Carbon Reduction for UK Businesses: A Practical Guide
If you’re looking at ways to reduce your business’s carbon emissions, it can be difficult to know where to start.
There’s plenty of advice available, but much of it focuses on big changes, new technology or long-term Net Zero targets. For many businesses, the reality is much more straightforward.
You need to understand what is happening in your business, identify where you can make a difference and decide what is realistic.
That might mean using less energy, changing how your business travels, reducing waste, reviewing what you buy or working with suppliers to make changes further along your supply chain.
It doesn’t have to happen all at once. This guide looks at some of the practical ways UK businesses can reduce their carbon emissions and how to decide which actions are worth focusing on.
What does carbon reduction mean?
Carbon reduction simply means reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with your business.
Those emissions can come from many different parts of the way a business operates, from heating and electricity to vehicles, travel, purchasing, waste and suppliers.
The opportunities will be different for every organisation.
A small office-based business may have relatively few opportunities within its own premises, while a manufacturer, construction company or business with a vehicle fleet may have a very different set of priorities.
That’s why there isn’t a standard list of carbon reduction measures that every business should follow.
The most useful place to start is with your own business.
What is the difference between carbon reduction and a Carbon Reduction Plan?
The two terms are closely related, but they aren’t the same thing.
Carbon reduction is the action of reducing your business’s emissions.
A Carbon Reduction Plan is a structured document setting out how an organisation intends to reduce its emissions over time.
If you already understand your emissions and need a structured roadmap for reducing them, our Carbon Reduction Plan can help identify priorities and plan the next steps.
If you haven’t established your emissions yet, a Carbon Footprint Assessment may be the more appropriate starting point.
Why should businesses reduce their carbon emissions?
There are several reasons why carbon reduction is becoming an increasingly important consideration for UK businesses.
Reducing energy and operating costs
Some carbon reduction measures can also reduce the amount a business spends on energy, fuel or other resources. For example, using less electricity, improving building efficiency or reducing unnecessary journeys can have both environmental and financial benefits.
Not every carbon reduction project will pay for itself quickly, particularly where investment is involved. It’s worth looking at the cost, expected benefits and practical implications before deciding what to do.
Meeting customer and procurement requirements
Businesses are increasingly being asked questions about carbon emissions by customers, contractors and procurement teams. You may be asked whether you measure your emissions, whether you have a reduction plan or what action you are taking to reduce your environmental impact.
For businesses supplying larger organisations or bidding for certain contracts, being able to provide clear and consistent information can be particularly important.
The requirements will depend on the customer or tender, so it’s important to understand exactly what you have been asked to provide.
If you’re bidding for a relevant government contract, you may also need a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan. Find out what the requirements involve and how Attain Zero can help with our PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan service.
Making better business decisions
Looking at carbon emissions can also highlight areas where your business could operate more efficiently.
You may discover that energy is being used unnecessarily, vehicles are travelling further than they need to, materials are being wasted or purchasing decisions could be changed.
Carbon reduction isn’t separate from running a business. In many cases, it can form part of looking at how the business works and where improvements could be made.
Where should a business start?
It’s tempting to jump straight into a list of carbon reduction measures. Change the lighting. Install solar panels. Switch vehicles. Reduce paper. Recycle more.
But what works for one business may make very little difference to another. Before deciding what to change, it helps to understand where your emissions are coming from.
A Carbon Footprint Assessment can provide that starting point by showing the emissions associated with your organisation over a defined period.
It can help you see which areas are contributing most to your overall emissions and where you may have the greatest opportunity to make a difference.
If you haven’t measured your emissions yet, an assessment can help establish a baseline and give you a clearer picture of where your emissions are coming from.
Once you understand where your emissions come from, you can start looking at what can realistically be changed.
1. Look at how your business uses energy
Energy is an obvious place to start for many businesses, but reducing energy use doesn’t necessarily mean making expensive changes.
Start by looking at how your buildings and equipment are actually being used.
You might find opportunities to:
Improve heating and cooling controls
Switch to more efficient lighting
Avoid heating or cooling empty areas
Make sure equipment isn’t left running unnecessarily
Improve insulation
Maintain heating and ventilation systems properly
Replace inefficient equipment when it reaches the end of its useful life
Monitor energy use to identify unusual or unnecessary consumption
The right measures will depend on your premises and what happens inside them.
A warehouse, manufacturing site and small office will naturally have very different energy requirements.
The aim isn’t to make changes simply because they’re labelled as sustainable. It’s to find changes that make sense for the way your business operates.
For more detailed information about reducing emissions associated with purchased energy, see our Reducing your Scope 2 Emissions guide.
2. Review business travel and transport
Transport can be a significant area for businesses that operate vehicles, regularly visit customers or sites, or have employees travelling for work.
Before thinking about replacing vehicles, look at the journeys themselves. Could some journeys be avoided? Could several visits be combined? Could a meeting take place online instead?
Where journeys are necessary, could public transport or a lower-emission vehicle be practical?
For businesses with company vehicles, there may also be opportunities to improve how vehicles are used and when they are replaced.
The most appropriate approach will depend on what your vehicles are used for, the distances involved and the practical requirements of the business.
3. Make your buildings and equipment work more efficiently
Replacing equipment isn’t always the first answer. Sometimes the biggest opportunity is simply making better use of what you already have.
Look at how your equipment, machinery and buildings are being used day to day.
For example:
Is equipment being left on when it isn’t needed?
Are areas being heated or cooled unnecessarily?
Could processes be made more efficient?
Is equipment being maintained properly?
Are there older machines using significantly more energy than newer alternatives?
When equipment does need replacing, energy efficiency can form part of the decision alongside cost, performance, reliability and expected lifespan.
That makes carbon reduction part of normal business decision-making rather than something separate.
4. Consider renewable energy
Once you’ve looked at how much energy your business uses, you may want to consider where that energy comes from.
For some businesses, renewable energy generation such as solar could be worth investigating.
Whether it makes sense will depend on factors such as your building, available roof or land space, energy use, installation costs and how your business operates.
It’s also worth remembering that generating renewable energy doesn’t remove the need to look at energy efficiency.
Using less energy in the first place can still be an important part of reducing emissions.
If you’re considering a significant investment, look at the whole picture rather than assuming a particular technology will automatically be the right solution.
5. Look at what your business buys
What a business purchases can be an important part of its wider environmental impact. This can make procurement an area worth looking at when you’re considering carbon reduction.
You could ask:
Do we need to buy this?
Could something be repaired or reused?
Could we choose a product with a longer useful life?
Could packaging be reduced?
Can deliveries be combined?
Can suppliers provide useful environmental information?
Are there lower-impact alternatives that still meet our requirements?
This doesn’t mean choosing the supplier with the strongest environmental claims.
Price, quality, reliability and suitability still matter. The aim is to understand whether purchasing decisions can be changed without creating problems elsewhere in the business.
Purchasing and suppliers can also form part of a business’s wider Scope 3 emissions. See our Scope 1, 2 and 3 Emissions guide
6. Reduce waste at the source
Recycling is useful, but reducing the amount of waste created in the first place can be more effective. Look at where waste is coming from.
It could be excess packaging, unused materials, damaged stock, unnecessary printing, outdated equipment or products being replaced before they need to be.
Ask whether waste can be:
Avoided
Reduced
Reused
Repaired
Recycled
For some businesses, the biggest opportunity may not be the waste process itself.
It could be changing the way something is purchased, stored, manufactured or used.
7. Look at your day-to-day processes
Not every carbon reduction measure involves buying something new.
Sometimes a change to the way work is organised can make a difference.
For example:
Combining deliveries
Reducing unnecessary journeys
Improving stock management
Reusing materials
Changing inefficient processes
Reducing unnecessary energy use
Planning work to make better use of equipment
These changes can be easy to overlook because they aren’t as visible as installing new equipment or changing vehicles.
But small operational changes can add up, particularly when they become part of the normal way a business works.
8. Involve the people who actually do the work
Employees often have a better understanding of day-to-day inefficiencies than anyone else. They know which equipment gets left running, where materials are wasted, which journeys could potentially be combined and which processes don’t work particularly well.
That makes employee involvement useful when looking for carbon reduction opportunities. It doesn’t have to mean launching a complicated sustainability programme. Sometimes it can be as simple as asking people:
Where do you think we waste energy, materials, time or fuel?
You may get some very practical answers.
The important thing is to make sure suggestions are considered and, where appropriate, acted upon.
9. Talk to your suppliers
Some emissions are connected to activities outside your own premises.
Your suppliers may therefore have a role to play in reducing the overall emissions associated with your business. You don’t need to ask every supplier for a detailed carbon report straight away.
It may be more useful to start with the suppliers that have the biggest influence on your business.
You could ask:
Do you measure your emissions?
Are you taking steps to reduce them?
Can you provide environmental information about the products or services you supply?
Could packaging be reduced?
Could deliveries be combined?
Are there alternative products or materials worth considering?
The information you receive will vary between suppliers. For smaller businesses in particular, simply starting the conversation can be a useful first step.
10. Don’t try to change everything at once
Once you start looking at carbon reduction, you can quickly end up with a very long list of things you could change. That’s where prioritisation becomes important.
Consider each potential action and ask:
Will it make a meaningful difference?
A measure that sounds good isn’t necessarily one that will significantly reduce your emissions.
What will it cost?
Consider both the initial cost and any ongoing costs.
Can we realistically do it?
A technically possible solution isn’t necessarily practical for your business.
How quickly could we make the change?
Some actions can be taken straight away. Others may need planning, investment or changes to contracts and equipment.
Will it affect the way we operate?
A reduction measure still needs to work for the business and its customers.
How much control do we have?
Some emissions are directly within your control. Others depend on suppliers, customers, employees or other organisations.
Looking at these questions can help turn a long list of ideas into a smaller number of actions that you can actually work on.
Quick wins and longer-term changes
It can help to think about carbon reduction in terms of different timescales.
Things you may be able to do now
These could include:
Improving energy management
Reducing unnecessary journeys
Switching off equipment when it isn’t needed
Reducing avoidable waste
Reviewing purchasing
Talking to employees about practical improvements
Starting conversations with key suppliers
Changes that may take more planning
These could include:
Improving building efficiency
Replacing inefficient equipment
Changing vehicles
Reviewing business processes
Changing purchasing arrangements
Working with suppliers on environmental improvements
Larger investments
Depending on the business, these could include:
Major building improvements
Renewable energy installations
Fleet changes
Production equipment
Changes to facilities or infrastructure
You don’t necessarily need to choose between quick wins and longer-term projects.
A sensible approach may involve making straightforward improvements now while planning larger changes for the future.
How do you know if your carbon reduction efforts are working?
It’s difficult to know whether you’re making progress if you don’t keep track of what is changing.
The level of monitoring you need will depend on the size and complexity of your business.
You might track things such as:
Overall emissions
Electricity and fuel use
Business travel
Vehicle use
Waste
Relevant purchasing information
It’s important to look at the figures in context.
For example, emissions could increase because a business has grown, taken on new premises or increased production. That doesn’t necessarily mean the business has become less efficient.
Similarly, a reduction in emissions needs to be considered alongside factors such as changes in business activity and improvements in data quality.
The aim is to understand what is changing and why.
What’s the Difference Between a Carbon Reduction Plan and a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan?
A standard Carbon Reduction Plan helps your business understand its emissions and identify practical ways to reduce them over time. It can set out reduction targets, planned actions and opportunities to improve your environmental performance.
A PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan serves a more specific purpose. It is prepared to meet the UK Government’s carbon reporting requirements for relevant public sector procurements and must contain the information required by the applicable guidance.
If you’re preparing a tender, check the procurement documents to establish whether a PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan is required and what the contracting authority expects.
If your priority is understanding your emissions and planning how to reduce them, explore our Carbon Reduction Plan service. If you need a plan for a government tender, find out how our PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan service can help.
What if you don’t know where to start?
That’s very common. You don’t need to have a complete sustainability strategy before you can begin reducing emissions. Start with what you know.
Look at how your business uses energy, travels, purchases products and services, manages waste and works with suppliers.
If you haven’t measured your emissions, establishing a carbon footprint can help show you where the biggest areas are.
From there, you can decide which changes are realistic and where you want to focus your efforts. There is no requirement to tackle everything at once.
Carbon reduction is about making practical changes
Reducing carbon emissions isn’t about finding one perfect solution. For most businesses, it’s a process of understanding where emissions come from, finding realistic opportunities to reduce them and making changes over time.
Some changes may be simple. Others may require investment or longer-term planning. The important thing is to focus on what is relevant to your business rather than trying to copy what another organisation is doing.
And if you’re not sure what that should look like, getting the right information at the start can make the process much easier.
Ready to take the next step?
If you need to understand your current emissions, our Carbon Footprint Assessment can give you a clear starting point.
If you already have your emissions data and want to turn it into a practical plan, find out more about our Carbon Reduction Plan.
Or, if you’re simply not sure what you need, you can book a free consultation and talk through where your business is now and what you need to achieve.