CHELTENHAM ZERO
is an initiative from Cheltenham Borough Council to drive local businesses, community groups, and charities to achieve net zero
Micro
I am a Micro business
What does net zero carbon mean for me?
Decarbonising starts with measuring your impact. Until you know your impact and the activities which impact your footprint the highest, you cannot plan how you achieve net zero carbon.
1. Measure
Whatever size business you have, you will still be causing emissions. Therefore, the first step to take is measurement.
Below are some really quick FREE ONLINE calculators.
What you will need to calculate your footprint
- Employee count
- Size of facilities (as a Micro business you probably won’t have facilities)
- Annual revenue
- Heating and electricity costs (if you work from home, see if you can work out a % of your annual usage) which accounts for your working from home. Research by MoneySupermarket says home workers use 75% more gas over the winter and 25% more electricity than someone working in an office 5 days a week.
- Company owned vehicles (and tools such as fuelled strimmers, mowers, chainsaws etc)
- Company expenses for
- Travel
- Transport/freight
- Materials/inventory
- Capital goods
- Business services
Free online calculators aligned with the GHG Protocol
Persefoni (Scope 1&2 free)
SME Climate Hub (Scope 1,2&3 free)
We have a number of FREE year-long licences available for Zellar which is an online measurement and action platform. Access your free 1 year trial
The Growth Hub Cheltenham offers free Net Zero support and advice on calculating your carbon footprint by their expert team. Ideal if your business is slightly more complex and you want to measure scope 3 from the start.
Modeshift STARS empowers organisations by providing a centre of excellence for developing, delivering, and monitoring Travel Plans.
2. Action
Now you have measured your impact you can see where your highest emissions come from and can start to explore how you can reduce these emissions.
Your businesses emissions will be from things like, energy use for where you work, travelling to customers for meetings, resources you use to operate your business from website hosting and banking, to tools, machinery and equipment.
To reduce emissions from these you can do things like;
- Using natural light
- Reducing heating costs (another jumper?)
- Use public transport and avoid fossil fuelled transport (walk, cycle, bus, or train) more links on sustainable travel.
- Find website hosting who use renewable energy and actively support you to reduce your sites’ energy requirements and banks who have divested from fossil fuel investments
- Battery powered tools and machinery, maybe purchasing second hand/refurbished and selling on after your use.
- Make sure you buy good quality equipment which lasts.
3. Need more support?
If you need any help whatsoever to start measuring and reducing your impact, we are here to help. Get in touch today for support in reducing the costs of your business and securing its future.