First Steps to Net-Zero for Small Businesses
A Review of Some Free Tools to Measure Your Carbon Footprint
“What should I do first?” is the most common question brought to me by small and micro-business leaders when faced with the growing net-zero challenge. If this sounds like you, then don’t worry – I can help you at least to get started and will begin by sharing a few thoughts below that you may find useful.
There are many reasons that net-zero might matter for your business. Some of your customers want to buy from low-carbon suppliers, talented new staff may choose to work for a responsible company, ideally yours, or you might have a background personal view on the impact your business has on its environment and community.
My advice is to step right back and begin by understanding where you are and why it matters. Your impact on the worlds can be measured through your carbon emissions. These can be from things you do yourself within the company, or things you cause to be done by others like your suppliers or staff. The easy way to recognise this is through a carbon assessment of your business. This tells you where your emissions come from and quantifies them. This information helps you to decide on positive things you can do like changing the way your company works, how it relates to those around it, and how it presents itself to the wider world.
A note of caution - some carbon assessments can be complex and costly, possibly overkill for a small company, but fortunately there are several free-to-use tools out there for your first step.
Over the last couple of years, I have worked in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and elsewhere to guide small businesses on this path, most notably teaming with Ant Parsons and ALP Synergy Ltd through OxLEP, the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership. We have used several free tools, and I’d like to share some observations on how they work, their availability, ease of use, and suitability for small enterprises.
NatWest's Carbon Planner
natwest.com - a free online tool to estimate carbon emissions and identifying potential cost and carbon savings. The planner goes beyond the assessment process to help with resulting actions, setting reduction targets, and exploring resources to achieve these goals.
Availability - available online and is free for all UK businesses, regardless of whether they are NatWest customers.
Ease of Use – I found the tool to be logical and with good navigation between the sections. In some parts it looks for more detail than I had available from my test data and so I needed to estimate a few things. Most people will be like this, so just remember to record your assumptions and the basis of your estimates for future reference.
Suitability – easy to use and with a clear but not detailed output report, this is a good starting point for small businesses. It tries to cover more of the journey than the initial assessment, and this may be less suitable over time.
Circular Ecology's Organisational Carbon Footprint Tool
circularecology.com - This is a free to download, Excel-based model designed to measure Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in line with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol.
Availability - readily accessible from Circular Ecology's website with a simple form to gain access.
Ease of Use - in the familiar Excel-based format users can input data from supplier invoices, fuel delivery statements, and meter readings.
Suitability - this tool feels quite complex for small, single site businesses and may be better suited to slightly larger, multi-site organisations. It is also limited to Scopes 1 and 2 only, so does not reflect the impact of purchased goods and services that may be a significant part of a small business’ emissions profile.
Small99's Carbon Footprint Estimator
small99.co.uk – is specifically designed for small businesses with a quick analysis of some simple questions
Availability – an online form without the need for data gathering or access to company accounts.
Ease of Use – very easy with non-technical questions, many are multi-choice. I completed the form in just a couple of minutes.
Suitability – a useful starting point but my results were very different to those received from other tools. There are gaps in the questions, for example relating to purchased goods and services in Scope 3, and fuel used by vans for deliveries in Scope 1.
Scottish and Southern Energy’s Carbon Footprint Calculator
https://www.sseenergysolutions.co.uk/business-energy/net-zero-hub/carbon-footprint-calculator - is another self-contained Excel model to download and complete.
It is focused on direct emissions from fuel and processes (Scope 1) and purchased energy (Scope 2).
Availability – readily available and quick to download.
Ease of Use – very easy to complete, based upon values for purchased items. Simpler than the Circular Ecology option with fewer tabs, and good notes to help the completion process.
Suitability – this tool is a good starting point for Scopes 1 and 2 but is lacking the coverage of Scope 3 if that is a significant part of your business.
Others
There are many other resources that I haven’t covered here, but I may get onto in future articles. One key resource that is missing from this review is the SME Climate Hub smeclimatehub.org which up to the end of last year was the go-to resource. They are changing their tool provision and will be publishing a new resource very soon. I will review this once it is available.
Conclusions
Any of these tools will provide a useful start. They vary in scope and complexity, and there is no natural best-fit.
I recommend just getting started - trying them out and comparing the outputs against your common-sense view of the shape of your business. Does it feel right? I must admit I favour those tools that offer measurement from quantity-based data. These at least will acknowledge any reductions you can make year-on-year.
Third-party support
Another notable point is the availability of support resources. If you are a qualifying company in Oxfordshire, then go to the OxLEP team and fill in their simple questionnaire at https://oxlepbusiness.co.uk/business-support-tool/ to see what help is available. Much of it is free of charge and there is a comprehensive catalogue available. If you don’t qualify in Oxfordshire, then reach out to me anyway and we can talk about how I can support your net-zero journey.
