Strategies to reduce a business’s carbon footprint include improving energy efficiency, adopting renewable energy sources, optimising supply chains, minimising waste through recycling and decreasing single-use items, encouraging sustainable employee practises, and investing in carbon offset projects when necessary.
Here at 123 Oil, we invite you on an adventure into this island as we take you deep into this topic with our team of certified experts.
What is Business Carbon Footprint?
A business’s carbon footprint is the total amount of Greenhouse Gas Emissions that are emitted directly or indirectly due to its various activities; this includes emissions from a company’s operations including:
- Supply chains
- Products Manufacturing
- Other Services
A business’s carbon footprint is a vital gauge of its environmental impact. Understanding this footprint can empower companies to:
- Know their carbon footprint for operations and supply chain.
- Learn how you can take a step ahead towards eliminating all emissions.
- Develop sustainable practices.
- Fulfil carbon reporting requests.
How Do You Calculate a Business’ Carbon Footprint?
This includes collecting data on your company’s activities, including the energy you use to run your business, the fuel you burn, the waste you produce, and the travel you make. Next, multiply each activity with its respective “emission factor” to convert it into a greenhouse gas emission value.
Finally, add all the emissions to get your total carbon footprint; the formula is Carbon Footprint = Activity Data X Emission Factor. According to this formula, various methodologies (such as UNE-ISO 14064, GHG Protocol, and others) are available for determining the carbon footprint.
5 Key Steps Involved
Step 1—Define your boundary: Decide which activities within your business operations will be included in the calculation (e.g., only office operations or all supply chain emissions).
Step 2—Collect data: Find out how much electricity, gas, waste, water and employee travel
your company uses.
Step 3—Use emission factors: You can convert your activity data to gaseous emissions using standardised emission factors from verified sources such as the EPA or the GHG Protocol.
Step 4—Calculate emissions for each activity: Boost your activity data by multiplying it with the relevant emission factor for each category. For example, use the emission factor for electricity with your electricity consumption. This simple method helps you grasp your impact.
Step 5—Sum up emissions: Add the calculated emissions from each activity to get your total carbon footprint.
10 Methods of Reducing Businesses Carbon Footprint
1) Change Your Indoor Climate
Transforming your indoor climate can yield advantages beyond just decreasing energy use. Numerous studies indicate that indoor temperatures can adversely impact employee productivity. The advancement of HVAC systems and control technology has made it simpler to adjust indoor temperatures based on the area, time, or usage.
By enhancing your organisation’s HVAC systems, you can ensure that your indoor climate spending directly fosters a comfortable and efficient atmosphere for your employees.
2) Source Sustainable Energy
Upgrading your corporate premises with sustainable energy is a great decision and an important step for a green future. Adopting renewable energy alternatives will substantially reduce your carbon emissions and you can be ahead in corporate social responsibility.
3) Make the Road Less Travelled
Minimising corporate travel is an effective approach to lessen your organisation’s environmental footprint, as transportation is a significant source of carbon emissions. Within corporate travel, there are ample opportunities to balance necessary trips and scenarios where remote or digital participation can achieve the same objectives.
4) Upgrade your Lighting
This is a straightforward recommendation that can have a substantial effect. Reflect on all the locations where your organisation utilises lighting:
- Office buildings
- Warehouses
- Manufacturing plants
- Parking lots
These spaces, especially those that receive little light during winter, consume much energy for lighting. Using LED bulbs can reduce lighting energy usage by 50% to 70%. Additional technologies, like motion sensors and timers, can enhance energy efficiency by ensuring lights are activated only when necessary.
5) Create a Local Food Stream
If your organisation has a cafeteria, consider collaborating with local, sustainable entities to establish a food supply chain that minimises waste and benefits the community. Whenever possible, source locally produced foods, compost food scraps, and donate unconsumed food to local kitchens that assist needy community members. These initiatives are excellent ways for your business to lower its carbon footprint while positively impacting the local community.
6) Work with Sustainable Suppliers
Your procurement and purchasing divisions can significantly decrease carbon emissions by collaborating with sustainable organisations and suppliers offering easily recyclable or refurbished products.
7) Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle On a Larger Scale
Expand reduce, reuse, and recycle principle beyond just sorting bins. Conducting a waste audit for each department can reveal practices that are easy opportunities for enhancing your organisation’s environmental impact. You may discover that some single-use items could be replaced with multi-use options or recyclable products instead of disposables. Paper archives and outdated technology can be recycled, while processes can be optimised to minimise overall waste.
8) Don’t Overlook Your Data Centre
The global transition to a digital work environment in 2020 resulted in a 40% increase in internet traffic worldwide. As internet services advance globally, the demand for data is continuously increasing. The energy required for data processing is part of the equation; the cooling systems supporting data centres consume significant power. You should stay ahead of industry developments to make sure your data centre is not contributing to a larger carbon footprint.
9) Send Sustainable Products Into the World
For an organisation that manufactures products, designing your products as green as possible will lower your global carbon footprint. Choose recyclable or compostable packaging whenever possible, minimise the creation of single-use items, and have your product components recyclable, refurbished, or compostable.
10) Transition to Electric Vehicle Fleet
Many corporations are pioneering the transition to an electric vehicle fleet. Major automotive manufacturers consistently introduce longer-range, more powerful electric vehicles yearly, so numerous options are available for converting your fleet to electric vehicles.
Summary of the Guide
Businesses are crucial in reducing CFCs and controlling climate change globally. Suppose companies adopt strategies such as improving energy efficiency, switching to renewable energy, or encouraging sustainable practices. In that case, they will be able to drastically reduce their negative impact on the environment.
Additionally, employee and supplier engagement in these efforts creates an opportunity for all involved to collectively undertake the road to a greener future. If you need better insights or professional guidance for your sustainability, start today by getting a consultation from the experts at 123 Oil.
