The impact of carbon literacy training for small businesses – reflections one year on

When Orla joined CMC for work experience, she took on the task of capturing my thoughts about the impact Carbon Literacy Training has had on me as an individual, and on CMC. Huge thanks to Orla for interviewing me and co-producing this article to celebrate being one of the first 100,000 citizens to be Carbon Literate.

Why did you do the carbon literacy training?

I’ve long been interested in the role businesses and public sector organisations can play in reducing the impact of climate change. As my understanding of social value and corporate social responsibility has grown, so has my interest in being able to help organisations understand how they impact the environment, what they can do about it, and why that should form part of their business culture. But to do that, I needed to better understand the issues, and be prepared to take action myself.

How easy or difficult have you found it to reduce your carbon footprint?

The main challenge for me was understanding my footprint in the first place. The carbon calculators that exist don’t really cater for micro businesses based at home – separating the personal from the professional was a challenge. So, to quote my friend and colleague Hel Reynolds, I applied a ‘progress not perfection’ approach to avoid getting too caught up in measurement rather than making meaningful change.

Reducing my carbon footprint was slightly more challenging as I’d already switched to an electric car, solar panels and renewable energy, so I needed to look in different places to make an impact. This led me to looking at the suppliers I work with and how to reduce my ‘scope 3’ or indirect emissions, which is where I’ve made most progress.

What have you learnt along the journey?

A big learning point for me has been understanding the impact of finances (banks, pensions etc) on carbon footprint based on your providers’ investment choices. Understanding this and making changes has reduced my footprint considerably, although it has taken me a year to get to where I wanted to be.

I’ve also learnt that there’s so much information out there, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But there are useful tools that help you focus on the things that matter to you. Can Marketing Save The Planet’s Learning Zone is a good place to start. And on a personal note, I love the ForkRanger App which provides daily nuggets of information in an accessible way – complete with simple recipes that make it easy to reduce meat and dairy intake.

But I’ve also noticed that a lot of climate change messaging is about cutting back, cutting out or choosing climate over convenience. There is no getting away from the fact that hard choices need to be made, but there are also regenerative actions businesses can take to help restore the environment which feel positive and exciting.

What has been your proudest achievement so far?

For me it has to be the impact of the regenerative projects I support through Pinwheel. Pinwheel specialises in finding, quantifying and verifying environmental projects around the world that are actively supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and regenerating our environment. In my first year, I have supported three projects which help protect turtles (a keystone species), bring solar lights to rural homes in Africa, and remove plastic waste from rivers – more on that in my next post. I was particularly proud to be able to share this information with my children.

What advice would you give to other business when starting their venture on decreasing their carbon footprint?

I’d start by thinking about your motivations. Why do you want to reduce your carbon footprint, how does that link to your values as an organisation, and what does success look like for you? That way, you’re more able to engage meaningfully with staff and customers to embed environmental sustainability in your culture, define your climate priorities and achieve your goals.

On a practical note, I’ve already recommended the Carbon Literacy Training to clients and associates – it’s a great basis on which to develop your own environmental plans and makes you accountable.

Finally, I would say don’t let the enormity of the challenge put you off taking some action, even if it feels small compared with the influence large organisations can have. Individually, micro and small businesses may have limited impact, but collectively, we can achieve significant change.

Lastly, how do you think the marketing and communications sector could help the movement towards net zero?

I believe this sector has a huge role to play for several reasons. Reputationally, companies cannot afford to ignore the impact of climate change, but as comms professionals, we need to be able to illustrate this clearly and encourage environmental sustainability to become integral to an organisation’s culture. That means showing how climate change touches multiple aspects of a business, including attracting and retaining customers and staff. We also have a responsibility to guard against greenwashing, ensuring environmental claims are meaningful and accurate.

By defining the opportunities that come from acting on climate change, and amplifying ‘the carrot’ alongside the ‘stick’, I believe we can help engage companies and communities more positively to deliver sustainable, large-scale change.