How your business can meet its carbon reduction goals

Our business has recently made new commitments to reduce our carbon emissions to become carbon net zero by 2050. We’ve started to explore new ways to meet carbon reduction goals and want to share them with other businesses. Improving the planet is a global effort, and by sharing our knowledge, we hope to help your business reduce its emissions and meet its own carbon targets.

If your business has not set any carbon reduction goals in a sustainability report yet, check out our article on how to create a sustainability report for your business.

Who is helping to make it happen?

To achieve your goals more effectively and quickly, gaining the support of like-minded businesses and organisations can be very useful. Other businesses like yours are likely to have their own goals they would be willing to share with you. By exploring the journey others are taking in their sustainability, you can gain inspiration and ideas for your own business.

Furthermore, you can register your business with initiatives such as science-based targets and the SME climate hub to give yourself a point of contact for professional advice. Most importantly, these groups have a wide range of experience. Utilising their help is essential to meeting your carbon reduction goals, and creating initiatives that work in the long term.

Review your targets

Secondly, your business must review the goals it has in place before taking steps to meet them. Setting the right goals for your business is crucial to their success. To help get you started here are two questions you should ask when reviewing your targets.

• Do they align to science-based targets?

The science-based targets are goals agreed by the world governments to help prevent global warming. These carbon reduction targets all contribute to the primary goal of ‘global warming not exceeding 1.5°C to avoid the impacts of climate change.’

Over 1500 companies are taking part in meeting these targets. To ensure your business is doing its bit, its own carbon reduction goals must align with the world government’s ones.

• Are the goals right for your business?

Setting goals for your business that are unachievable will harm your sustainability efforts. By choosing goals that are too ambitious, you risk failing to meet them. This can make stakeholders lose faith in your business, and result in wasted efforts.

To avoid unachievable goals, it’s necessary to set multiple carbon reduction goals which are both long and short term to help track progress. Goals can be revised and edited, so by keeping them achievable, you can always expand upon them in the future.

Gaining the support of clients and customers

As we’ve mentioned before, third-party support is invaluable when it comes to reducing carbon emissions. But did you know that your customers themselves may also be one of your most valuable sources of support? 

It’s been shown in recent surveys and polls that customers are making more eco-friendly purchasing choices. Many have even stated they are willing to pay more to companies committed to ‘positive social and environmental impact’. This shows that by communicating with your customers, you may find they are willing to pay more for your products to help support your carbon reduction goals.

For more information on gaining stakeholder support, read our free eBook:

Meeting carbon reduction goals takes time

Unfortunately, no matter what goals we want to achieve, all change takes time. It’s important to remember that carbon reduction takes the work of multiple people over months, or even years, to see the benefits. 

Luckily, the world is changing and individuals are becoming more aware of how they are impacting the planet. Businesses are changing to more eco-friendly practices. As this happens, it will become easier to make that change and contribute to lowering the threat of global warming.