Carbon Footprinting Archives - Green Small Business

Brian Johnston & Co (Insurance Brokers) Ltd

Brian Johnston & Co (Insurance Brokers) Ltd entire business ethos is to develop high quality, cost-effective and sustainable insurance solutions. The are proud of their professional reputation, most notably within the UK Public Sector and have developed long standing relationships with their insurance partners.

As a provider to the public sector, they needed to develop and adopt a Carbon Reduction Plan to meet the requirements of PPN 06/21. Green Small Business worked with the team at Brian Johnston & Co to measure the carbon footprint of the business and develop a streamlined and action-focused environmental management system (EMS). The outputs from these exercises were then used to populate the Carbon Reduction Plan template issued by the Cabinet Office.

The footprint, EMS and Carbon Reduction Plan will be updated on an annual basis, in line with PPN requirements.

“Green Small Business provided an excellent service. We held several 1-to-1 discussions over Zoom in which information was imparted in a format we could easily understand. We were made aware of the commitments we were signing up to and the pathway ahead was well explained.”

Supporting Communities

Supporting Communities is an independent charity that champions tenant and community participation by developing groups, supporting active citizenship, and building cohesive communities.

Green Small Business worked with the charity to develop a streamlined Environmental Management System (EMS) and to baseline the carbon footprint of the organisation. As well as driving improvements in the way that the environmental impacts are managed, the work was used to generate the content for a Carbon Reduction Plan (in accordance with the requirements of PPN 06/21) which was needed for participation in the Crown Commercial Services framework.

“We want to instill and enthuse our staff, stakeholders and customers around the whole area of Carbon Reduction and we feel that the certification through Green Small Business has really helped us to focus along the right track.”

Reuseabox

Reuseabox partners with manufacturers to divert their used cardboard boxes away from the recycling process, and re-distribute them to other companies looking to pack their products. By keeping cardboard in use for longer, they help to reduce waste, protect the environment and contribute to a more circular economy.

As part of their journey towards B Corp certification, Green Small Business is supporting Reuseabox with the development and implementation of a streamlined Environmental Management System (EMS) and a comprehensive business carbon footprint that can be updated and reported on an annual basis.

“As an environmental business, measuring our carbon footprint was essential. We can now use our Environmental Action Plan to work towards reducing our footprint across all areas of the business. Tim is highly knowledgeable and great at tailoring the process to meet your business’ requirements.”

Rachel Bailey Garden Design Ltd

Rachel Bailey Garden Design Ltd is an award-winning landscape design practice whose work encompasses residential, public and commercial projects in both urban and rural settings. The gardens they create are unique and plant-filled to capture the essence of the place and are beautiful as well as functional.

Rachel Bailey, Principal Designer & Director, is acutely aware of the need to manage the business responsibly. More importantly, she works hard to ensure that the potential negative impacts of the gardens they work on are minimised and the potential positive impacts maximised. Green Small Business worked with Rachel to build on the business’s already-established good practice and put in place:

A baseline carbon footprint for the business operations, which will allow progress over time to be tracked.
An environmental policy setting out a high-level, public-facing commitment to environmental responsibility and the environmental priorities of the business.
A set of design principles which clearly and concisely articulate how the policy commitments will be implemented through their design approach. These principles will be used not only to provide a clear framework for their design activity but also for the process of engagement with clients and contractors.
An environmental action plan, containing a series of practical actions to address all of the environmental impacts of business operations, garden design, project delivery and maintenance.

We used our work with Rachel as a case study in a recent evening CPD session for members of the Society of Garden Designers. A recording of the session will be available to members and a longer 1-day session is planned for early 2023.

“Having a baseline number for the carbon footprint of our business allows us to measure changes that we make to reduce this. Without an actual figure, it is easy to think that what we are doing is lessening our environmental impact, when it may not be having the kind of impact we hoped. Being certified will show that we are serious in reducing the environmental impact of the business – not just ‘Greenwashing'”

Sykes Holiday Cottages

Sykes Holiday Cottages is one of the UK’s leading independent holiday cottage rental agencies with over 30 years’ experience in the business. They offer over 22,000 holiday homes throughout the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.

Their impact on people and the planet is just as important to them as shareholder profit. They want to make sure they do their bit to create a cleaner, greener and fairer future for all by introducing new ways of working that make a positive social and environmental impact.

As part of taking forward this commitment, Sykes drew on the support of Green Small Business to develop a baseline carbon footprint and to guide the development of an environmental action plan, through a process of staff workshops and meetings with the senior management team.

“We’re at the start of our Carbon reduction journey and Tim has helped to guide us through our first footprint measurement. We now have a much better understanding of the process and the data we need to include in our footprint, he has also helped us to identify improvements we can make to get better data for future measurements.

Developing an environmental action plan was a key part of our Impact strategy, the recommendations and advice from Tim will shape our activity which will help us achieve our environmental goals.”

Contact

Contact is the charity for families with disabled children. They support and bring families together and help them take action for others.

The charity sought support from Green Small Business in order to demonstrate to funders, staff and those that they support that they were committed to environmental responsibility. Green Small Business supported the charity to develop a baseline carbon footprint and developed an action-focused, streamlined environmental management system.

“The carbon footprinting service was a life-saver – working out our carbon footprint was much more complex than we’d imagined and would have taken a huge amount of staff time, so to have the support and guidance from the Green Small Business was brilliant! They took all the hard work out of it and helped us understand what information we needed to provide, guided us through the complexities and was always on hand to answer our questions.

Being Green Small Business certified means that when we approach funders we can demonstrate our commitment to the environment. This is something that most funders and grant-making organisations require now. If we couldn’t demonstrate this it’s highly likely we would lose funding opportunities to competitors.”

UK for Good

The UK for Good story began in Cheshire, when Cheshire for Good was set up to inform, inspire and enable forward-thinking business leaders to better understand and improve their impact on their people, communities and the planet.

They work in partnership with local businesses, public organisations, business networks, and educational institutions, to shape a cleaner, greener, fairer future for all.

Cheshire for Good became a community of great organisations committed to making a bigger difference to their people and the planet, and demand from other regions started to rise. So in 2022, UK for Good was born.

As a supporter of aspiring B Corps, UK for Good was also seeking to achieve B Corp certification. Green Small Business was able to support them on this journey with our environmental management system and carbon footprinting services.

“Understanding the carbon footprint of a business is key to improving. Tim’s explanations of carbon and its impact are super-clear, and relevant to the size and type of business he is supporting. I have collaborated with Tim when working with large, complex businesses, and SMEs and would have no hesitation in recommending Green Small Business.

Being a Certified Green Small Business is a way for us to communicate our environmental commitment and credibility to clients, employees, and other stakeholders.”

Ramco

Ramco was founded in 1996 with a big goal in mind, to give every surplus asset a new lease of life. That mission couldn’t be more relevant today. From decommissioning of assets, collection and refurbishment, right through to storage, marketing and sales, they provide a complete reuse solution.

Green Small Business supported Ramco with the development of their baseline carbon footprint and the preparation of Carbon Reduction Plan to meet the requirements of PPN 06/21.

“The carbon footprinting service provided some really useful and interesting results. The emissions we now target were not those we expected to see so it’s been a really useful benchmarking exercise.”

eKal Solutions

eKal Solutions is a team of certified ERP systems experts. They have a strong ethos that they need to play their part in promoting social responsibility and environmental awareness as they pursue business relationships. They benefited from our carbon footprinting support, alongside the action planning & certification package, which will be vital to their pursuit of BCorp status.

Issues addressed in their environmental action plan: carbon footprinting; service delivery; home working; transport & travel; company administration.

“The process was rigorous, informative and pitched perfectly for smaller businesses. The carbon footprinting service was extremely useful, and in particular it gave us a tool to show our colleagues the advantages and disadvantages of modes of travel and the benefits of home working versus commuting. It gave us a base line to measure against going forward and some changes we can make in order to improve/reduce our impact”