Chapter 4: Implementing a Decarbonisation Strategy
Published September 24, 2020
Download these additional guides for reference to support your understanding and net-zero emissions strategy development:
Chapters 1-3 on Net Zero Carbon have set the scene for business decarbonisation. Readers should now understand:
- Why decarbonisation is important
- Why businesses have a leading role to play in decarbonisation
- Why good data management must underly decarbonisation efforts
- How businesses can quantify and account for their emissions using the GHG Corporate Standard and its three GHG Scopes
- How businesses can track progress in reducing their emissions
- How businesses can set effective targets for reducing their emissions
This chapter will introduce specific actions businesses can take to lower their emissions across the three GHG Scopes.
Scope 1
Reducing direct emissions from operations is done using both technological and behaviour change methods. Some brief examples of each are listed below.
Energy efficiency (technological)
Energy efficiency is broad theme for reducing emissions, and providing an exhaustive list of energy efficiency improvements businesses should consider is beyond the scope of this website. More modern vehicles will have greater fuel economy. More modern boilers will use less gas to meet the same heating needs. For large applications, combined heat and power (CHP) is the most efficient use of fuel, allowing electrical energy to be generated as well as heat. Better insulation in buildings will require less energy to keep them warm, and LED lights will use less energy to keep spaces well-lit.
Fuel switching (technological)
Energy efficiency is a crucial part of reducing emissions from fossil fuels, but a higher aim is to eliminate them completely. This is what ‘fuel switching’ describes – replacing the fossil fuels used in a certain part of the business with an alternative, low-carbon energy. This might mean:
- Replacing internal combustion engine vehicles with electric ones
- Electrifying heating
- Switching from fossil fuel heat to biomass heat in boilers or processes
Process optimisation (technological)
Emissions not directly resultant from energy use, such as fugitive emissions of refrigerants or from manufacturing byproducts, can be targeted. This might mean maintaining equipment regularly, switching to a refrigerant with a lower global warming potential (GWP), or redesigning processes to produce less greenhouse gases.
Scope 2
Reducing the upstream emissions from purchased electricity, heat, steam, or cooling entirely about:
- Reducing the use of that energy
- Choosing a lower-carbon supply of that energy
Reducing energy use of sources with Scope 2 emissions is also achieved through technological or behaviour change solutions.
There are many ways to choose a lower-carbon supply of energy. In the context of electricity, buying REGO-backed energy, or entering a corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) are two important options available to businesses in the UK.
Scope 3
Efforts to reduce emissions in Scope 3 occupy a different realm from those to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions because they relate to influencing operations the business is not itself carrying out. Scope 3 emissions reductions can affect the identity of the business itself, and with the following impacted:
- The business model
- The designs of the business’s products and services
- The business’s engagement with its customers
- The business’s supply chain and its interaction with its suppliers
- The business’s investment strategy
Offsetting
Once absolute emissions reductions have been sought across each of the three GHG scopes, offsetting should be considered. Offsetting does not apply to a particular Scope, but is accounted for as a separate negative contribution. Net zero for many businesses will mean making absolute reductions, and then ‘netting off’ the remaining Scope 1 + 2 + 3 GHG footprint by an amount that brings the total to zero.
Download these additional guides for reference to support your understanding and net-zero emissions strategy development:
