Contents
We know that net zero is where we need to be, but it can sometimes feel like a fantasy, unconnected to our daily lives.
Businesses are the source of most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and are critical to the fight against climate change.
People can spend a lot of their time at work, building a career, contributing to business ideas, progressing in their jobs and moving on to their next exciting role. Imagine how much of an impact each person could have on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their working life if only they knew what to do and how to build it into their everyday routine.
This is exactly what we’ve been exploring with experts at City & Guilds when creating our new Net Zero and Your Carbon Footprint and Sustainable Procurement and Net Zero Supply Chains courses. Here’s a sneak preview of what we found.
Painting the current picture
The first step to making positive changes is knowing what needs to change. This is where calculating your carbon footprint comes in. This first step really is one of self-reflection. It involves looking at every aspect of your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly routine and working out the amount of greenhouse gas emissions this produces. Thankfully, this doesn’t involve creating a complicated spreadsheet of formulas and lists. There are many online tools that you can use to help you work this out. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has a great tool that’s easy to use and automatically works out the footprint by taking you through a simple lifestyle questionnaire. Giki Zero has a similar approach and gives you a vast array of steps you can take to reduce each part of your footprint, and there are many more great tools out there.
Every little bit helps
Now you know your footprint, it’s time to take action. At work, every decision that is made because of your business counts as part of your footprint. Direct actions, like ensuring your waste is responsibly converted, recycled, or re-used can have a huge impact. But also consider your whole supply chain- how do you make sure your customers keep products in circulation as long as possible and don’t just throw your items away after a few uses? You could offer a repair service, or offer part exchange old items for new ones, keeping items from landfills is a vital step towards a sustainable future.
You are part of a sustainable future
Your organisation, or the organisation you work for has a part to play in achieving net zero and a sustainable future for business. You need to move past the basics of ‘we need to achieve net zero’ and take a deep dive into what and how to achieve this and make it the new normal. Our practitioner-level course Net Zero and Your Carbon Footprint does just that and will take your people along for the ride on your company's net zero journey. Once for a deeper dive into green procurement, our Sustainable Procurement and Net Zero Supply Chains course explores how to transform your supply chain into a sustainable and future-proof opportunity for your business.
Every individual can be a hero in the fight against climate change.
