Get your staff engaged in your carbon reduction plan

Create a shared culture of responsibility to help your employees to play their part.

Involving your team in sustainability initiatives could benefit your business by:

• reducing energy costs and increasing profitability
• inspiring your workforce to be part of carbon reduction
• getting you recognised as a progressive and responsible organisation in your community
• increasing staff retention and recruitment of employees who want to work for an eco-friendly organisation

Create a carbon reduction plan
Engage your staff in your carbon reduction plan
Set up a working group
Put your carbon reduction plan into action
Embed your carbon reduction plan in your workplace

Create a carbon reduction plan

A carbon reduction plan is a document that outlines your organisation’s goals for reducing its carbon footprint and the steps it plans to take to achieve them.

Measure your carbon emissions to assess your current emissions. This will help you:

establish a baseline
set realistic targets for reducing emissions over time

Take action with specific measures to reduce your business’s emissions.

For example, you can reduce the impact of energy costs with smart meters and management systems.

Since 2021, if you are a business that wants to win UK Government’s larger contracts, you must have a Carbon Reduction Plan to fulfil PPN 06/21.

Find further information about:

By 2025, according to the Department of Education (DfE)’s sustainability and climate change strategy for education, all education settings need to have nominated a sustainability lead and put in place a climate action plan.

Engage your staff in your carbon reduction plan

You can increase the chance of real change if your employees understand why you are trying to reduce emissions and save energy.

Explain why you are setting up a carbon reduction plan and the benefits of energy saving in an informal meeting at an appropriate time. A simple format to engage your team and encourage participation could be:

What is carbon reduction?
The benefits of reducing our carbon footprint
Where we are already doing well in terms of sustainability
How can we make improvements to reduce our carbon footprint?

Point out the benefits for your team.

Benefits could include:

a healthier environment: better air quality will enhance physical and mental wellbeing
motivation: your team can feel empowered by your business’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions
training opportunities: you may need to train your employees so that they have tools and information to make more sustainable decisions

Set up a working group

A working group can help your business make a lasting effort to reduce carbon emissions. Shared responsibility for setting goals and reporting back ensures the work isn’t left to one person.

If your business has multiple employees, you can set up a group within your organisation. If you are a 1-person business, consider organising with others in your local area.

You can follow these steps to set up a working group:

Establish group guidelines and ways of working.
Appoint a leader, a green champion who will motivate your team, and a scribe.
Write down a shared understanding of the problem.
Come up with ideas for solving it, for example, asking staff to review their own workstation or practices, competitions or team projects to reduce energy consumption.
Decide on specific tasks and divide them.
Ensure that each group member has a responsibility.
Decide on deadlines and regular follow-up meetings.
Decide how you will communicate progress and updates to your team.

For an example, read how Companies House formed an environmental working group to reduce emissions and waste disposal.

Put your carbon reduction plan into action

Use simple cost-saving actions, including the following:

1. Switching off equipment

Switching off equipment will save you money and increase its lifetime as you won’t need to replace it as often. You could:

set up an employee rota for the last to leave to check equipment is switched off, including printers, copiers, vending machines, coffee machines and any other equipment
turn off computer monitors if employees are away from their desks for more than 10 minutes
turn off both PCs and monitors at the plug at the end of the day
make sure that infrequently used printers and photocopiers are turned on only when required
set computers and other devices to low-power ‘sleep’ mode when not in use

2. Review your heating and cooling system

Encourage your staff to help reduce your business’s energy bills by:

setting heat lower – you can lower your monthly heating bill up to 8% for every 1°C you reduce
setting your air conditioning to the highest comfortable temperature – every degree of extra cooling may cost you 5-10% more
encouraging staff to layer up or dress cool in warmer weather
keeping doors and windows closed when the air-conditioning is on

3. Take steps to save on lighting

Take steps to maximise your natural light and reduce energy from lighting systems. You could:

maximise the use of daylight and hold off switching on lights until necessary
position your furniture, so it makes the most of natural light
optimise the brightness of their monitors; the brighter they are the more energy they use and this can cause eye strain

Find out more ways to save on lighting by changing behaviour and equipment.

4. Waste less and maximise resources

Set up an office waste management and recycling system and back it up with a policy you share with your employees. Hold a meeting to make sure staff are on board with reducing waste.

To help reduce waste and recycle more, you could:

label bins so employees are clear on what goes into the recycling bin and what goes into general rubbish
establish a food waste bin
go single-use plastic free in the office
bring reusable food and drink containers
go paperless or use recycled paper
print on both sides of paper
print as drafts
remove bins from under desks to encourage recycling
share office supplies

Find out about more ways to reduce waste and maximise resources.

5. Reduce the impact of transport

Encourage your staff to switch their mode of transport, for example, by cycling or walking to work, car-pooling or using public transport.

Find out how to implement a cycle to work scheme.

Find out about more ways to reduce the impact of business travel.

Embed your carbon reduction plan in your workplace

Make sustainability part of your workplace culture. Steps you could take include:

drawing up an energy-saving checklist that puts sustainability at the forefront of operations and policy
giving regular updates on how your energy-saving strategy is going via email or another communication channel
rewarding employees who are demonstrating their commitment to sustainability
including energy saving responsibilities in job descriptions
making sustainability a key agenda item for the leadership team and part of every meeting.
creating marketing materials such as reminders and promotional materials to raise awareness