As another year draws to a close, we’ve taken the opportunity to pause for thought and reflect on what has been an important year for the team here at SmartCarbon. But more importantly, perhaps, it sees UK businesses at a crossroad.
More organisations than ever before are acting on their responsibilities to calculate, report and reduce carbon emissions. Yet the impact of climate change is becoming increasingly evident and the data shows that global temperatures are rising quicker than ever.
As tough as the challenge ahead seems, though, we are committed to doing our bit to help organisations make the meaningful changes required to tackle the climate emergency. We’re proud of the work we are doing and, in spite of the uphill struggle we all still face it is also important to celebrate the areas where progress is being made.
We’ve picked out just a few of the areas we’ve been most proud of over the last 12 months.
Building a platform for the future as well as the know
As it stands, traditional regulatory frameworks like SECR only require businesses to account for Scopes 1 &2 emissions: those created as a direct impact of the business. However, more and more regulatory bodies are requiring businesses to factor in Scope 3 emissions, i.e. indirect emissions created by waste management, business travel, supply chains and more.
This year, SmartCarbon has seen a widening of reporting choices across all 15 sub-categories of Scope 3, helping businesses go above and beyond what they’re currently required to do, and meet future expectations.
We also completed the development of a new key solution for our clients: the Smart NetZero Planning tool. We now have almost 500 clients using our platform, and we are excited to see these numbers grow in 2024.
An informed, educated and responsive client base
Over the course of the year, we’ve helped many clients – old and new – measure, report and implement carbon reduction plans that will ultimately see them lower their carbon footprint. Our work with the NHS has increased significantly, having delivered two regional training sessions on carbon reporting. A further seven NHS Trusts now report through SmartCarbon in addition to our longstanding relationship with Newcastle Hospitals.
We’re also delighted to support Esh Group in measuring their carbon emissions across Scopes 1, 2 & 3, assisting with their commitment to a Net Zero timeframe as part of the Science Based Targets Initiative.
Throughout the year, we’ve onboarded almost 100 community and social enterprises as part of the Going Green Together project, of which 20 have now completed a baseline report for Scope 1, 2 and 3, and a further 20 have completed the reporting of their direct emissions. Going Green together is led by VONNE and funded by the National Lottery Community and County Durham Community Foundation.
We also delivered Advanced GHG Accounting training through Northumbria University twice per month throughout 2023, and have agreed to continue delivering the course for a further 3 years. In total, our training has reached more than 200 organisations in 2023.
New arrivals and new opportunities
In both London and the North East, we delivered decarbonisation workshops that enabled clients to put in place a commitment to reach Net Zero well before the UK national target. We are also supporting the ‘Decarbonising SMEs in the UK’ initiative through Birmingham University, by co-delivering two workshops.
Back in June, we were also thrilled to welcome Junior Consultant Jacinta Lepcha to the team. Jacinta has quickly settled in and is actively supporting our clients with their carbon reporting.
Looking ahead
In 2024, we’re scaling up our efforts to assist our clients in smart, sustainable carbon reporting. We will be focusing on helping businesses to develop more ambition to hit that Net Zero target, using our new NetZero Planning Tool as a framework.
We will also be launching a brand new tool: SmartCarbon Lite – a solution to help SMEs meet the carbon reporting requirements of their clients.
We look forward to running even more Guided Reporting programmes in the new year, helping SMEs report their emissions with ease and clarity. We will also be running more decarbonisation workshops across the UK to help our clients put a clear Net Zero plan in place.
It’s been a big year for us at SmartCarbon, and next year is set to be even bigger. Our 2024 aim is to actively support businesses of all sizes and industries in their efforts to achieve better, more sustainable, smarter reporting.