Build a Carbon Management System That Works

Step 1 of the Road To Net Zero programme implements an effective carbon management system in your business. This system is like your “sat-nav”, ensuring that you start your net zero journey on the right foot; knowing where you started, travelling in the right direction, and giving you the tools to navigate it and not get lost along the way.

We establish an annual cycle

At the heart of effective Carbon Management is establishing a system to calculate, reduce and publish your carbon footprint. Our system is built around a 6-step annual cycle, designed to get you moving quickly then embed carbon management for the long-term.

We guide you through a structured questionnaire that rapidly identifies all your emissions causing activities throughout your value chain was well as the positive contributions your business makes to the wider effort to tackle climate change.

22 categories of emissions

We start by considering 22 different categories of activities that may produce greenhouse gas emissions or removals. It is unlikely that your business will be doing all of these, so we need to understand which ones are significant in your business.

6 categories of positive contributions

We also identify all the positive contributions your business makes to the wider effort to tackle climate change. We call this your Carbon Handprint.

Does it need to be this complex?

We appreciate that this sounds complicated, but we have simplified the process by creating a unique structured questionnaire, which we guide you through in your kick-off meeting, designed to rapidly identify all your emission and contributions and the data you already have about those activities. We always try to start by working with the data you already have.

It also gets easier as we go along. In subsequent years we just need to identify:

What has changed in your business that might affect the calculation?
Can we make any improvements to accuracy by collecting more or new data?

Do you use a recognised standard?

Yes, 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. If you would like to know more, our explanation of terms contains a description of Scopes 1, 2 and 3.

"We wanted to get a true, clear understanding of our carbon footprint"

Sue Williams, Whatley Manor Hotel & Spa

Once we have identified all your significant emissions causing activities and positive contributions, we ask you to collect the data we need to do the calculation, which you provide through our secure online portal.

How involved is the process?

We try to make this as painless as possible by; starting with the data you already have; asking only for the specific data we need; and by allowing you to either type the data into the portal or upload files containing it.

It sounds like a lot of work!

We’ll be honest, there can be a lot of data to collect, and the first year may require persistence. However it does get easier the more you do it and we are always happy to discuss what we can do to make it easier.

We do the number crunching for you, ensuring that the calculations comply with the standards and provide a comprehensive, but easy to read report that provides clarity on exactly where your emissions and contributions have come from.

Carbon impact

For each of your activities we calculate the carbon impact by multiplying the amount of the activity done during the year (the “activity data”) by the carbon intensity of that activity (the “emissions factor”).

Carbon footprint

To calculate your carbon footprint, it is then simply a case of adding up the carbon impacts of all the activities we identified.

Visual reporting

Your carbon report is broken down into sections, to make it digestible and is presented in a mix of tabular and graphical data to make it easier to understand.

Detailed breakdown of your emissions

We give you a detailed breakdown of your emissions by activity, so that you can make informed decisions about where to target and how to prioritise reduction activities.

Can I just use an online calculator?

Of course you can, but make sure you know what your online calculator does. The free ones usually 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 a certificate that gives your customers confidence that you are committed to reducing it, most importantly you will get a dedicated Carbon Coach to guide you through every step of the journey.

We help you to set sensible targets to reduce your footprint, that are in line with the latest scientific thinking on climate change, and to create a practical action plan to get there.

Target setting

First, we help you to set sensible targets to reduce your footprint, that are in line with the latest scientific thinking on climate change, and to create a practical action plan to get there.

We ask you to set science-based near targets that are aligned with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C.

Everyone sets “near-term” targets – typically over a 5 to 10 year period

If you wish you may also set one or more Net Zero targets – which define the year you will aim to achieve net zero and the amount of reduction you will do.

How to set Science-based targets

How do we know how much to reduce our footprint by? if we are going to make a meaningful contribution to reducing the impacts of climate change we need to set our reduction targets in line with the overall goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. This is called setting ‘Science-based targets’ for carbon reduction.

There are 3 types of target that we help you to set:

Absolute target

This is a commitment to reduce the total emissions, in absolute terms, of all or part of your business activity, over a defined period of time. For example you might say,

We will reduce my total footprint from 100 tonnes of CO2e to 58 tonnes of CO2e over the next 10 years.

It’s best practice to set a long term absolute target for reducing the emissions of your own operations (also known as Scopes 1 & 2) as a minimum. It’s also a good idea to set absolute targets for individual activities over shorter time periods to help drive action and build momentum.

Intensity target

This is a commitment to reduce the intensity of your carbon emissions depending on the amount of activity you are doing. This type of target can be particularly useful if your business is expecting to grow significantly over the period as it may be difficult to reduce the absolute emissions in your supply chain and customer activity. Here are some typical intensity targets:

Over the next 10 years we will reduce our supply chain emissions from 100 tCO2e per £1m of spend to 48 tCO2e per £1m of spend

Over the next 7 years we will reduce the emissions of this product line from 56 kgCO2e per product sold to 48 tCO2e per product sold

Over the next 5 years we will reduce the emissions of this factory from 1.2 tCO2e per sq metre to 1.1 tCO2e per sq metre

Qualitative target

Sometimes it is important to set a target that you cannot put a number on. This might be an important symbolic goal, or something that will encourage your employees, customers or suppliers to get involved. Typical qualitative goals might be:

Install charging points for electric cars in the staff car park

Hold an energy saving workshop

Put up reminders to switch everything off at the weekend

Action planning

Then we help you create an action plan for the next 12 months, containing concrete actions that will:

Reduce your carbon footprint
Improve data collection
Engage your stakeholders in the effort

Prioritise based on impact and engagement

One of the advantages of our detailed report is that it breaks down your footprint by category so that you get a clear picture of which activities have the biggest impact on the climate and can target your actions accordingly.

Getting your employees, customers and suppliers involved in your efforts to reduce your footprint is crucial to success, so it is also important to consider actions that will encourage this.

We help you prioritise your action plan to meet these two goals.

Annual carbon budget

We help you create a carbon budget for the year to help provide a focus for annual action planning.

A carbon budget simply states the total amount of emissions you intend to in the year of your roadmap. or to put it another way, the total amount of emissions you can afford to emit if you are to stay on track to meet your targets.

Carbon Reduction Solutions

We don’t provide carbon reduction solutions, so that we can remain independent and give you impartial advice. However we can introduce you to our Trusted Partners, many of whom have specific solutions that will enable to you to reduce your carbon footprint.

"If we are going to do it, we want to do it properly"

Tim Pearce, Haines Watts Accountants

We create and host your own unique certification page, so that you can show people that your commitment is real and independently verified.

Publish your commitment to the climate

Informing your customers about what you are doing to become more eco-friendly in an open and honest way can be really hard.

Transparency is the best defence against accusations of “Greenwashing”. So, all programme members get their own certification page, hosted on our website that publishes:

Your carbon footprint and handprint
Your historic emissions
Your targets, action plans and commitments.

This is designed to make disclosure of your carbon reduction plan easy whilst providing independent evidence of your commitment which can help prevent accusations of greenwashing.

Your certificate is designed to highlight your achievements in saving carbon, both inside and outside your organisation.

Caroline Aistrop of Green Spark Marketing says

Three-quarters of consumers are choosing to buy from companies demonstrating their green commitments; nearly half of smaller companies have been asked for their sustainability policy by larger companies; and studies consistently show how staff loyalty increases and staff recruitment is easier for companies which are visibly caring for the planet. If you’re not shouting about your sustainability commitments, you’re missing the opportunity to attract new customers, increase loyalty in existing ones, boost staff motivation, attract new talent – and, of course, use your experience to help others play their part in creating a healthy world. Future generations will thank you for that.

We support you through the year, encouraging you to stay on track, giving tips and advice and putting you in touch with other members on the same journey.

Keep your carbon plans on track

To help you stay accountable for implementing your plans we will set up Quarterly progress reviews with one of our trained carbon coaches, in which we review the implementation of your action plan and agree remedial measures if things are not going to plan.

Stay accountable to your goals

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.

"Go Climate Positive made the process very straightforward and did all the heavy lifting…"

Gill Smith, The Business Kitchen

Our annual Carbon Management Cycle

Certification

Once you have establish your Net Zero Roadmap you can qualify for Step 1 in the “Road to Net Zero” certification programme.

"Go Climate Positive enabled us to turn a desire to play our part in the climate emergency into action…there is no preaching, campaigning or bamboozling with science, just clear, pragmatic suggestions."