Carbon Neutrality for All

Tuesday 7th April 2020

As we said in our last article on the subject, carbon neutrality isn’t just for major multinationals. Every business can – and should – make plans for its own journey towards carbon neutrality. So how can your business go about it?

The path to carbon neutrality, as envisioned by E2, takes place over three stages. The first and arguably most critical of these stages is ‘reduction.’ This involves assessing the energy demand across your business, and investing in energy reduction measures in order to bring this down. These measures can be as significant as major asset replacements or an upgrade to the BMS, down to smaller scale items like behavioural change projects, or refinements to heating controls.

As your business approaches full optimisation, it becomes appropriate to look at on-site renewable generation measures like solar panels or wind-turbines. While at the national level, the UK is making great strides towards installation of renewable generation, fossil fuels remain a major part of the UK’s overall fuel mix. By installing on-site generation, your business reduces its dependence on fossil fuels from the grid, in turn reducing your carbon emissions. If this is not feasible for your company, then it is possible to select electricity contracts that use only electricity generated from renewables. The GHG protocol details options for including this within your scope 2 reporting as zero-emissions electricity.

The third stage, as your business nears the completion of its carbon neutral journey, is to invest in offsetting measures. When your energy demand is optimised, and every opportunity to embrace on-site generation has been explored, your remaining carbon footprint can be netted to zero by investment in schemes that mitigate your emissions further. This can be through investment in efficiency projects in the developing world, or through supporting reforestation.

As you will see, there are carbon neutrality measures to suit every business and every budget. E2’s Compliance experts will work with you to design a bespoke package of works, tailored specifically to the environmental and economic needs of your business. Contact E2’s Compliance department today to start your carbon neutral journey.

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