You’re likely to have seen businesses around you talking about carbon offsetting. Perhaps you’ve had something from your suppliers, or perhaps you’ve heard people talking about it in your professional groups or networking sites. You’ll definitely have seen something about it on social media channels and LinkedIn, so what’s it all about?
A quick guide to carbon offsetting
Carbon offsetting is about calculating the amount of CO2 that your business generates, and putting a plan in place to offset that carbon through various schemes that range from tree planting to supporting communities in developing economies.
There are organisations – such as Carbon Neutral Britain – that will help you to analyse your emissions, categorise them so that you can see what causes the most damage, and then helps you to offset them. These CO2 reports consider the effects of a range of business activities including:
· Heating, lighting and other energy use in your offices, warehouses and other buildings
· Running company vehicles, including company cars and delivery vans
· Flights and other travel
· Office supplies, such as printers, ink and stationery
· The types of projects you take part in
Once your carbon footprint has been calculated, you can look at ways of offsetting it. For some companies, that’s sustainable planting projects, and for others its contributing to critical projects managing some of the areas in the world – such as the Amazon forest – that have already been damaged by climate change.
Why should I consider carbon offsetting?
There are both ethical and commercial reasons to look into carbon offsetting. Ethically, your business should definitely be doing something to combat its impact on the climate. Carbon offsetting is a good start, but it is just a start. Once you know how your business is impacting the climate, and where most of your CO2 emissions come from, you should start planning how you’re going to reduce or get rid of those activities altogether. Your clients, customers, suppliers and community will expect you to do more to reduce your impact on the climate and on the local environment. So it’s important to take this seriously and make long-term commitments that you can keep.
Commercially, it’s not just good for your business reputation, and therefore for attracting new customers to your business; your carbon offsetting can also qualify for tax relief, reducing any payments you may have to make under the Climate Change Levy.
If you’re interested in how carbon offsetting and climate commitments can help your business make more profit, or how you can weave these schemes into your wider business planning, please get in contact.
Please note: This is not meant to constitute professional advice. It is generic guidance only and things may have changed since it was written –please always seek specific & tailored advice for your circumstances.