Contents

1. Understand your business emissions
2. Get finance and support
3. Actions you can take right now
4. Longer term actions
5. Indirect emissions
6. Share your progress

Understand your business emissions

1) What causes emissions in the hospitality and leisure sector

Direct carbon emissions produced by hospitality, leisure and tourism include:

• energy use – electricity and gas for lighting, heating and office equipment
• general waste – when it’s not recycled and ends up at landfill sites
• transport – using petrol or diesel vehicles to get to work or deliver services

2) Calculate your emissions

Use a free carbon calculator to work out your business’s carbon footprint. This is measured in tonnes, over a year.

3) Estimate the cost of your emissions

Once you have your carbon footprint, you can calculate how much your emissions are costing you. This will give you an idea of potential savings you can make by taking action.

4) Sign up to the SME climate commitment

Make a climate declaration to show customers you are committed to reducing emissions.

Get finance and support

1) Get help and advice from the following organisations:

You can get guidance on energy, water, waste and supply chain reductions from the UK Hospitality Association. You must pay an annual fee.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) works with members to develop sustainability strategies and initiatives.

Visit Sustainable Hospitality Alliance’s Pathway to Net Positive Hospitality – a roadmap for the hospitality sector.

Find out more about FareShare, the UK’s national network of charitable food redistributors, made up of 18 independent organisations.

You can also learn how to run your business in a more environmentally friendly way by hiring a sustainability consultant.

Actions you can take right now

1) Save energy at your workplace

Quick, low-cost actions include:

• lighting – use LED bulbs for greater efficiency
• heating – put your thermostat on a timer and seal your windows for extra insulation
• office equipment – try to turn off and unplug devices when they’re not being used

2) Do an energy walk-round

Walk around your buildings to see if energy is being used efficiently.

Prepare a checklist

• look at lighting, machinery, heating, refrigeration systems and ventilation
• identify wasteful energy use and maintenance issues
• check at different times of day and compare day and night time use
• monitor over a period of a week for accurate average figures
• make sure equipment is checked and cleaned regularly to ensure maximum efficiency

Learn more about reducing emissions caused by refrigeration 

3) Decide if you need an energy strategy

Depending on the size of your business, you might need to implement an energy management strategy. An energy manager will help you:

1. Measure and monitor energy use.
2. Target ways to use energy as efficiently as possible.

Find out more from the Carbon Trust.

4) Change your energy tariff

Switch to a green energy tariff with your energy supplier. This will reduce your reliance on energy produced by fossil fuels.

5) Switch to a smart meter

This will allow you to see and control how much energy you use. Find out more about smart meters.

6) Manage your waste in the hospitality and leisure sector

Recycle waste to prevent it being taken to landfill sites where it takes longer to break down and causes more emissions.

Longer term actions

1) Make changes to your workplace

You can make long-term savings on energy bills by insulating your workplace and replacing old windows.

2) Install renewables

If you are the legal owner of your property, you might consider installing renewable sources of energy.

For example:

• heat pumps for heating and water
• solar panels or a wind turbine for electricity

By doing so, you could make significant long-term savings on energy bills.

Check planning permission guidelines before you go ahead with any structural changes to the property.

3) Reduce transport emissions in the hospitality and leisure sector

Over a quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions are caused by transport.

You can take measures to reduce emissions from logistics.

If you have employees you could introduce a cycle-to-work initiative or encourage them to take public transport.

Visit our page on switching employee mode of transport for guidance.

If you use a work vehicle, you can reduce emissions by switching over to an electric vehicle (EV). You would be exempt from congestion charges and parking fees in certain areas.

For easy overnight charging you could install EV chargers at your home or workplace.

Visit our page to find out more about installing chargepoints.

Indirect emissions

To reduce indirect or ‘supply chain’ emissions you need to consider what happens before and after your business provides a service or makes a product.

1) Choose greener ‘upstream’ suppliers and products

• use suppliers that measure and reduce carbon
• help your suppliers with carbon reduction projects
• buy products that take less energy to make, transport and operate

Find out more about how to source products and services from green suppliers.

2) Reduce emissions ‘downstream’ of your business

• make products that take less energy to make, transport and operate
• reduce water consumption and waste disposal needs
• make investments in lower carbon financial products
• give incentives for lower emission activities in leased assets or franchises

3) Certify your supply chain action with PAS 2060

PAS 2060 is the internationally applicable specification to demonstrate carbon neutrality.

PAS 2060 certification can enhance your business’s performance and resilience and demonstrate your commitment to sustainability in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The standard process for PAS 2060 certification includes these steps:

1. Assessment of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) based on accurate measurement data.
2. Reduction of emissions through a target-driven carbon management plan.
3. Documentation and verification through qualifying explanatory statements and public disclosure.

Through independent British Standards Institution (BSI) verification for PAS 2060, your business can demonstrate that it has met these requirements.

Search on Google for organisations that provide PAS 2060 verification.

Share your progress

You should share your progress once you’ve done both of the following:

• worked out a benchmark of emissions
• started to take action

Find out more about how to track and share your progress.