Benefits of Carbon Footprinting your Organisation

This section is designed to help you to understand and communicate the benefits of carbon footprinting. These benefits go beyond the obvious need to collectively slow down global heating to include areas that will feed into your long-term business strategy. This will help to establish buy-in and support from all your stakeholders as you progress on your carbon footprinting journey. 

Carbon footprinting is a powerful tool that enables organisations to assess their environmental impact and develop strategies to reduce their carbon emissions.

By identifying areas of high impact and implementing effective measures to reduce carbon emissions, organisations can not only improve their environmental performance, but also drive cost savings, enhance brand reputation, and increase their competitive edge. In this section, we will delve deeper into the benefits of carbon footprinting and how it can help your organisation positively impact people and the planet.

Minimise Environmental Impact

Carbon emissions are a major contributor to climate change and its catastrophic effects on the environment. Reducing your organisation’s carbon footprint reduces the amount of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions that are released into the atmosphere, thereby slowing down the rate of global warming.

Measuring an organisation’s carbon footprint can provide insight into areas within an organisation’s operations that produce the largest amounts of GHG emissions; these are known as carbon hotspots. We explain what carbon hotspots are and recommendations for tackling them in our What Next? article. 

In summary, identifying these hotspots can help your organisation to target and prioritise its emissions reduction efforts. Common carbon hotspots include energy use, transportation, supply chain, and business travel, but will vary depending on the type of industry you work in. 

Improve Reputation

Measuring and reducing your organisation’s carbon footprint demonstrates a commitment to sustainability and can improve your reputation among customers, clients, investors, and employees.

As consumers become increasingly conscious of environmental issues, there is a growing expectation for companies to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability. 

By measuring and reporting your organisation’s carbon footprint, you can communicate your environmental efforts transparently to stakeholders and establish yourselves as leaders in their respective industries.

IBM's 2022 survey of 16,000 consumers found that more than half (51%) of respondents say environmental sustainability is more important to them at the time of the survey than it was 12 months ago. 

This highlights the growing expectations from consumers of organisations to showcase how they are managing their environmental impact.

Another report conducted by Unily concluded that almost two-thirds (65%) of survey respondents said that they were more likely to work for a company with strong environmental policies. Climate change, human rights, and social equity are all issues of growing importance, especially for millennial employees who now make up the majority of the workforce.

Enhanced reputation and positive branding can lead to increased consumer loyalty, employee engagement, and investor interest, all of which can have positive impacts on your organisation’s performance.

Compliance with Regulation

Many countries and regions have regulations in place mandating that organisations measure their carbon footprint to monitor and reduce their GHG emissions, such as Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR), the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), and the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). 

For a complete list of global environmental compliance regulations, read our Regulatory Compliance article. 

A broader set of larger companies, as well as listed SMEs, will now be required to report on sustainability -- approximately 50,000 companies in total. European Commision, 2023.

The UK government’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) policy was implemented on 1 April 2019. The regulation requires organisations to publicly report on carbon emissions and energy use and provides an opportunity for organisations to assess their environmental impact and find ways to reduce it.

The information reported under SECR includes:

• Mandatory reporting of energy use on an annual basis via the current system of company accounts reporting (includes all UK electricity, gas, and transport energy use).
• Associated Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, including details of the methodology and a suitable carbon intensity metric. 
• For large unquoted companies, the scope of SECR includes all energy use within the UK.
• For quoted companies registered in the UK, the scope continues to include global energy use and carbon emissions.
• Reporting of energy efficiency actions taken over the previous year.

Find out more about SECR by reading our guide.  

For a complete list of global environmental compliance regulations, read our Regulatory Compliance article. 

Setting Targets

Measuring your organisation’s carbon footprint allows for efficient and accurate targets to be set to reduce its environmental impact. For environmental targets to be effective, they must align with the latest climate science and global targets of limiting global warming to 1.5° c. 

One of the most effective ways to ensure your organisation is doing its part to mitigate the effects of climate change is by setting science-based targets. 

It is now common for organisations to communicate their impact, targets, and reduction strategies in the form of impact or sustainability reports that are made publicly available from their website and other channels. 

You can learn more about science-based targets and how to communicate your goals by reading our What Next? article. 

Identify Opportunities for Cost Savings

Carbon footprinting your organisation can help to identify areas where you could reduce your energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions. This, in turn, can lead to cost savings by reducing the amount of energy and resources that you use. 

For example, you may discover that switching to energy-efficient lighting or appliances could significantly reduce your energy bills over time.

Similarly, you may identify opportunities to reduce transportation emissions by promoting carpooling or using more efficient vehicles. An example of an organisation that has showcased significant cost savings by calculating its carbon footprint and understanding its environmental impact is Internet Fusion Group (IFG).

Internet Fusion Group recently implemented a Plastic Reduction Strategy driven by their Head of Sustainability, Adam Hall. The strategy resulted in significant financial savings and has been shared across the entire IFG. See below.

Source: Internet Fusion Group 2020 Impact Report

Next up: Now that you understand the benefits of measuring your carbon footprint, learn how to plan its scope by reading our Plan the Scope of Your Carbon Footprint article.