Business benefits to knowing your carbon footprint
Uploaded by Suzanne Smith in NEL News & Insights on October 28, 2022
Guest blog by Sustainable Business Services
If you’re looking to make an impact on your business, then it is essential that you understand its carbon footprint. Here are three reasons why this is important:
- 89% of businesses agree that demonstrating a low carbon footprint will be essential for their brand by 2025
- Having a clearer picture of your company’s environmental impact can help with decision making. For example, knowing where energy is being used in the office allows you to make smarter decisions about how to reduce waste and increase efficiency.
- You can use your knowledge of the environment to talk to future customers. If you are talking in an authentic, transparent way about WHY you are doing what you are doing and the steps you have taken to date, frustrations included, your audience will understand, follow and trust in your brand.
Get ahead of corporate carbon reduction goals.
Companies that take the lead in reducing their emissions will have a competitive advantage. They’ll be prepared for upcoming legislation changes, as well as for more stringent requirements from customers and investors. As the world begins to place a higher value on environmental stewardship and sustainability, these companies will also attract top talent—and keep their current employees engaged in their work, leading to business and brand recognition and sustainable business growth.
Be transparent and accountable.
Being transparent and accountable to your stakeholders is an important part of business. You can be held accountable for the impact your business has on the environment and society. By understanding where you are at, it will help you to set targets for improvement and set up clear action plans to achieve these targets. This will ensure long-term success of your company in a sustainable way.
It is also important because when it comes to reporting how we’re doing against our targets, there are many different ways this can be done – from annual reports to monetary data about carbon emissions costs. Their is a lot of jargon in what is a relatively new industry for most to understand. Their are many websites and carbon calculators now available for businesses and consumers, but how you understand the results and what you do with the data to set and roadmap towards targets can be daunting.
Their are now many businesses that can support your ambition, understand your company and to work to upskill you and your teams on terminology and meaningful targets. Similar to how you want to talk to your clients about your work and ambition – do your own research when selecting your environmental partner – Why do they do what they do? Do they have experience? Do they just provide software or can they support you day to day?
Open up new opportunities for innovation or to service new customers whose sustainability goals are aligned with yours.
Knowing your carbon footprint can help you open up new opportunities for innovation or to service new customers whose sustainability goals are aligned with yours.
Many businesses find that knowing their carbon footprints enables them to open up new markets, or even create entirely new business models based on low-carbon products and services.
Tell Your Story
Tell your story to the world in an open, honest way. This is one of the most important ways you can support your brand and ambition.
Telling your story to your customers is also a great idea. Customers are drawn to brands that are authentic and genuine; they want to know who you really are, what you’re all about, and why they should choose you over anyone else. How do you do this? Start by taking some time to reflect on how unique your company is compared with others in its industry (or even other industries). What makes it stand out? Then share those things with people through blogs, social media posts, press releases or even interviews with journalists or bloggers who might be interested in hearing them!
Our Sustainable Business Community is a place for businesses to demonstrate their commitment to reducing their environmental impact and tell their story to other likeminded businesses. For more information about joining our community (its Free) click the below link https://www.sustainablebusinessservices.co.uk/community
There’s no question that knowing your carbon footprint and using it as a management tool can be an effective way to improve your business performance. It’s also an important part of being a responsible corporate citizen in today’s world. But perhaps most importantly, it helps build trust with your customers and employees by giving them an opportunity to understand how you do business—and what that means for their own lives, communities and planet.