Tackling Scope 3 Emissions: Support for Small Businesses

Edinburgh and Scotland have set some of the most ambitious targets for reduction of area-wide emissions in the world. The transition to a zero carbon economy will impact every part of our economy, everyone needs to contribute, and delivering this transition requires support for change. Small businesses in particular will need support to ensure they both contribute to emissions reduction and continue to flourish in the transition to a net zero economy.

Why focus on Scope 3?

There is an increasing awareness of the need for businesses to understand and reduce their carbon footprint, supported by an increasing number of providers and tools in the marketplace for calculating the carbon footprint of a business. These tools tend to focus primarily on those emissions most readily attributed to and ‘owned’ by a particular business, their Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

However, we know that for many organisations, their biggest influence and impact comes from their Scope 3 emissions. These are notoriously difficult to calculate and attribute, and most businesses are less aware of these emissions sources.

Reducing Scope 3 emissions is a critical component of delivering our climate commitments and net zero targets, and businesses need support to find the most effective actions to reduce them.

Programme

With ECCI's Alison Wood at the helm, the expert-led training programme is designed to facilitate knowledge sharing between participants and to leave businesses with a prioritised action plan for reducing their Scope 3 emissions.

Sessions are highly participative and the programme designed to facilitate action between training sessions.

Participants take part in two half-day workshops, two weeks apart, to allow for action between workshops, with a follow-up workshop or mentoring session after 3 months to share successes, discuss challenges, and accelerate action.

Workshop content highlights the opportunities for businesses who are proactive in reducing their climate impact, alongside the wider drivers of change to which businesses will have to respond. The workshop content is supported by an ECCI toolset used to help businesses quickly identify and understand their climate impact based on their business model, and to produce an evidence-based set of actions ranked by their effectiveness in reducing emissions in similar businesses.

Want to know more about ECCI's work with Scottish SMEs on the journey to Net Zero? Get the lowdown on Climate Springboard, our partnerhsip with Royal Bank.