Net Zero Tutorial for Business

We’ve all heard the term ‘Net Zero’ and the various claims by companies who say they’ll be Net Zero by 20-something. But many dismiss the term and do not bother to unravel the jargon in order to reach a clearer understanding of what it really means to be Net Zero.

It’s quite clear that we are in the middle of a climate emergency and the responsibility for the well-being of the world is in jeopardy. Now more than ever we need to take action, since we are the only ones that can make the difference. 

Demonstrating a commitment to managing your carbon footprint and environmental impact will help to improve your brand image in an increasingly green conscious climate. It can save money through reduced energy consumption and waste costs, improving the overall efficiency of company operations.

You can be ahead of the curve for future compliance requirements, reviewing if your day-to-day activities are sustainable and meet detailed scrutiny. It can improve employee engagement, keeping teams informed of their environmental roles and responsibilities.

But how do you actually go about this practically? 

The best place to start would be calculating the carbon footprint for your company and having projects in place to reduce your carbon emissions.

What is a Carbon Footprint?

The dictionary definition of a carbon footprint is “the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organisation or community.”

But if you look at that in a little more detail, you realise that there’s much more to it.

Carbon emissions are divided into three different scopes:

Scope 1:

All direct emissions from the activities of an organisation or under their control (fuel combustion on-site, fleet vehicles, and air-conditioning leaks).

Scope 2:

Emissions are created during the production of the energy purchased and used by the organization (UK electricity, heat and steam).

Scope 3:

All other indirect emissions from activities of the organisation originated in sources that they do not own or control (business travel, procurement, waste, and water).

How do you calculate your Carbon Footprint?

More and more companies are becoming aware that they don’t really understand their carbon footprint and are seeking advice they can trust on addressing priorities and finding real solutions. The pressure is on, for all the companies across the country, from the biggest to the very smallest. Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), for example, with its impact on investment, affects not only the top 1,600 companies in the UK but also the companies further down their supply chain. Therefore, the whole pressure for becoming more sustainable is filtering down to even the smallest suppliers.

Companies simply need to address their sustainability goals. Not understanding your Carbon Footprint is now a threat to commercial liquidity. Beyond legal compliance regulations such as SECR and ESOS, not being aware of your Carbon Footprint leaves you exposed to losing business, as clients are increasingly making decisions based on corporate sustainability.  Whether you make a decision to go for Carbon Neutrality due to a genuine wish to contribute to climate resolution or fear of losing key contracts, you need to start working on it.

A few weeks ago, having a good understanding of your Carbon Footprint was still perhaps a  luxury, something you could choose to aim for or not. Now, it has become a commercial prerequisite; something that you genuinely need to have, rather than just wanting it.

So now that we know the best place to start, the next question is how do you actually calculate your company’s footprint?

These reports are incredibly time-consuming, but they are also incredibly important. This is why the quality of the data and how you collect it should be done to a very high standard.

Doing the calculations yourself is of course an option, but this doesn’t guarantee that there will be no human errors. With such a large amount of data, manually inputting this into an excel document and doing all the right calculations is not a task for the weak, or anyone for that matter!

Get even just one carbon factor wrong, and suddenly your whole carbon footprint is wrong.

Here at Enistic we’ve seen it go wrong many times for companies who try and do it on their own. And if you somehow manage to miraculously get everything right, it doesn’t end there. You have to ensure that you have a team in place to keep on top of the monitoring, which can become a nightmare. 

You’d need to update the carbon factors yourself, and figure out a way to organise the data that isn’t ridiculously complicated. Otherwise, you may find yourself lost in a sea of calculations. 

For all of these reasons, and the fact that we may be slightly biased, we believe that using software is the best option. You’ll be making the whole process much more manageable for your company by avoiding a tonne of issues. The software will highlight any data that has been put in incorrectly, protecting you from making mistakes and potentially getting a fine.

Moreover, many softwares allow you to create a live full carbon footprint and carbon reduction plans, which makes your job a whole lot easier. 

Using software will also help you to check which projects are going to be more effective for your company. You only need to upload all the data to the software and it will do the rest.

What is PLATO?

PLATO is the professional cloud-based software that allows you to comply with Sustainability regulations. It is easy to use and you can request help from our team anytime. Moreover, it gives you the opportunity to enhance your company’s energy and cost efficiency through advanced software.

Want to know more? Watch the video above to see Darryl, founder of Enistic, go through a Net Zero tutorial with a real-life example. He’ll show you how easy it is to input your data and let the calculations work themselves out. 

Book a free consultation

If you need professional help, Enistic offers you a safe pair of hands. You can also book a free PLATO demo to see how the software can help your company with all its sustainability tasks.