agenda.”

To learn more about the CDP requirements and how to boost your score, please get a free copy of our CDP paper here.

Get in touch to talk through your requirements: [email protected] / 0207 048 0450

Daniel Murray
Daniel Murray

2016 CDP results are in!  

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October 25 marked the release of the 2016 Climate Change CDP results and what a successful year it has been for Carbon Smart’s clients! We helped insurance giant XL Catlin and global recruitment leaders SThree plc to tell their sustainability stories and maximise their CDP performance.

SThree plc increased their score from ‘74 E’ in 2015 (a ‘D’ in the 2016 scoring system) to ‘B’ in 2016. XL Catlin received a ‘B’ score – quite an achievement, particularly as 2016 was their first year of CDP disclosure as a group. These impressive achievements demonstrate that both organisations have gone beyond simply being transparent about climate change, and are now taking coordinated action on climate change issues, to improve the sustainability of their long-term operations.

2016 was all about change. Most significantly, CDP has simplified its scoring methodology. Gone is the slightly confusing combined letter and number score. Instead, this year CDP has implemented a more straightforward letter system, which grades companies from A to F, and is intended to shift the emphasis from simple disclosure towards calling for, and consequently rewarding, real action.

Companies are broadly split into 5 categories;

  • Leadership (A/A-) – implementing current best practices
  • Management (B/B-) – taking coordinated action on climate change issues
  • Awareness (C/C-) – having knowledge of impacts on, and of, climate change issues
  • Disclosure (D/D-) – being transparent about climate change issues
  • F – failing to provide sufficient information to CDP to be evaluated

Moving forward, as the global landscape continues to change and companies begin to take the actions required to limit global warming to below 2°C, the CDP scoring methodology will continue to evolve. CDP is placing emphasis on initiatives which go beyond the norm, such as achieving emissions reductions, adopting science based targets, implementing internal carbon prices and investing in renewable energy. The changes signify a positive step towards rewarding those organisations that go beyond disclosure, and are leading the way in terms of managing and reducing their environmental impact. To quote CDP, “companies have an opportunity to demonstrate their leadership, agility and creativity in curbing their own substantial emissions”.

“We were really pleased to work with Carbon Smart on our CDP submission this year and increase our score from an E to a B. We find the team very professional and efficient in helping us progress on our environmental agenda.” Marie Broad, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, SThree Plc

Carbon Smart will continue to work with clients across 2017 to support them on their sustainability journey and communicate their sustainability achievements in a way that helps them maximise their CDP performance.

To speak to one of our consultants, click here.

 

Vered Karty
Vered Karty

Award winning programme is back for its 7th year!  

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The Office Friendly Dealers Association’s award winning So-Go-Eco programme is back for its 7th year! Delivered in partnership with Carbon Smart, the programme, designed specifically for Office Friendly members, helps participants to make financial savings, strengthen partner and customer relationships, attain environmental credentials and gain competitive advantage through marketing and communication support.

So far on the programme, we have worked with over 100 stationery dealers helping them to save a total of 600 tonnes of carbon and reduce their energy bills by an average of 14.6%. The largest saving made to date was a whopping £17,468! We at Carbon Smart are very much looking forward to another year working with Office Friendly and are set to make Year 7 the most successful yet.

For more information about our work with Ofda, read our case study.

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Vered Karty

Britain’s climate is changing: what is your business doing to stop it?  

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More than ever, reducing our energy consumption and our carbon footprint is essential to mitigate the very real effects of climate change. 2014 has been the hottest and the second wettest in Britain for a century according to the Met Office and sadly, it isn’t just a one-off: the seven warmest years since the records started were all after 2000, showing that average temperatures are rising and pointing to climate change as the cause.

This doesn’t simply mean buying fewer jumpers and more umbrellas – the changes in weather are bound to have dire consequences in terms of floods and heat waves. The damages caused by a flood like the one Britain experienced in 2007 can be very costly, and droughts put vulnerable people at risk.

Reducing these risks is everyone’s responsibility and businesses have their own role to play. Having an effective environmental strategy isn’t simply an opportunity to get ahead of the crowd anymore; it is a no-brainer to prevent costly risks down the line. So, is your business doing everything it can?

 

Vered Karty
Vered Karty

Carbon Smart supports organisations to become CarbonNeutral®  

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Many organisations have been CarbonNeutral® for years, annually calculating and offsetting their carbon impact. Now these same organisations are beginning to demand more help with their wider sustainability journey, and turn their commitment to offsetting into a strategy for improving sustainability performance. Unique amongst its assessment partners, Carbon Smart are now offering carbon quantification and carbon management assistance to The CarbonNeutral® Company’s clients.

As assessment partners, Carbon Smart provides dedicated consultants who visit potential CarbonNeutral® sites, helping their clients identify areas of energy inefficiency and high carbon impact. We provide accessible advice on how to calculate emissions, reduce them, engage staff and improve performance. The specialist services on offer are extensive; from one-on-one advice looking into resource optimisation, to tailor-made support reducing future offsetting obligations.

One of our latest clients, a distributor of world-wide wines, chose Carbon Smart’s support package to understand how to quantify their emissions so that they are able to reduce them in future. The risk of reporting inaccurately was reduced through this support package that helped them to set reporting boundaries in line with international standards, ensuring their emissions profile included all material impacts of the business. Gathering data from all aspects of their business was supported through the provision of tools and templates that provided a way of communicating with different departments as well as extracting information from various data handling systems.

An analysis of the carbon footprint provided them with a multi-faceted approach for improving their sustainability performance, including a management plan to focus efforts and tackle areas with the biggest potential for emissions reductions, and support on how to communicate the efforts made in this area to engage with staff and external stakeholders.

Carbon Smart’s assistance in installing more robust reporting methods and processes has strengthened this client’s offsetting programme. In addition to this, the advice focused on improving sustainability performance long-term will help our client to reduce their obligation to offset in the future.

If you wish to pursue CarbonNeutral® status please get in touch.

Analysis
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Vered Karty

Degree day analysis helps organisations to evaluate energy performance  

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Deciphering the impact of efficiency measures on your energy consumption from the noise of seasonal influence can be challenging. All it takes is one harsh winter and all reduction targets are off. One method for improving your understanding of anticipated and actual energy consumption is to undertake an exercise known as degree day analysis.

For those new to the topic, degree days are a measure of the severity and duration of adverse weather, both hot and cold. Every degree Celsius above or below a set base temperature counts as a degree day. The cumulative degrees days for a specific day, month or year gives an indication of what the weather was like during that period. More importantly, they can tell us how hard our heating systems are working to compete with fluctuation in outside temperature.

Fortunately the winter of 2013/14 has been mild, resulting in reduced gas and electricity heating bills across the board. A question to ask is, have you reacted and adjusted your current energy management to benefit from potential cost, resource and emission savings? Using degree days to monitor the influence of weather on energy consumption profiles will identify opportunities for savings and isolate anomalies from expected consumption (i.e. increased consumption due to renovation works, a faulty meter, a busy visitor period, etc.).

Carbon Smart recently completed degree day analyses with the Home Office and the Religious Society of Friends to understand how the harsh winter of 2012/13 impeded their energy saving efforts. For the Home Office, the results concluded that despite the harsher weather, they achieved a 41% reduction in carbon emissions compared to forecasted levels. Our evaluation also highlighted that under favourable weather conditions a further 30% reduction could have been achieved. The analysis provided confirmation that the energy savings measures had been a success and strengthens the argument to continue their efforts going forward.

How can degree day analysis help you?

  • Degree days can inform adjustments for thermostat set point and Building Management Systems to reduce overall building energy consumption
  • Identify expected and forecasted savings from actual consumption
  • Understand performance improvements against year on year targets as a result of energy efficiency measures and forecast ongoing trends
  • Isolate anomalous data and highlight potential energy savings opportunities

For further details on how degree day analysis can support and interpret your energy saving efforts, contact Becky at [email protected] or call 0207 920 8285.

Suffolk Greenest County
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Vered Karty

From mushrooms to swimming pools: tales from Suffolk  

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Carbon Smart’s ambitious Suffolk Carbon Leaders programme kicked off in the New Year and has really hit the ground running. So far the Carbon Smart team have worked with 23 medium-sized businesses in the county, calculating their carbon footprint and developing clear, practical recommendations for action. Ranging from mushroom farms to corporate offices to leisure centres, the challenges faced by these businesses and the opportunities for resource efficiency improvements have been both significant and diverse!

The Suffolk Carbon Leaders programme is first and foremost about motivating and supporting action, so we have been working closely with our clients to really understand what their business is hoping to achieve in terms of driving environmental improvements, and also what their specific limitations might be. Whether their focus is on cost savings, developing their public profile, or engaging with their staff and service users, this attention to detail has enabled us to develop targeted action plans with environmental objectives, capital costs, financing, and payback times that are not only feasible for the business but also fit with their specific culture and ambitions.

Since the start of the programme the Carbon Smart Team has identified potential savings of 3 million kWh worth of energy savings, 1,500 tonnes worth of carbon savings and over £500,000 worth of cost savings for the participating businesses. We are now looking to turn these potential savings into actual savings – as part of the implementation phase of the project the Carbon Smart team is working to support these businesses in putting their action plan into practice and taking their environmental performance to the next level.

As part of the programme the Carbon Smart team have also been submitting businesses for the Suffolk Carbon Charter which is a Suffolk-based accreditation scheme. We are delighted to announce that our first two businesses have been certified, one achieving the Gold award and the other achieving the Bronze award. Both companies were awarded their certificates by the Councillor at the Suffolk Carbon Leaders launch event on the 13th of March. As the programme progresses we look forward to seeing many more of our participating businesses follow in their footsteps and join Suffolk’s growing green business network.

 

Suffolk Greenest County
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Vered Karty

Suffolk businesses to help county to become the country’s greenest  

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Businesses in Suffolk are about to enjoy the undivided attention of the Carbon Smart team as our new resource efficiency programme launches in January 2014.

Delivering substantial carbon and cost savings across the county, the programme aims to assist medium sized businesses to get their workplace and workforce in tip top condition. Medium sized businesses (50-250 FTE) are one of the carbon hotspots in Suffolk. Although they account for just 0.2% of the organisations in the county, they contribute 20% of private sector turnover and employ 20% of the private sector workforce. As such we are targeting these key contributors to the county’s emissions, and helping them to get their businesses in shape.

Carbon Smart’s consultants will design and implement solutions to save each businesses energy, reduce carbon emissions and minimise resource use at each site. Recognising that these challenges can seem daunting to businesses, our dedicated consultants will work on a one-to-one basis with each organisation to ensure that every solution is practical and can be put in place alongside business as usual. We won’t be shy; we really do roll up our sleeves and get stuck in! Where the right resource efficient solution requires investment, access to funding and finance sources will be sought. Business around Suffolk will be able to tap into over a dozen green finance and grant schemes, most of which are underutilised to date.

The scope of this programme is ambitious; we anticipate take-up of solar panels, efficiency boilers, biomass solutions, LED lighting system and greywater reclamation to be at an all time high across Suffolk by the end of the programme. Suffolk’s well known goal is to become the ‘greenest county’, and we will certainly be playing our part in getting them there!

Vered Karty
Vered Karty

A northwestern safari  

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Popular North-West animal conservation and visitor attraction Knowsley Safari Park is embarking on a new study to quantify and better understand its environmental performance. The study is an important first step in supporting the Park to develop a long-term strategy that will place sustainability at the centre of its operations and plans for development. The Park will be transformed into a pioneering conservation and visitor attraction, which continues to have a positive influence on its visitors through its conservation and preservation ethos. The Park’s Operations Director approached Carbon Smart to complete the important first phase of work that will lay the foundations for the strategy.

This began with a detailed examination of resource consumption including a carbon footprint calculation, providing the Park with an important measure of their highest impact areas affecting sustainability performance. Analysis was supported by onsite visits that identified areas of the Park with high resource-use; recommendations were then provided including practical actions to reduce resource-use and advice on how to remove barriers to implementing these.

The detailed study resulted in the identification of priority action areas and long term strategic recommendations, such as the opportunity to generate renewable energy from animal waste. The onsite visits also identified a number of quick win, resource optimisation recommendations, which are predicted to save the Park over £50,000 and 140 tonnes of CO2e annually. These recommendations included the introduction of water savings devices in the toilets, improved heating and hot water controls and the replacement of disposal crockery and utensils in the restaurant.

Carbon Smart is looking forward to the next phase of work with the Park, to support the implementation of those recommendations identified in the study and the development of a sustainability strategy.

Vered Karty
Vered Karty

New programme for London Councils and their resident businesses  

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Carbon Smart has begun an exciting project working with the councils of Barking and Dagenham, Kensington and Chelsea, Merton, Richmond and Wandsworth, who have secured funding from the European Regional Development Fund. We will be working with 60 businesses to reduce their environmental impacts and improve their sustainability profile. Participating organisations will receive the following benefits at no cost to themselves.

• Certification: they’ll join thousands of businesses in Carbon Smart’s nationally recognised certification scheme and a network of like-minded businesses in their sector

• Professional tailored communications material:

– carbon footprint: we’ll quantify their carbon footprint and put it into a slick report
– a practical and straightforward environmental action plan
– a winning environmental policy: we can help them write one or review an existing one
– a communications pack full of logos and marketing text

• On-site support: one of our experienced consultants will come to their site and install some kit (all free) to reduce their costs and impacts.

Our consultants are relishing the opportunity to take practical action onsite to reduce the environmental impacts of these organisations, with a huge variety in those already engaged. Our favourite day visiting businesses so far has included a designer handbag company in the morning and an archaeological society in the evening.

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Vered Karty

Carbon Smart proud to be assessment partners to The CarbonNeutral Company  

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Many organisations have been CarbonNeutral for years, annually calculating and offsetting their carbon impact. Now these same organisations are beginning to demand more help with their wider sustainability journey, and turn their commitment to offsetting into a strategy for improving sustainability performance. Unique amongst its assessment partners, Carbon Smart are now offering carbon quantification and carbon management assistance to The Carbon NeutralCompany’s clients. Carbon Smart provide one-to-one business support; The CarbonNeutral Company provide high quality offsetting services.

As assessment partners, Carbon Smart provides dedicated consultants who visit potential CarbonNeutral sites, helping their clients identify areas of energy inefficiency and high carbon impact. We provide accessible advice on how to reduce emissions, engage staff and improve performance. The specialist services on offer are extensive; from one-on-one advice looking into resource optimisation, to tailor-made support reducing future offsetting obligations.

If you wish to pursue CarbonNeutral status please contact Carbon Smart at [email protected].

Vered Karty
Vered Karty

Carbon Smart Winchester Programme: Second year…twice as good!  

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winchesterIt feels like only yesterday that Carbon Smart was celebrating the first 100 businesses to be accredited to the Carbon Smart Winchester programme, and we are already celebrating another great bit of news.

Due to the phenomenal sign up rate for the initial programme and the excellent help that was provided to businesses to go green, Winchester Council have asked Carbon Smart back to operate a second year of the programme to help even more local businesses.

This year the programme aims to build on the fantastic achievements of the businesses that are already signed up to the scheme, by helping them take further steps to develop their environmental credentials and achieve the next level of Carbon Smart certification. We will also be working with fifty new businesses to join the initiative and providing them with bespoke support to reduce their environmental impact. By developing a green action plan to identify business related resource savings, programme participants will be well on their way to reducing monthly utility bills and attaining the first level of carbon smart certification.

Carbon Smart’s approach to the Winchester Programme can really make a difference to small and medium sized local businesses, by providing them with consultant level support at absolutely no cost. All participants have the opportunity to network with other like-minded businesses at the initial workshops and are invited to exchange valuable knowledge or ideas on how best to tackle the environmental challenges faced by businesses today. Every participant will be provided with a carbon footprint calculation; helping them to further their understanding of the impacts of their business operations on the environment and what areas should be addressed as a priority. All of this support provides the basis of a sound environmental management system, and allows those who participate the opportunity to make the most of their new green credentials to attract more customers.

Many SME programmes currently in operation across the UK, report that their greatest challenges to success are in recruitment of businesses to their schemes. Carbon Smart understands that small businesses are often constrained with resource availability, both in terms of time and staffing. As a result of this, we have designed the Year 2 programme and support to be as flexible as possible, with the majority of the ongoing support provided remotely either over the phone or via email. Workshop dates and locations will also be varied to complement our flexible delivery, and to ensure that everyone taking part gets the most out of our fun and engaging sessions.

For further information on the Carbon Smart Winchester programme and how to take part, please contact [email protected]

Vered Karty
Vered Karty

Supply Cross River 2 (SXR2) – making your business more efficient  

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small biz growthCarbon Smart is thrilled to announce its participation in the new ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) ‘Supply Cross River 2’ programme, an initiative developed by the Cross River Partnership and designed to provide environmental support to small to medium sized businesses in central London and stimulate local economic growth.

The project has been designed to ensure that local businesses across all sectors are in a position to benefit from the vast array of business opportunities that exist in central London, by identifying low carbon opportunities, business resource savings and green marketing ideas. Beneficiaries will have access to environmental support workshops, one-to-one support tailored to their individual needs, to networking and to ‘Meet the Buyer’ events highlighting how to win new business in a low carbon economy!

By assisting each business, Carbon Smart will be able to help each participant develop their own environmental policy and gain certification to the nationally recognised Carbon Smart scheme. Not only will this allow businesses to stand out against their competitors, but it will create unique selling points and help businesses grow and promote their services.

The project starts now is open to all small to medium sized businesses in the City of London, the London boroughs of Camden, Hammersmith & Fulham, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth and Westminster. Call Carbon Smart now for more information on how to participate!