Membership FAQs
Costs and Benefits
How much does it cost to join Go Climate Positive?
We are all about openness and honesty, so our membership fees are simple and transparent too. Starting at just £449+VAT for a PPN compliant carbon reduction plan or £49+VAT per month (+£149+VAT joining fee) for our Road to Net Zero option, our fixed fee depends on the size and complexity of your business and covers everything you need to put an effective carbon management system in place. It gives you membership and access to all member benefits for a year, and you can choose to pay annually or monthly, whichever is most convenient for you.
Click here to see our pricing.
The fixed fee covers the basics. Where there is an additional fee (e.g. purchasing carbon credits) we make this clear. Our goal is to make our pricing transparent and carbon footprint management affordable for every business.
How will calculating my carbon footprint help my business?
Positively addressing the climate emergency isn’t just the right thing to do to for the planet and the human race, it’s also good for business.
- Consumers and businesses increasingly expect their suppliers to take sustainability seriously and are actively choosing to buy green.
- Almost everything you do to reduce your carbon footprint, whether by cutting energy use or reducing waste will reduce costs in the medium to long term.
- The climate emergency is a serious business risk. Taking positive action now will help you to safeguard the future of your business.
Going Climate Positive is an investment that can help you grow sales, lower costs and manage risk.
What makes Go Climate Positive different?
When it comes to getting help to calculate and reduce your carbon footprint there are many choices for you, from self-calculators to expensive consultants. I know we are biased, but we think Go Climate Positive offers a unique service…here’s how…
- We are not just a service, we are a community of businesses all determined to tackle the climate emergency, who support and encourage other.
- We don’t just calculate your carbon footprint, we help you reduce it by introducing you to Trusted Partners that provide products and services that will reduce your footprint.
- Unlike most consultants, our fees are fixed and published on our website. We always strive to make our fees as affordable as possible.
- Unlike DIY online calculators we guide you through every step of the process so that you know you have done the job properly. We also give you an independently validated certificate that shows you take reducing your environmental impact seriously.
- We give you a comprehensive carbon audit across 22 categories of emissions both direct and indirect emissions from your own operations and the emissions in your value chain (technically these are called Scopes 1, 2 & 3 see our explanation of terms for more information). Many other programmes cover only a partial carbon footprint (typically direct energy use, electricity and business miles).
- We specialise in helping business owners like you set off on your carbon reduction journey on the right foot.
Does Go Climate Positive's fixed price cover everything?
Our goal at Go Climate Positive is to give you a complete carbon management system that follows best practice, that is respectful of your time and that is affordable.
So, our fixed price covers everything you need to put an effective carbon management system in place. Where we have optional extras we are very open and clear about this, and they are genuinely optional.
Starting at just £449+VAT for a PPN06/21 compliant carbon reduction plan or £49+VAT per month (+£149+VAT joining fee) for our Road to Net Zero option, our fixed fee depends on the size and complexity of your business and covers everything you need to put an effective carbon management system in place. .
What is the price for getting my carbon footprint calculated?
As environmental awareness continues to grow, organisations are increasingly interested in understanding and reducing their carbon footprints. One common question that arises is, “How much does it cost to get my carbon footprint calculated?” In this blog, we will explore the factors influencing the cost of calculating your carbon footprint and provide some insights into the potential expenses involved.
The cost of calculating your carbon footprint can vary depending on the service provider you choose. Some organisations offer free online carbon footprint calculators, making it accessible for individuals and SMEs to get a basic estimate. However, if you require a more detailed and comprehensive assessment, you may need to pay for more sophisticated software or hire a professional consulting firm. These services typically come with a fee due to the expertise and resources involved in conducting a more thorough analysis.
We believe in totally transparent pricing. To create a Carbon Reduction Plan our price is a simple one-off fee that includes everything you need. An effective Net Zero Plan is a bit more complex but we still publish all our prices on our website here.
To understand how other businesses charge for their services it would be best to reach out and inquire about their pricing structure to get a more detailed breakdown about the services they offer and any associated costs.
Here though is a summary of the most common factors affecting carbon calculating pricing:
Key pricing factors
Scope of Analysis:
The complexity and extent of the analysis required to calculate your organisation’s carbon footprint will have an impact on the price. Basic carbon footprint calculations may focus solely on direct (Scope 1) emissions, for example from your direct energy use and (Scope 2) indirect emissions, for example from the generation of purchased electricity, while some providers, like ourselves, go even further and calculate value chain (Scope 3) emissions, generated. Scope 3 emissions include the carbon produced by your supply chains, employee commuting, or business travel. Essentially, the broader the scope the more detailed and accurate the analysis, but also potentially the higher the cost.
Data Availability:
The availability and quality of data can also influence the cost. If you already have accurate and detailed data on your energy consumption, travel patterns, and other relevant factors, it can help streamline the analysis process and potentially reduce the cost. On the other hand, if you require additional help with data collection, it may increase the overall cost.
Organisation Size:
Most service providers operate on a sliding scale of costs based on the size of your organisation or the scale of the project, though not all of them publish the scale. Larger entities or those with more complex operations might require additional data collection, analysis, and reporting, leading to higher costs compared to individuals or smaller businesses.
Level of Detail:
Some service providers offer different tiers of analysis, each with varying levels of detail and accuracy. Basic calculations may provide rough estimates, while more advanced assessments use specific data and methodologies to deliver more precise results. Naturally, higher accuracy levels usually come at a higher price.
Target setting and action planning:
Calculating your carbon footprint is only the starting point. A carbon reduction plan also requires you to set reduction targets and create an action plan. Doing this correctly and effectively requires specialist expertise, which can increase the overall cost.
Reporting Requirements:
The specific reporting requirements or standards you need to adhere to can affect the cost. For example, if you need to comply with regulatory reporting frameworks or pursue science-based target validation, then additional documentation, verification, or validation processes may be necessary, which can lead to higher expenses. This can also be true when you come to Go Climate Positive since the precise requirements of the third-party framework may vary.
Stakeholder engagement:
For most businesses, the majority of their carbon emissions are outside their direct control. So to reduce their carbon footprint they need to engage with key stakeholders, such as their suppliers. This may include sending surveys, doing internet research or even running workshops, all of which may increase costs.
Net Zero planning:
A meaningful net zero transition plan is a complex document involving project planning, reduction forecasts, risk assessments, resource planning and governance. It requires a significant amount of work and expertise, which typically come with a significant price tag.
Additional Considerations:
Consultant vs Software:
Some solutions are “software” only, which means the user must figure out for themselves which activities and emissions categories are relevant. Often the software has to be fed data in a specific format, which may require additional resource to “pre-format” the data ready for entry. Other solutions are entirely consultant led and bespoke, ensuring a personalised service and someone to guide you through the complexities of the standards and helping you to understand what all the numbers mean as well as providing guidance on target-setting and action planning. As you might expect, a bespoke service typically comes with a much higher price tag.
Certification:
Some organisations may require carbon footprint certifications for compliance or reporting purposes. This could involve additional costs for third-party verification of the calculated footprint or validation of targets.
Long-term Partnerships:
If you anticipate regular carbon footprint assessments or ongoing sustainability initiatives, it might be beneficial to establish long-term partnerships with service providers. They may offer discounted rates or packages for recurring assessments, helping to reduce costs over time.
Added extras:
Are features you might expect to get as standard, such as target-setting and action planning included as standard or is there an extra fee charged.
Fixed price or Daily rate:
Many consultants charge a daily rate, so you won’t know what you are going to be charged until you receive the invoice.
Go Climate Positive Pricing
Our goal is to make it as easy and accessible as possible for SMEs to calculate their carbon footprint, create a plan to reduce their impact on the climate and produce a report that demonstrates this. For those that are ready to go further we provide a complete toolkit to engage their suppliers and employees in the carbon reduction effort and guide them through the process of writing a comprehensive net zero plan.
Fixed-fee pricing
We use fixed-fee pricing, so businesses know exactly what they are paying and we typically implement the full Green House Gas (GHG) protocol corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, including Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions, to provide a thorough, detailed and accurate report of your organisation’s Carbon Footprint. The fundamentals of an effective carbon management process are always included in the standard fee.
Each year, members of our Road to Net Zero programme receive Go Climate Positive certificate, to validate their carbon footprint measurement, which is included in their membership package.
Where we do charge extra, such as for support with a third-party reporting framework, running engagement workshops or writing a net zero plan, we are up-front about this and publish our prices.
We know it’s not easy to go on this journey alone, so when you join with us you, will also become part of a community of like-minded businesses that are determined to make a difference to climate change.
Coach-led, software-enabled
Once you join, your nominated Carbon Coach will guide you through every step of the journey, helping you make sure you comply with the best practice standards and guidelines and giving you advice on the best way to reduce your carbon footprint over time.
Our service is delivered using our in-house designed software solution we call “the portal”. This ensures that your data is always secure and that your carbon reports and action plans are always available online. The portal also streamlines our process, helping us to keep our fees as low as possible.
Types of service
Carbon Reduction Plans
This is our streamlined service designed to give you a compliant Carbon Reduction Plan with a minimum of fuss.
Road to Net Zero
The “Road to Net Zero is our comprehensive monthly membership programme that will help you implement all the components of a meaningful Net Zero plan step-by-step – allowing you to build your Net Zero journey at the pace that is right for your organisation – in the knowledge that everything you do is aligned with the global Net Zero transition.u won’t know what you are going to be charged until you receive the invoice.
Supplier Carbon Reduction Programme
If you have already calculated your carbon footprint you will probably have discovered that most of your emissions are in your supply-chain. Our supplier carbon reduction plan will help you give your suppliers a practical solution to measuring and reduce their carbon footprint, which will in turn reduce your own Scope 3 emissions.
You can read more about our service packages and view our pricing here
Payment options
We offer a variety of payment options to help you manage your cashflow including:
- Monthly billing (Road to Net Zero members only)
- Credit card payments
- Direct debit payments
Conclusion
Calculating your carbon footprint is an essential step towards understanding and mitigating your environmental impact. While the pricing can vary depending on factors such as service providers, scope of analysis, organisation size, and level of detail, reaching out to service providers directly will provide you with the most accurate information. Consider your specific needs, future sustainability goals, and budget when making your decision and make sure you understand what the price of any optional extras are. At Go Climate Positive, we aim to make this easy by publishing our prices here..
Remember genuine climate action requires consistent and determined action over a period of many years and we would love to be your long-term carbon management partner.
To find out more, get in touch with one of our Carbon Coaches today.
Standards and Certificates
Do you use a recognised carbon footprint standard?
Yes, we believe strongly in following published best practice whereveer possible.
We adhere to The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. this is the most widely used standard in the world and ensures consistency. We also use the GHG Corporate Value Chain Standard to provide a full Scope 3 analysis. If you are considering another approach please do check whether it will provide a full Scope 3 analysis or you may miss the lion’s share of your footprint.
For target setting we use the Science-Based Targets Corporate Manual as a guideline.
All our carbon credits are verified by the Gold Standard.
If you would like to know more, our explanation of terms contains a description of Scopes 1, 2 and 3.
How can I get a carbon certificate?
Recognising the need to communicate climate commitments and achievements quickly and effectively, our certification scheme is an integral part of our programme.
The “Road to Net Zero” programme helps you put in place the processes and systems needed to achieve Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions. As achieving Net Zero is likely to take many years, the programme is designed to recognise your current stage of development in the implementation of those processes and systems.
The programme recognises 3 key steps on the “Road to Net Zero”:
Step 1 = implemented an effective Carbon Management System.
Step 2 = engaged all key Stakeholders in the journey.
Step 3 = published a Net Zero roadmap, detailing the organisation’s transition to Net Zero.
The key requirements of our certification scheme are shown below.
Once you complete the requirements of each Step, you will be entitled to use the appropriate badge on your website and in your marketing, for as long as you remain a member of the programme.
We think it is important to be transparent and honest, so we also make you a unique certification webpage that publishes your footprint and tells your customers what you are doing to reduce and offset it.
What happens if our emissions increase?
Obviously, the goal of all Go Climate Positive members is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions every year. However, we recognise that real-life rarely works out the way we intend and that a lot can happen in 12 months. In particular, 2020 will provide unique challenges due to the changes brought about by the Covid-related lockdowns.
- If your baseline year* is 2020, then the first few years afterwards may see increases due to an artificially low-level of activity in your baseline year.
- If your baseline year is earlier than 2020, then you may have seen a strong reduction in 2020 due to artificially reduced activity, making it virtually impossible to see reductions in 2021 or even 2022.
Also, from time to time businesses may experience particularly strong sales growth, which makes it especially difficult to reduce the level of emissions. This is particularly true for businesses in a start-up phase.
At Go Climate Positive, we live in the real world, so we offer two approaches to help deal with these issues:
- As well as looking for reductions in the absolute level of emissions, we also monitor and track reductions in the intensity of emissions (e.g. emissions per £ of sales income or emissions per product sold). This helps account for businesses experiencing strong sales growth. Even if the absolute level of emissions increases in the short-term the aim should be to reduce the intensity of emissions.
- If your emissions increase this will not directly affect your membership, we want to work with you to help bring your reduction plan back on track. If it happens two years in a row, then we will take a good look at your strategy together and question if we have the right approach. If it happens 3 years in a row then we will have an open and honest discussion about it and agree the best way forward. Depending on the circumstances this may involve a temporary suspension of your certification to ensure the integrity of the programme for all members.
At all times our goal is to work constructively with you to help your achieve year on year carbon reduction in line with the global goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The consequences of not doing so are too important for any other approach.
* Your “baseline year” is normally the year of your first carbon footprint calculation. It is the year we compare all future calculations to.
What’s included in my carbon footprint?
Any plan to limit the effects of climate change first requires an accurate assessment of a company’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
To calculate the carbon footprint of any business, at Go Climate Positive we provide a full implementation of the Green House Gas (GHG) protocol Corporate Accounting and Value Chain Standard. This standard was established in 1998 to address the need for a consistent and comparable framework for GHG reporting and is the most widely recognised standard for measuring GHG emissions today.
Differentiating between emissions that organisations have direct or indirect control over is central to the standard, which also categorises emissions into three scopes, according to where the emissions are generated: Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3.
What are Scopes 1, 2 and 3?
When reporting on its carbon emissions, a common scenario is that an organisation will focus first on its scope 1 and 2 emissions. Scope 1 emissions are essentially all the emissions that are directly owned or controlled by a company, for example, those released by company-owned facilities or vehicles, while scope 2 emissions are the indirect emissions- from the generation of purchased energy, for example- that runs these facilities or vehicles.
Scope 3 emissions, often referred to as Value Chain emissions, meanwhile, represent all the emissions that originate from sources that aren’t owned or controlled by the organisation but occur because of its relationship with other organisations in the production, distribution and eventual disposal of the reporting organisation’s products and services. Scope 3 emissions therefore incorporate the emissions from the upstream and downstream activities of an organisation that are not already captured in scope 1 and 2.
The scope 3 standard accounts for 15 categories of emissions that include activities both upstream (in your supply chain) and downstream (in your products and services) of your business’s operations. We always include all relevant categories to calculate the contribution made by your value chain to your overall carbon footprint.
While each of the 15 Scope 3 categories is comprised of multiple activities that individually result in emissions, the categories are each designed to be mutually exclusive, such that, for any one reporting company, there is no double counting of emissions between categories.
As you can see, from the breadth and detail of the scope 3 categories, above, there is a large degree of crossover between the carbon footprints of organisations in a value chain. This highlights an important aspect of carbon reduction, that it cannot be done in isolation, but is inherently a collaborative exercise in which you will need to work with your suppliers, customers, and employees. The purpose of a carbon footprint calculation is not to highlight only those emissions for which you are solely responsible, but to highlight all the emissions over which you have an influence, to give you lots of targets for reduction activities.
Carbon Offsetting
When measuring a carbon footprint, we also consider further positive activities an organisation has undertaken to offset its unavoidable carbon emissions. Offsetting is therefore about investing in projects that save or remove carbon elsewhere, to balance the emissions a business has directly or indirectly generated. Examples might be tree planting to suck carbon out of the atmosphere as they grow or providing efficient cook-stoves that require much less fuel to work.
We strongly believe that for a robust Carbon Neutral claim ALL relevant Scope 3 categories must be offset. This is not always the case for other programmes so when comparing programmes, it is important to check whether all scope 3 categories are included to avoid the risk of greenwashing.
At Go Climate Positive, we help clients to invest in Gold Standard Certified carbon credits. These credits are independently certified to adhere to best practice principles of offsetting which include, verifiability; additionality; permanence; and avoidance of negative consequences. We also help clients to support the creation of new, managed woodland in the UK.
Avoided Emissions
In an extension to Scope 3 emission measurement, we also include the avoided emissions that an organisation creates. Avoided Emissions are emission reductions that occur outside of a product’s life cycle or organisation’s value chain, but as a direct result of the use of that product or the actions of that organisation. Examples of products, goods and services that avoid emissions include low-temperature detergents, fuel-saving tyres, energy-efficient ball-bearings, and teleconferencing services. Examples of organisation activities that avoid emissions include product take-back schemes, providing electric vehicle charging for customers and providing energy saving technology to suppliers that benefits their other customers. Other terms used to describe avoided emissions include climate positive, net-positive accounting, and scope 4.
Out of Scope Emissions
In a further extension to Scope 3 emission measurement, we also include the “out of scope” emissions that are created using bioenergy (the burning of fuels of biological origin). These fuels are carbon neutral as they absorb carbon as they grow. This means the carbon emitted when they are burned is not considered part of your Carbon footprint. However, this carbon does contribute to global warming and in the long-term needs to be eliminated to achieve net zero emissions. For this reason, we include them in your Net Emissions total, but not your Net Carbon Footprint.
If you would like some guidance on how to calculate your emissions get in touch with our Carbon Coaches today.
Is this greenwashing? Will my claims be credible?
A common question when working with clients is “how credible will our carbon reduction claims be?”
ESG (Environmental Social and Governance) is at the top of the agenda for many businesses now, and while it’s understandable that this may be driven as much by business interest as genuine concern for ESG issues, it’s still important that any environmental claims businesses make in relation to their sustainability efforts are found to be genuine to maintain employee, shareholder, and wider stakeholder trust in the organisation.
Greenwashing, i.e., making a false claim about your carbon reduction or sustainability efforts is dangerous on two fronts; first because it creates false confidence that the climate crisis is being addressed, and second, if discovered, could impact negatively on your reputation, leading to a loss in sales and the likelihood of deterring potential investors.
In making over-stated carbon reduction claims, it may be the case that some companies are simply swept away on a tide of eco-enthusiasm – but clearly, this is no excuse. However, neither should fear of “getting it wrong” put brands off working on their ESG credentials – or talking about what they’re getting right.
At Go Climate Positive, we take our credibility regarding any claims made by our clients or ourselves around carbon reduction extremely seriously and take a number of steps to ensure any efforts and activities are backed by internationally recognised standards.
All of our Carbon Coaches are accredited by the Institute of Environmental Management (IEMA) and we are happy to help ensure our clients make genuine statements by checking any claims about their carbon footprint before they publish them.
Follow the Green Claims Code
While this is largely aimed at large corporate businesses, Greenwashing claims can also damage the activities of many smaller businesses whose intentions and claims are genuine. This was one of the reasons that the Government introduced the Green Claims Code in 2021 and demonstrates, once again, the benefits of having independent verification of your carbon footprint calculation and action plans.
Green House Gas Protocol corporate accounting and reporting standard
To calculate the carbon footprint of any business, we provide a full implementation of the Green House Gas (GHG) protocol corporate accounting and reporting standard, including the Value Chain (Scope 3) standard. Released in 2011, the Scope 3 Standard is the most widely used, internationally recognised standard in the world. It accounts for emissions from 15 categories, which include activities both upstream and downstream of a business’s operations and ensures consistency in reporting that encompasses a wide scope of emissions within an organisation’s value chain. We assess the relevance of all 15 Scope 3 categories for a business and always include those that make up more than 1% of your carbon footprint in our calculations.
As with financial accounting and reporting practices, GHG principles are intended to underpin and guide GHG accounting and reporting to ensure the reported inventory represents a faithful, true, and fair account of a company’s GHG emissions. The five principles used are: relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency, and accuracy and are intended to guide the accounting and reporting of a company’s scope 3 inventory.
Science-based Reduction Targets
Once we calculate and understand your carbon footprint, including those of your Scope 3 activities, we will help you set science-based targets to provide a clearly-defined pathway to reduce emissions in line with the overall goal set by the UN and the UK Government, to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
Then we help brands work towards their carbon reduction targets by following the Green Claims Code and provide independent validation of their carbon footprint calculation and action plans. So, you can be assured that your efforts are recognised, and you can take control of your sustainability messaging in an ethical and consumer-friendly way.
Where best practice standards are available, we use them. For example, we use PAS 2060, the BSI standard for Carbon Neutrality as the basis for awarding the Go Climate Positive ‘Carbon neutral’ certificate. PAS 2060 is another internationally recognised specification, which sets out requirements for quantification, reduction, and offsetting of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions for organisations, products and events.
Quality control for carbon credits
As well as helping you to reduce your carbon emissions we can help you achieve further positive impact by offsetting your unavoidable emissions with Gold Standard Certified carbon credits, and by supporting the creation of new, managed woodland in the UK. These credits are independently certified to adhere to the best practice principles of offsetting; verifiability; additionality; permanence; and avoidance of negative consequences.
Managed Woodland
Tree planting is a highly beneficial way to positively impact climate change as it physically removes carbon from the atmosphere and helps to promote biodiversity. We have partnered with 9Trees Carbon Offsetting CIC to create new woodland in the UK. With years of experience in nature conservation, promoting native wildlife and sustainable woodlands, whilst creating much needed countryside jobs throughout the UK is at the core of 9Tree’s mission.
9Trees’ conservation expertise means that we are planting the right trees in the right places. We are creating woodlands with our partners that will be nurtured, for a minimum of 50 years maximising its ability to capture carbon and add benefits to the local environment.
We don’t plant trees on valuable habitats where this would damage or destroy these habitats; rather we ensure that tree-planting will enhance the local environment before we start. We don’t plant monocultures that have no benefit for local wildlife; instead, we plant a mixture of native tree species that are selected for each location to match the needs of wildlife.
We don’t double-count our trees; we account for each individual tree and its capacity to capture carbon is counted only once and is attributed to a specific subscriber or business partner. We can show you precisely where the trees are and what they are and offer opportunities for you and your team to visit the woodland and to carry out some of the work.
How credible are your claims?
If you’re marketing yourself as a sustainable business, now’s the time to review your green messaging. To avoid any misrepresentation to stakeholders or repercussions from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), check everything you write about your carbon reduction efforts against the Green Claims Code. Customers respect honesty, so be transparent and remember that Greenwashing is never the answer! Go Climate Positive will always be happy to help by checking any claims about your carbon footprint before you publish them.
At Go Climate Positive, we help brands work towards their carbon reduction targets by following a strict set of internationally recognised standards and guidelines. By working with us, we can issue you a certificate to prove your efforts are honest and give your consumers (and the CMA) peace of mind that you really are as green as you say you are.
If you would like some guidance on how to comply with the code, or any carbon reduction guidelines get in touch with our Carbon Coaches today.
Can I get a Carbon Reduction Plan compliant with PPN006/21 or PPN006 (Procurement Act 2023)
Yes. All of our subscriptions include a PPN compliant Carbon Reduction Plan if you need one.
Our Carbon Reduction Plan (PPN) subscription is specially designed to help you meet the minimum requirements of the PPN with a minimum of fuss. Click [here] to find out more.
Is PPN006 the same as PPN06/21
In a word “Yes“. The requirements of PPN006 are essentially the same as those of PPN06/21.
PPN006 was created from PPN06/21 and updated in February 2025 to align with new terminology from the Procurement Act 2023.
Our article How to write a Carbon Reduction Plan explains what is required Click [here] to read it.
Support
What support is available to help me reduce my carbon footprint?
The journey to Net Zero can be tough and scary at times, so we are here to guide you through the process, supporting and encouraging you every step of the way.
Carbon Coaches
Our carbon coaches will help you calculate and understand your carbon footprint. They will help you set science-based targets and create action plans to reduce it and are always on hand for help and advice.
Accountability
The best plan in the world is no good if it is not implemented. The programme includes quarterly progress reviews to keep your action plan on track and a stakeholder engagement plan to inspire your employees, suppliers and customers to get involved.
Add-on services
We can add whatever additional support you need from facilitating stakeholder workshops to helping you make a submission to the Carbon Disclosure Project or the Science-Based Targets Initiative.
Trusted Partners
We have built trusted relationships with other businesses that can help you on your journey to climate positive
They offer a variety of products and services that will help you reduce your carbon footprint, save waste and tell your climate story.
Members' Portal
Every member has access to our private members portal where you can find all your carbon reports, action plans and advice on carbon reduction, all in one place.
Can I just use an online carbon calculator?
Of course you can, but make sure you know what your online calculator does. The free ones often only account for a few categories of activity and can miss up to 80% of your full carbon footprint – the better online calculators do cover most of the categories but you’re on your own. By joining Go Climate Positive you will get an independent assessment of your full carbon footprint, help to set meaningful reduction targets and support to keep your carbon action plans on track. On top of all that, you get a certificate that gives your customers confidence that you are committed to reducing it.
See all of the emissions categories we assess (the ones shown in green are the ones usually included in online calculators)
What can I expect when working with a carbon coach?
Go Climate Positive exists to make it easier for small and medium sized businesses to tackle climate change and prepare themselves for the low-carbon economy. Working with us, small to medium sized businesses have gained clarity and direction on their approach to carbon reduction through our unique membership subscription service.
In the low-carbon economy, all successful businesses will have integrated carbon management into the way they do things. We believe the coaching approach is the best way to prepare your business for this fast-approaching future, by developing your carbon competency, not just telling you what to do.
Carbon reduction is challenging and while we follow global best practice to benchmark the work we do, it takes time and represents a significant commitment from businesses. One of the questions we are frequently asked is what can I expect of you and what will you expect of me?
We describe ourselves as Carbon Coaches, rather than consultants, because our role is to help you achieve your desired outcomes and to facilitate your carbon reduction journey. We will be your climate conscience and will support you every step of the way, but it is important that you understand that ultimately you will be responsible for the course of your journey and the implementation of any agreed actions.
We will empower you to make the right decisions and, will help you hold yourself to account for delivering your carbon reduction plans, but unlike consultants we won’t do it all for you. There are climate consultants available and we think it is important that our clients understand the difference between these two forms of expert support.
Key Differences Between Coaching and Consulting (And How to Decide What Your Business Needs)
Coaching vs. Consulting: an overview
Coaching and consulting are two related services that differ in significant ways. Coaches help you identify the right actions for you to achieve your objectives whereas Consultants tell you how to implement the solutions they know about.
A consultant can help you reduce carbon whereas a Coach can help you figure out where to focus your carbon reduction for best effect. We find that coaching and consultancy are complementary activities. Our coaches may even recommend one or more consultants for you to work with once the right carbon reduction actions have been identified.
Knowing the differences between a coaching and consulting approach can help you decide which one best meets your needs and offers the type of support you require.
What is Carbon Coaching?
As Carbon Coaches we will help you set sensible, yet ambitious targets and create action plans, supported by sound strategies that will enable you to meet your carbon reduction goals.
All our Carbon Coaches are accredited by the Institute of Environmental Management (IEMA). We help clients set carbon reduction targets that align with the global ambition of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. We also create action plans that align with their business objectives along with identifying the challenges they may face within their work environments in making the changes they seek.
Our coaching approach aims to help clients achieve their objectives by making them accountable for their actions in an annual cycle of measurement, reduction and certification.
As well as access to our Carbon Coaches, businesses have the option to attend monthly peer meetings and will receive independent verification and certification of their efforts. We also publish their carbon footprint and the reduction targets they have committed to, which can be shared with potential customers and wider stakeholders.
What do we ask of you?
We use an annual cycle of calculation, reduction, offsetting, certificate and support to help you achieve your carbon reduction targets. Our first, most important step is to calculate the current carbon footprint of your business. By knowing your level of emissions and where they are coming from, we can help you set appropriate targets, focusing on where they will have the biggest impact and create practical action plans to reduce emissions where you can, and include the option to offset what you can’t.
Each year the aim is for carbon reduction to become part of both your business planning and your day-to-day activities. But many businesses find this first step the hardest and most time consuming of the whole process, which can often lead to delays. As your partner in carbon reduction we ask that you supply us with the relevant data to enable us to calculate your carbon emissions in a timely, accurate fashion and that it is as complete as possible.
We are able to help businesses quantify their emissions and make these calculations, but data needs to be drawn from many areas of the business and there will undoubtedly be a level of back and forth correspondence to verify it. It takes time to ensure the accuracy of this process but the quality of the subsequent report and actions plans depend on the validity of this data.
We ask that you give us an honest appraisal of your commitment and motivation to achieving the targets you set for your business. We provide three levels of membership subscription, each aligned to greater levels – and greater effort – of carbon reduction. But remember, these are your targets and you will be accountable for achieving them.
Should you choose a consultant or coach?
There are several instances when either a coach or a consultant can make a positive impact on a business, but it’s helpful to gauge which choice is more appropriate for your situation. The major consideration is the amount of influence you want to have in implementing your changes to reach your carbon reduction targets. Working with a consultant often requires a larger budget and giving someone else control over a project, while as climate coaches we empower you to implement the required changes for yourself or help you identify the right consultants to implement them for you. If you are prepared to do the work required to achieve your desired sustainability changes, then coaching is a great option. However, if you want an organisation to complete the work and deliver results on your behalf then a consultancy-style business may be the right choice.
Next steps
If you are ready to consider carbon reduction with Go Climate Positive, we can arrange a meeting with one of our Carbon Coaches to understand your climate-related goals; answer your questions and address your concerns; and agree the best way to move forward.
Joining
How can I join Go Climate Positive?
Becoming a member is easy, click here and follow the prompts. Once you’ve entered your details, you’ll be asked to setup a direct debit or add a credit card, then we will get in touch to setup a time and date for your kick-off meeting.
Renewal
What does it cost to renew membership?
Go Climate Positive is build around an annual planning cycle, so your renewal fee will be the current rate for your level of membership.
It is very important that we do not start the annual process assuming that everything will be the same as the previous year. We recognise that a lot can happen in a business over the course of 12 months so we always start the process by going through the full list of questions and running the same process.
As a result, our fee for renewal is the same as the fee for joining in the first place. Some of our programmes include a joining fee, and obviously we won’t charge for that again. As ever, this covers everything you need to put an effective carbon management system in place. Where we have optional extras we are very open and clear about this, and they are genuinely optional.
Starting at just £449+VAT for a PPN06/21 compliant carbon reduction plan or £49+VAT per month (+£149+VAT joining fee) for our Road to Net Zero option, our fixed fee depends on the size and complexity of your business. Click here to see our pricing.
What happens if we leave Go Climate Positive?
We would obviously like your business to stay in the Go Climate Positive programme and continue to work on reducing your greenhouse gas emissions to help limit (and perhaps eventually reverse) global warming.
However, we recognise that circumstances change, so if you are thinking about leaving please do get in touch for a chat. We would really like to understand your reasons and see if we can do anything about them.
Ultimately if you do decide to leave then we would ask you to stop using our certificate on your website and any promotional material. In turn we will disable your certification page and take it down from our site. Data will be retained in line with our data privacy policy. You will always be able to access your carbon reports via our portal, they are your reports after all!
Do I need to calculate my carbon footprint every year?
This is something that we get asked a lot and the simple answer is yes you do.
Calculating your carbon emissions is the first step on your journey to net zero, but it is a journey. Our Carbon Coaches can support you and help you make the right decisions on the way, but a zero emissions business is unlikely to happen overnight and businesses need to have a regular review of their activities, emissions and results to keep them on track.
Why calculate your carbon footprint?
Calculating your carbon footprint is important as it allows you to understand how your organisation and those associated with the production, distribution and destruction of its goods is contributing to climate change. Finding out what your carbon footprint is, therefore, allows you to identify ways to reduce it and ultimately have a positive impact on tackling climate change.
But your first calculation is a benchmark, a line in the sand, a chance to understand where you are right now and the scale of the task ahead to reduce your emissions. Calculating your carbon footprint on an annual basis allows you to monitor your emissions over time. This allows you to track and identify how effective your reduction plans are. If you set your organisation a net zero target, annual calculations will allow you to identify your progress towards meeting this target.
What gets measured, gets managed
Often the most time consuming – but most important element- of any carbon reduction plan is the initial data gathering and validation exercise that allows us to accurately calculate a business’s current carbon footprint. Once a business has submitted its emission’s data, our subsequent report will highlight the size of emissions, their sources, including any hot spots and then our Carbon Coaches will create an action plan to empower the business to reduce what it can and help offset what they currently can’t. Data is the key to all of this, and we should never underestimate the motivational power of measuring something. At Go Climate Positive, for example, we regularly track the total emissions reduced, avoided and offset. This is a lovely way to recognise the efforts of the team, it makes our goals and our purpose tangible, and of course, helps us see that we are achieving something worthwhile. Needless to say, next year we want to see an even bigger carbon reduction on behalf of our clients.
Annual Cycle of Carbon Reduction
As we do with our own business, we use an annual cycle of calculation, reduction, offsetting, accreditation and support to help our clients achieve their carbon reduction goals. The aim is that carbon reduction will become an integral part of their annual business planning, which is then supported by daily activities.
But like any end of year accounting or financial reporting, it is imperative that a business understands its carbon reduction results – sometimes on a granular scale – to ensure its efforts and action plans stay on track. You wouldn’t wait two years for your accounts to see if your business was profitable, and it is equally as important to have regular progress reports on your carbon reduction objectives.
Change is a constant
There has been much rhetoric along with many column inches and blog posts devoted to the fact that businesses – large and small- are experiencing unprecedented times. It seems the only constant factor in business is change. For this reason carbon reduction plans must be reviewed regularly. To manage changes in customer expectation, changes in product, adapt to growth or shrinkage, businesses must change. This means businesses will change premises, change fleets, change suppliers and even change products, all of which will have an impact on their carbon emissions – and those of their new value chain. If carbon reduction is a long-term objective, it is possible that any of these changes were engineered through that lens and made with the intent of reducing emissions, but without specific knowledge of how and where to measure these emissions it is also possible that changes such as these might send a business backwards in its carbon emissions plans.
Updated Carbon Reduction Plans
A business plan is a critical tool – not just during the start-up phase, but for established businesses also. Reviewing your business plan and updating it regularly gives you a chance to monitor your progress and take corrective or remedial action if things aren’t going to plan. For this same reason, all Carbon Footprints and resulting action plans need to be reviewed each year.
But rather than an onerous task see this as an opportunity to engage key stakeholders; suppliers, distributors, customers and staff who all have a key role to play. Reviewing their roles – and resulting impact on your long-term targets- will keep them motivated to adopt best practice in pursuit of shared goals.
Updated Carbon Reduction Certification
One of the key benefits Go Climate Positive offers clients is the ability to certificate their carbon reduction claims and achievements. We are confident that our rigorous formula for measuring, then reducing carbon can be independently verified and validated, which leads to a transparent and credible process.
Part of our support includes publishing a client’s carbon footprint, including a bespoke certification web page, to tell their stakeholders what they are doing to reduce and offset their emissions. We also supply a Go Climate Positive badge which can be used within all marketing communications. But such
is the rigour that we apply to this certification process, that it must be updated – and validated- every year. Due to the many variables outlined above, we feel it is appropriate that no certificated business goes more than 12 months without undergoing a Carbon Footprint review. But we think this adds to the prestige – and credibility- of the award.
Time to shout about Carbon Reduction achievements
Another good reason for annual carbon footprint calculations is that it provides your business with the opportunity to let your key stakeholders; clients, prospects, suppliers and staff know how far you have travelled on your journey to Net Zero. Whether it is part of your annual report, a newsletter, a slot at the company conference or a stream of social media posts, this is a great time to let people know what you’ve achieved, what progress you have made, what changes you have implemented and what your next steps are as part of your commitment to carbon reduction. This annual reminder that your business takes its role seriously is as good a time as any to promote your brand to top of mind for some very positive reasons.
Why you should Calculate your Carbon Footprint every year
Measuring your carbon footprint properly is the only way to know whether you are reducing it. In the same way business plans and financial performance are measured every year, it is important to recognise, and even celebrate any achievements in your carbon emission activities. These achievements in carbon reduction can also be highly motivational for your staff and a way to engage with your customers and will see them continue their efforts – on behalf of your Net Zero goals –until the next time you can provide some successful results.
If you would like to start your journey to Net Zero, get in touch with our Carbon Coaches today.
Misc.
How do I know you are an expert in carbon?
It can be tricky to recognise an expert in carbon footprinting as there are no formal qualifications available. However, when looking for an expert we would suggest asking the following 6 questions:
1. Is your “expert” a member of a recognised professional association?
- You want to know that you expert is knowledgeable about the subject and one way to do this is to ask whether they belong to a professional association that has rigorous standards.
- Our Chief Carbon Coach, Eoin McQuone, is a Practitioner member of IEMA (the Institute of Environmental Management). This required him to pass an exam and submit a portfolio of evidence of impact. It also requires that he keep up to date with the latest issues in sustainability through continuous professional development.
2. Is your “expert” clear about the standards they use and the standards you will need to adhere to?
- For most businesses, calculating and disclosing their carbon footprint is voluntary, so it is important to understand how your calculation is being done and whether it is being done in accordance with any published standards.
- At Go Climate Positive we adhere strictly to The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. this is the most widely used standard in the world and ensures consistency. Unlike some other programmes, we also insist on all members doing a full carbon analysis of their supply chain and customer activity using the optional GHG Corporate Value Chain Standard (this is known as “scope 3” in the jargon). We do this because the only way to achieve “net zero” and the low-carbon future we need is to address all sources of emissions, even the ones that are hard to do. Don’t worry though, we have ways of simplifying this task so that it is not as hard as you might think.
3. Does your “expert” insist on carbon calculation and reduction before carbon offsetting?
- There are many carbon offsetting providers that will tell you that your carbon footprint can simply be offset by planting trees or buying carbon credits. Some even tell you that you can do this without calculating your footprint first. Whilst these schemes are attractive because they are easy to do and indeed some of them may be doing some good things, an expert will tell you that we cannot offset our way out of the climate emergency. There is not enough space to plant enough trees to offset all our emissions, and in any case we need to first replace all the trees that have been cut down in the last 100 years before any planting we do can truly be classed as offsetting. Equally there are not enough carbon credits to go round if every business wanted to buy enough for them all to go carbon neutral.
- At Go Climate Positive, we do believe that offsetting has an important role to play and we do offset on our members behalf. However, our goal is to help all our members reduce their footprint in line with the latest scientific advice, so that eventually the amount of offsetting required will be minimal.
4. Does your “expert” make things easier or more complex for you?
- Carbon management can be a complex business. So, you need to know whether your expert will make it easier or more complicated for you. You should quiz them about how they work and ask their customers about how easy they are to work with.
- At Go Climate Positive we handle all the complicated stuff for you. We don’t expect you to become an expert in carbon or to do lots of data entry into carbon calculators yourself. All we ask is that you provide us with information about what your business does. We then turn that into insights about how you can most effectively reduce your carbon emissions and help you create a practical action plan to start doing it. We then help you find other businesses and organisations who can help you if you want us to.
- If you would like to talk to some of our existing customers please contact us and we would be delighted to put you in touch with some. In the words of Gill Smith of the Business Kitchen:
“Eoin made the process very straightforward and did all the heavy lifting…if you are delaying because you are not sure how to do this…then Eoin is your answer!”
5. Does your “expert” have a track record?
- You want to know that the person you are working with has done this many times before so that they have the experience to answer your questions and handle the unique challenges inherent to your business.
- At Go Climate Positive we are totally transparent about who we work with and publish our list of members, the certificates they have achieved and the work they have done to reduce and offset their footprint.
6. Is your “expert” up front about pricing?
- Running a business is more challenging than ever these days and so, if you are going to employ an expert to help you manage your carbon, it is only reasonable for you to know up front exactly what it will cost you. Yet it is surprising how few carbon consultant and certification programmes publish their pricing, expecting you to contact them to find out.
- At Go Climate Positive we think a large part of the answer to tackling climate change is transparency . We think this should extend to the price that you pay to engage someone to help you. That is why our membership fees are fixed and published on our website here. We have no hidden costs. The only thing that is not included is the price of offsetting your carbon footprint as we cannot know how much this will be until we done your calculation. However, we do publish the price per tonne of offsetting here.
Good carbon management is vital to the future of your business and the next generation. There are many good experts out there who can help you so, regardless of whether or not you choose us, we hope you choose someone who can help you make good, informed, data-based decisions.
Contact us to to discuss how we can help you.
What data will I need to collect to calculate my carbon footprint?
Calculating your organisation’s carbon footprint is the first- essential-component on the journey towards net zero and is the foundation stone on which any sustainability strategy is built.
A validated carbon footprint calculation also provides an initial climate SWOT analysis by identifying threats, opportunities including emissions hotspots across your value chain.
We are able to help businesses quantify their emissions and make these carbon footprint calculations, but first we need data which needs to be drawn from many areas of the business.
If you are at the beginning of your journey one of the most likely questions about how to kick off the process is ‘what data will I need to collect to calculate my carbon footprint?’
Where do I start my carbon footprint calculations?
Carbon footprints capture the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions a business creates on an annual basis. This is because, over time, business operations, value chains, products and services change to meet demand and variations in any of these elements can have an impact on an organisational carbon footprint.
To measure your carbon footprint we need to gather data from a variety of different sources including manufacturing processes, travel, logistics, facilities and operations in order to create a full and accurate picture. It takes time to ensure the accuracy of this process but the quality of the report and subsequent action plans depend on the validity of this data.
First of all, you will need to understand what data needs to be included in these calculations and set the boundaries of your carbon footprint. We ask clients to provide 12 continuous months of data, usually from a calendar or financial year, whichever is easier.
What’s included in my carbon footprint calculations?
Carbon footprint measurements should include 100% of Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (indirect) emissions from your own operations, plus all material Scope 3 emissions, which are indirect emissions from activities outside your organisation’s own operations but are from businesses directly linked to the manufacture, distribution or ultimate destruction of your products and services.
Due their external nature, data collection for Scope 3 emissions can involve multiple stakeholders and data sources. This makes them more challenging but it’s essential to measure Scope 3 emissions as they often account for a significant proportion of a company’s carbon footprint – sometimes up to 90%. Examples of Scope 3 emissions include business travel, employee commuting or emissions arising from the use of sold products but also upstream activities including raw material and agricultural production.
By breaking down your emissions into sources, you can find the hotspot areas where emissions reductions need to be focused and use this to identify areas of risk and opportunity for your company. One of the advantages of working with us at Go Climate Positive is that we can be very flexible about the type of data we need. We can work with usage and consumption data or financial data or a mixture of the two in order to calculate your carbon footprint.
What information do I need?
The essential data required for your carbon footprint includes:
- Energy, gas, water and waste –facilities or energy teams usually hold this information but the finance department will also have access to this through invoices.
- Business Travel from your travel agent or the team responsible for booking travel, whilst Employee Commuting can be calculated through a staff survey (not everyone will respond to your survey, so don’t be afraid to calculate emissions on average per full time employee).
- Transportation and Delivery information (inbound and outbound) from your courier or freight partners
- Purchase records of the goods and services you buy and sales records of the products you have sold – usually come from your finance department
How do I calculate my footprint?
Next up we select the appropriate emission factor for each emission source in order to calculate the tonnes of CO2 emitted (tCO2e). It’s also important to ensure that your data is for a consistent time period, for example if you are doing an annual footprint then all data must be for the same boundaries.
Ultimately, each organisation is different and therefore has differing material emission sources (the largest or most significant to business operations). A small office-based company’s energy use may be dwarfed by its business travel, for example.
Here are some of the data we may ask you to collect, but it is important to understand that we bespoke the data collection to suit your business and the data you already have:
Scope 1 example data questions
- kWh gas used by premises
- Number of business miles in petrol/diesel company cars
- Kg Propane used in Fork Lift trucks
Scope 2 example data questions
- kWh electricity used in premises
- Number of business miles in electric company cars
Scope 3 Upstream example data questions
- Number of business miles completed in employees own cars, engine size, fuel type
- Kg of raw materials purchased
- £ spent on legal services, training, marketing etc
- MB of cloud storage used
- Hours of cloud services used
- Cubic meters of water used
- Miles goods transported from supplier to company, vehicle & fuel type
- Miles finished goods transported to distributors/customers, vehicle, fuel type
- Tonnes of waste produced, type, transport & disposal method
- Miles employees commute to and from work, car & fuel type
- Days working from home
Scope 4 Downstream example data questions
- Mileage of customers distributing product to end user
- kWh used to process your products into finished goods
- kWh used when product/service is in use
- Total number of products sold and life expectancy
- Litres of fuel used by vans leased to customers
- kWh of electricity used by equity investments
Peeling your Carbon Onion
Once have your data, we adopt the GHG Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard protocol – the most widely used method in the world to ensure consistency for carbon footprint calculation and reporting. A full and detailed analysis requires a lot of detailed data, however we don’t need to capture it in full detail all in one go. We like to use an onion analogy to explain our approach.
In your first year, we will peel off the first layer giving you the overall size and shape of your carbon footprint. This allows us to decide which of your carbon emitting activities are the most significant and therefore are worthy of capturing more detailed data on. Each year we peel off successive layers, using more granular data, getting a gradually more detailed understanding of the makeup of your carbon footprint. At the same time, you will be making your “onion” smaller by implementing your action plan to reduce your footprint. This is our way of helping you to manage the complexity of data gathering for a comprehensive carbon footprint, without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail.
Calculating a carbon footprint is the first step to identifying the best strategic approach to reducing emissions and setting robust targets, beginning you on your journey towards the net zero transition and readying you for the demands this will bring.
Don’t panic – it might look daunting but we’ll help you find the relevant data or make estimates as we believe it’s better to start your journey to reducing your carbon footprint than waiting until you can find every last scrap of data. Not all categories will be relevant for every business, and so at the end of the initial data collection and analysis process we’ll then make recommendations for data quality improvements so you can implement these straight away and start collecting better data for next year.
For help calculating your carbon footprint, get in touch with our Carbon Coaches today.
Do I need data from my suppliers to calculate my business’s carbon footprint?
The small business economy does not exist in isolation. As trade becomes increasingly global, supply chains and their associated impact on the environment are becoming more important to trace.
Set against a backdrop of rising global consumption, there is increased scrutiny, from consumers, governments and possible partners about an organisation’s sustainability and therefore the need for a business to quantify and understand the environmental impacts up and down its value chain becomes ever-more important.
Many aspects of a business’s carbon emissions are inherent to its supply chain and the activities of its suppliers. To calculate your business’s carbon footprint comprehensively, you would need to consider not only the emissions produced directly by your operations, but also the emissions associated with the production, transportation, use and disposal of the services, products and materials you use.
Therefore, obtaining data from your suppliers is often a crucial step in calculating your business’s carbon footprint as accurately as possible. However, it is possible, and in some ways preferrable, to make a start without contacting your suppliers.
Scope 3 emissions
Scope 3 emissions, often referred to as Value Chain emissions represent all the indirect emissions that originate from sources that aren’t owned or controlled by your business, but occur because of its direct relationship with other organisations.
Scope 3 emissions incorporate the emissions from activities both upstream and downstream of your organisation that are not already captured in your Scope 1 and 2 emissions and are often the largest portion of a company’s carbon footprint and require data from suppliers.
Typically, they will include the emissions created in the supply chain from the manufacture and production of goods and services, but also in their transport, distribution, use and eventual destruction of your products or services.
Data Quality Hierarchy
When gathering data, either from your own business or from organisations within your Value Chain, while it is important to get as much data as possible, there is a weighting of data which means some data is more valuable.
The best data to collect is emission data from your Value Chain partners (CO2e), next is a physical property related to the activity (such as amount of energy (kWh) required to support the necessary level of activity and or the amount or weight of raw materials bought (Kg or tonnes), and the distance they travel (miles) and by what means, for your direct use. If these are not available, we can look at your spend and investment (£) along with any other information available that can help us make an estimate of your carbon footprint.
We want to get the best, most relevant, data which is available and good enough to make a start.
Carbon footprinting is not an exact science, the more accurate the data provided, the better the resulting calculation, but it is still an estimate at the end of the day. We are used to improvising to make the best of whatever useable data clients provide to allow them to make a start on calculating their carbon footprint.
Once we have a credible footprint value then we can advise on how they can start reducing their emissions, which after all is the main goal. Waiting to get accurate carbon data from their suppliers may add considerable delay to the process and prevent the task of reducing emissions from getting going.
Carbon Footprint contributors that might require data from your supplier:
Materials and Products:
You need to know the emissions associated with the production, and disposal of the materials and products you use or sell. The data typically associated with this is the weight of goods purchased, hours of usage and spend on materials, but also the percentage (if any) of recycled content, used in production and manufacture that can also be recycled at the end of a products lifecycle (if known).
Transportation:
If your suppliers transport goods to your business, you’ll need data on the transportation methods used for example, whether it is by land, sea or air, the distances travelled and ideally the weight of goods transported.
Energy Use:
If your suppliers provide you with services or materials that require energy-intensive processes, you’ll need information about their energy sources – in particular whether the energy used was from a renewable source. For example is your website hosted on servers powered by renewable energy?
Waste Management:
Data on how much waste your company produces and how your waste , cpartners transport and manage waste, how far it travels and what happens to the waste when it gets there in terms of re-use, recycling, combustion, composting, landfill or anaerobic digestion can impact your overall carbon footprint.
Emission Factors:
Emission factors, which quantify the amount of greenhouse gases emitted per unit of product or service purchased, are the best data we can get if the supplier has had its own carbon footprint calculated. However few companies have this currently and it can vary based on location and technology. Your suppliers might have more accurate data for their specific processes.
Science-based targets:
In line with global best practice, we use science-based targets to help our clients plan their roadmap to carbon reduction. When working with suppliers, it would be useful to establish whether they have these or any other kind of sustainability strategy or statement in place to determine if they have similar values.
Suppliers’ data is therefore an important factor when calculating your business’s carbon footprint. In many industries, a significant portion of a company’s carbon emissions occurs within its supply chain. As a result, understanding and managing the carbon footprint of your suppliers over time is essential for accurately assessing the environmental impact of your business operations.
Is it worth including my supplier’s data in my carbon footprint calculations?
By including emissions from supplier’s activities it can increase the size of your businesses carbon footprint and mean that the majority of the emissions captured come from assets or activities out of your control. Nevertheless, there are a number of benefits associated with measuring these types of Scope 3 emissions.
Here are some of the good reasons to collate this supplier data:
Greatest Impact:
Given the scale of some organisation’s supply chains it could be that the biggest opportunities for carbon reduction lie outside of your normal operations. By including these measurements at the outset, it provides more scope for significant reductions.
Accuracy and Transparency:
Accurate carbon footprint calculations require comprehensive data. By collecting and analysing your suppliers’ emissions data, you can provide a more precise assessment of your business’s environmental impact. This transparency can enhance your company’s credibility and help you make informed decisions to reduce your carbon footprint.
Identifying Hotspots:
Supplier data can help you identify the key areas within your supply chain that contribute most to your carbon footprint. This knowledge allows you to focus your efforts on high-impact areas, optimising your sustainability initiatives and resource allocation.
Risk Management:
Understanding your suppliers’ emissions can help you assess potential risks related to climate change and regulatory changes. It allows you to anticipate disruptions in the supply chain due to environmental factors and make proactive adjustments.
Sustainable Sourcing and Collaboration:
By evaluating suppliers’ emissions, you can make informed choices about sourcing materials and components from more environmentally responsible suppliers. This may lead to partnerships with suppliers who share your sustainability goals and can help drive positive change throughout the supply chain.
Reporting and Compliance:
Many industries are now required to report their carbon emissions as part of regulatory or industry-specific requirements. Supplier data is often essential for fulfilling these reporting obligations accurately.
Stakeholder Expectations:
Customers, investors, and other stakeholders are increasingly interested in the sustainability practices of the companies they engage with. Providing comprehensive data on your supply chain emissions demonstrates your commitment to environmental responsibility.
It’s important to collaborate with your suppliers to gather this data over time. Communicate your goals and intentions for calculating your carbon footprint and discuss the need for accurate data to improve sustainability efforts. Many companies today are focusing on supply chain sustainability and transparency, so your suppliers may already be prepared to provide some of this information. Additionally, this collaboration could lead to discussions on how to jointly reduce emissions throughout the supply chain.
Keep in mind that calculating a carbon footprint can be complex, and accuracy is important for effective sustainability planning. Working closely with your suppliers to gather data and improve transparency can be a valuable step toward reducing your business’s environmental impact.
However, this laudable goal can become a problem if it is allowed to delay the process of carbon reduction planning. We have found that it is generally best to start by making the best estimate of your Value Chain emissions, using the Data Quality Hierarchy. This helps you identify targets for carbon reduction and helps you build a manageable plan to involve your suppliers, by targeting the biggest contributors to your footprint first.
Conclusion
Your suppliers’ data will play an important role in calculating your business’s overall carbon footprint, especially in the context of Scope 3 emissions. To accurately assess and manage your environmental impact, it’s important to collaborate with your suppliers – and other organisations in your value chain – to gather as much relevant data as possible and incorporate it into your carbon footprint calculations and subsequent sustainability strategies.
We recognise the challenges presented by this data capture activity as many companies don’t have it themselves, and so we are well practiced at making the best estimates we can from the data that is available. Then over time, the more data we collect, the more accurate a picture we can build of how the carbon flows through your supply chain and identify areas for increased efficiency and reduction, which will also save money.
At Go Climate Positive, our team of expert carbon coaches can help on this process, even if you don’t have all the data available. We can then work with you to improve the quality and quantity of data supplied – the most important thing is to start making reductions in whatever way possible.
Getting expert help with the capture and measurement of Scope 3 emissions can give you peace of mind that all supply chain emissions are being reported in the most accurate way, while also ensuring that you don’t accidentally include emissions that aren’t relevant to your business.
For help calculating your carbon footprint, get in touch with our Carbon Coaches today.
Will reducing my business’s carbon footprint take a lot of my time !?
While 2050 remains the target for many of the Government’s Net Zero plans, 2030, remains an important milestone for demonstrating real progress to these targets. As this date looms large on the horizon and more and more customers choose to deal with sustainable organisations, the need for businesses to implement a carbon reduction strategy and publish their net zero commitments is becoming ever-more necessary.
But, despite many small and medium sized businesses wanting to do something about their carbon footprint they lack the internal resource to manage this themselves.
So it is understandable that with an already squeezed workforce, business owners want to understand the commitment required in order to first measure their carbon footprint, and then plot a strategy to achieve meaningful carbon reduction goals.
Investment v reward
In truth, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Every business is different, has different starting points and different roadmaps. The time and resource required to reduce your business’s carbon footprint can vary depending on several factors, such as the size and nature of your business, the current levels of emissions, the reductions you wish to make at the time and strategies you implement to do so.
But while it’s true that some measures may require an additional investment of time and effort, the benefits of reducing the carbon footprint of any business often outweighs the initial commitment.
Annual Cycle of carbon measurement and reduction
Perhaps the best way to describe the commitments needed by businesses in their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint is by outlining the process we undertake, on an annual basis to help businesses manage their carbon emissions and achieve their carbon reduction targets.
At Go Climate Positive, we take our credibility in regard to carbon reduction extremely seriously and take a number of steps to ensure any efforts and activities are backed by internationally recognised standards. Our carbon coaches use an annual cycle of calculation, reduction, offsetting, accreditation and tailored support to help businesses understand and then reduce their carbon emissions.
First a client’s current carbon footprint is calculated using the full implementation of the Green House Gas (GHG) protocol corporate accounting and reporting standard, including the Value Chain (Scope 3) standard.
Our carbon coaches then set science-based targets to provide a clearly-defined pathway to reduce these emissions in line with the overall goal set by the UN and the UK Government, to limit global warming to 1.5°C, supported by a tailored action plan for each business to implement.
What Happens After I Sign Up?
Kick off meeting
Once a client signs up, we book a kick-off meeting which usually takes around two hours. To help you prepare, we will send you a range of questions beforehand. Your answers will help us determine the emissions generating activities we need to include in your footprint calculation, which in turn helps to identify the data you need to collect for us.
This can cover up to 22 categories of activity (which covers the full “Scope 1,2 & 3” analysis) as we think it’s important to get a complete understanding of your footprint, but of course some data will be more relevant and more readily available. To ensure the job stays manageable we always aim to work with the data you have available now, not what we might ideally like in theory.
Data collection
All of your required emissions data is uploaded to the Go Climate Positive portal. You don’t have to collect all the data at once, you can visit the portal as many times as you like. The data format is very flexible and if you would like more than one person to be responsible for collecting the data, we will send out invites to as many people in your organisation as you need.
We ask you to aim to complete the task in no longer than 8 weeks, which is important for maintaining momentum. In our experience this initial data collection is likely to be the most time-consuming part of the process for you. The good news is that having done it once, most clients find it gets easier in future years.
Read this article to find out more and what data do need to collect
Carbon Footprint calculation
Once we have your data, it will typically take us up to two weeks to calculate your carbon footprint and we might need to ask you for some more information during this time.
Reporting
We will create your draft Carbon Footprint report in the portal and give you a breakdown to help you understand it in detail.
Agree emissions reduction targets, short-term actions and offsetting strategy.
The findings of your report will help us agree your Science based targets with you and then we will help you to write an action plan and set targets based on your goals.
You can read more about this process in our article what happens after I sign up.
Time for Employee engagement
Incorporating Scope 3 (Value Chain) carbon emissions also includes the commuting and business travel of employees. These emissions can rarely be reduced without the full engagement of a workforce. Therefore, to calculate these accurately, some time might be required to create a staff survey. Also, whilst not strictly mandatory, spending time to create cross-organisation buy-in to sustainability plans generally leads to a more successful outcome for the business.
What else should I expect?
It is really important that prospective clients understand the way we work and how this effects the amount of time required of them. While you may be familiar with the work of consultants, we describe ourselves as Carbon Coaches.
We think of a consultant is someone who understands how to achieve carbon reduction in a specific area of specialism e.g. sustainable energy and will help you to identify and implement changes in that area, whereas a Carbon Coach helps you to identify which are the right areas – across the spectrum of options – that are right for your business.
This means we take a slightly different approach to the hands on, done-for-you model.
Our role is still to help you achieve your desired outcomes by facilitating your carbon reduction journey. We will be your climate conscience and will support you every step of the way, but it is important that you understand that you will take ownership of your own journey and the implementation of the agreed actions.
We will empower you to make the right decisions and, will hold you accountable for delivering your carbon reduction plans.
As your partner, what we ask in return is you supply data in a timely and accurate fashion and give an honest appraisal of your commitment and motivations to achieving the targets you set for your business.
The first step, and therefore investment of time involves assessing your business’s current carbon emissions and identifying areas for improvement. This is a relatively quick piece of work but will lead to a requirement for data gathering. We ask that this is undertaken within an eight-week window but how much time this requires will depend on the nature of your business, the amount of data required and its current availability.
Once we have your data, we will analyse it and help you to create an action plan to reduce your carbon emissions.
One important thing to understand about our service is that you don’t need to spend time understanding how to calculate your carbon footprint correctly – we do that for you.
The time required for implementing your action plan depends on the specific measures you choose to adopt. This might include improving energy efficiency, transitioning to renewable energy sources, optimising transportation and logistics, reducing waste, and promoting sustainable practices among employees. Other changes may also be required out of the scope of your normal business activities and lie with your suppliers or other members of your value chain, meaning some changes may be relatively quick and easy to implement, while others may take more time.
It is also important to recognise that carbon footprint reduction is an ongoing process and so represents a long-term commitment. We work with clients on an annual cycle of measurement, reduction and certification to ensure they remain committed to their carbon reduction goals, but also as new technologies and practices emerge, they stay informed and continue to make informed decisions over time.
Over the next 10 years we expect a rapid increase in the number of businesses required to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions by law, perhaps extending to all small to medium-sized enterprises. We also expect all suppliers to public bodies and PLCs to be required to have a carbon reduction plan in place. Lastly, there is a growing expectation from consumers that businesses should be doing what they can to tackle the climate emergency and a growing desire from business owners to play their part. Therefore, the time investment made on any carbon reduction activities is a worthwhile endeavour. Reducing your carbon footprint can lead to cost savings, increased operational efficiency, enhanced reputation, as well as a positive impact on the world we live in.
To talk to one of our Carbon Coaches about how we can help reduce the carbon footprint of your business, get in touch today.
