CARR’s Andy Baldock, our energy expert, ran a workshop on 17th November at Reigate Town Hall for local businesses as part of the council’s Learning Lunch series. This was in collaboration with Alan Mills and Cath McDermott from Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, both tasked with working on improving sustainability within the borough.
The workshop was on how to reduce the carbon footprint of a business, and covered how to calculate and reduce your own business carbon footprint - Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
Greenhouse gas emissions are categorized into three groups or 'Scopes' by the most widely-used international accounting tool, the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol.
Scope 1 = direct emissions from owned or controlled sources such as company vehicles, combustion in processes.
Scope 2 = indirect emissions eg from the generation of purchased electricity, heating and cooling.
Scope 3 = all other indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain.
The event presenters, Alan Mills from RBBC and Andy Baldock from CARR
Following the presentations and questions, the attendees noted the actions they pledged to undertake next year (as below), which CARR and the council hope to support through further events and activities.
Attendees Pledges:
Carbon Footprint:
· Calculate our carbon footprint, make a plan and action it.
· Consider Scope 2&3 items and which of these we can control.
· Speak to suppliers to find out what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint.
Heat:
· Improve energy retention of buildings.
· Turn down the heating.
· Use less heating and more jumpers.
· Approach the landlord about changing windows from old single glazed to double glazed.
Transport:
· Drive less.
· Cycle to post office.
· Order parts weekly, rather than ordering 3-4 times a week.
· Reduce business mileage and encourage home working.
· Reduce the mileage between customer calls.
· EV/travel options.
· Provide EV charging.
· Employ local.
Renewables:
· Check electricity supplier contracts to check it is renewable.
· Install solar PV.
· Have applied for the Coast to Capital PV/EV grant.
Food:
· Consider menu choices at catered events.
· Try harder to reduce wastage.
Other:
· Share the data sources among our network.
Attendees' feedback on the event was very positive and there were requests for a more detailed workshop in future.
Here are the slides from the presentation for you to download and view: