Insights

Streamlined energy and carbon reporting (SECR) is the first bit of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compliance that companies in the UK face. SECR compliance becomes relevant when your company becomes quoted, or grows to be a large company/LLP, defined as meeting two of the following three criteria: 250 employees, £36 million turnover, and an £18 million balance sheet. At this point you need to include SECR content in your Annual Report published at Companies House. The conten

ESG is now embedded throughout UK government procurement. Depending on the contract, suppliers may be assessed on carbon reduction targets, social value, modern slavery controls, cyber security and payment practices. Understanding these requirements early can significantly improve your chances of success when bidding for government work. ESG requirements for government contracts Government requirements for public procurement are communicated via Procurement Policy Notes (PPNs

We’ve helped many companies achieve Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) verification for their near-term and Net Zero targets. This involves measuring GHG emissions, planning targets, and modelling abatement plans to achieve the goals. The very last step is then the SBTi application itself and this is not as simple as it sounds. In order for the SBTi to verify a company’s targets they need confidence of the target boundary, the emissions measurement and the target level

When it comes to getting your company’s carbon footprint measured, there's a key choice you need to make – to use a consultancy or to use a carbon software platform. There are pros and cons to both and we set them out below: Quality. If you want an accurate and credible greenhouse (GHG) inventory, it might surprise you when I say that consultancies are best. Yes, carbon software is second to none when it comes to doing the calculations – they are infallible at multiplying on

Last week I stepped off a plane in Manchester to find it hotter than my departure airport in Portugal. Now you don’t need to have lived in Manchester to know that our climate is generally somewhat wetter and cooler than the Iberian Peninsula, but the well-publicised heat dome was clearly having a significant impact. This week, we’re being warned of the return of El Niño, a natural weather pattern that raises global temperatures and worsens some rainfall, and some scientist

The importance of accurate scope 3 emission factors Scope 3 emissions (as defined by the GHG Protocol ) are the indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that primarily arise from your supply chain. They are often the hardest GHG emissions to measure. This difficulty stems not from a lack of knowledge about your supply chain, but from the challenge of finding accurate, relevant, and consistent emission factors. Many consultants rely on the freely available US EPA emission facto

Thinking about CDP disclosure? You’re not alone. Every year thousands of companies report their environmental data through CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project). However, while CDP is widely recognised and considered by some as the gold standard for environmental reporting, it isn’t a must-do for every business. In this post, we’ll break down what CDP is, the types of companies that really benefit from it, the business value of disclosing, and five reasons why CDP m

When developing Net Zero plans companies often consider only how to reduce their current emission sources. Whilst of course, this is important, companies should give equal importance to preventing the introduction of new emission sources, which can have almost the same scale of impact. Why? Because of business growth. For example, take a company with scope 1 & 2 emissions coming solely from their offices. They plan modest business growth of 5% per annum. If they have 100 emp

We all know that reducing your company carbon footprint is good for our planet and the temptation can be just to get started with 'doing' things, but you won’t realise all the business benefits of reducing your footprint unless you measure it first. Why? Because ‘your’ carbon footprint is not just yours, it is also someone else’s. Let me explain: When we think of a company carbon footprint, we often think of the direct emission sources - the lighting and heating used in your

When developing plans for scope 3 emissions reduction, initiatives are typically prioritised by considering their carbon impact, cost and ease of implementation. This results in a practical delivery plan that (ideally!) will ensure emissions are adequately reduced to achieve company carbon targets. However, without also considering the customer perspective in this analysis, companies can be missing out on a huge value opportunity. Why? Because customers care about the individ

There’s a plethora of tools out there to measure carbon footprints, from quick and free short assessments to comprehensive and dedicated software tools (e.g. Greenly, Persefoni, etc.), but from our experience, the best way to measure your GHG emissions in the first few years, is by using simple Excel. Here’s why: You’ll get the right emission boundary. One of the key challenges with measuring a carbon footprint is to know what to include and what to exclude. The rules for t

For most companies, supply chain emissions are a significant proportion of their total carbon footprint (‘scope 1, 2 and 3’ emissions). Reducing these emissions is challenging, not least because you have no direct influence over them (they come from another organisation after all) but importantly, because it typically takes a minimum of three years (and most likely several more) to show any reduction in emissions. Why? Because when you start measuring supply chain emissions y

With increasing pressure on companies to play their role in the fight against climate change, what should your company be doing?

TCFD is an acronym for Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure. Here's what you need to know.

How to report corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions and offsets to track progress against your climate change targets.