SMEs contribute roughly 30 per cent to total UK emissions, making them an essential component of the net zero transition. Here are some practical, accessible, and impactful steps your business can take to reduce its emissions today.
Establishing a clear baseline is key to understanding your business’ standards. Once you have a clear image of your Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, you can start to identify high-emission or wasteful areas within your operations, start a meaningful dialogue with partners in your value chain, and set realistic targets based on the quality data you have.
We have plenty of resources to help you identify your carbon footprint. Follow this useful guide to understand your footprint, this guide to focus on tricky Scope 3 emissions, and this tool to calculate your footprint.
‘Hot spots’ are energy-intensive areas within your operations or areas that generate unnecessary emissions. Identifying these hot spots allows you to analyse the specific equipment involved. For instance, a manufacturing business might discover an outdated machine within a hot spot; by replacing it with an up-to-date, efficient model, significant energy savings can be achieved.
Hot spots can also guide decisions on implementing monitoring and control tools, like heating and lighting systems that activate only in designated areas during peak times, ensuring efficient energy use."
A team clued up on sustainability is far better equipped to brainstorm, implement, and maintain strategies designed to reduce your emissions. Enrolling your staff on sustainability training programmes will introduce them to the fundamentals of environmental business management and engage them in the conversation.
You can also roll out engagement strategies to raise awareness and share information with your staff, such as posters encouraging staff to turn off lights, viewings of nature documentaries and environmentally focussed films to encourage discussions and opinion sharing, or competitions to reduce individual staff footprints.
According to the UK Business Data Survey, 68 per cent of UK businesses have a website, and there are over 588,000 e-commerce businesses active in the UK.
Websites have footprints, and every view and click on your website has an associated carbon emission. The current average is 1.76g of carbon emitted per webpage view. There are plenty of things you can do to reduce this.
Switching to a green webhost, slimming down video and large image content, and editing text-heavy webpages are all steps your organisation can take today that will reduce your digital footprint.
For further tips, read our comprehensive guide to cutting emissions from the web.
Before investing in green technology or decarbonisation measures, you need to understand your site’s capacity for these. Not every site is well-suited to solar panels, for example, and some businesses with small sites may not see the benefits of solutions used by larger organisations.
Having a Green Economy consultant visit your site to offer their fully-funded advice is a good means of understanding your business’ energy use and the changes it could implement. Don’t do it alone, tap into consultant support to develop and refine your net zero strategy.
Roughly 54 per cent of the global population is online.
The Green Economy team can help you to identify 'hot spots' at your site.
Access guidance and resources to help you reduce carbon, improve your environmental credentials and save your business money
No matter the size of your operation, there are a range of low and no cost solutions to reducing your energy consumption and save your business money.
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Sustainability & Net Zero Consultant
Suhail is an accomplished energy engineer with expertise in sustainability, decarbonisation, and renewable energy. He holds a master's degree in Energy Engineering from the University of Hull and a Master’s in Renewable Energy from the University of Khartoum, supported by a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Omdurman Islamic University.
Working as a Sustainability and NetZero Consultant with Green Economy, Suhail helps SMEs across York and North Yorkshire design and implement decarbonisation strategies. Previously, he held key roles, such as Sustainability Consultant at DAL Engineering Division, where he conducted detailed assessments and implemented sustainability practices to drive energy efficiency and environmental impact reduction.
Suhail has worked as a Business Development Consultant, leading market intelligence and strategic planning efforts, and as a Project Engineer at Artik Energy, managing solar PV and battery energy storage projects.
With strong research skills and a commitment to sustainability, Suhail excels in delivering impactful solutions that align with global decarbonisation goals.
