ADAS ran a successful breakfast meeting on 30th November at the Royal Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (RSA) in Central London, in conjunction with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).
‘Big Opportunities from Small Carbon Emissions’ was aimed at companies who wanted to understand why their business should be concerned about climate change, the business benefits of assessing their carbon emissions, developing mitigating strategies and disclosing this information through the CDP.
The event was run by the ADAS Sustainability Leadership team, which provides services in all areas of sustainability, with carbon management being one piece of the jigsaw. The meeting had a range of attendees, each at different stages of their carbon management journeys, including big food manufacturers, investors, construction businesses and water and waste companies. Attendees heard that monitoring and mitigating carbon emissions should become embedded into day-to-day corporate risk management, leading to cost savings, business resilience and enhanced brand reputation.
There was some interesting discussion around the benefits of measuring, managing and disclosing emissions. Our guest speaker, Frances Way - CDP Program Director - demonstrated the scope of CDP; showing that it is not just about reporting carbon emissions, but about how to achieve carbon reductions in the long term, to benefit businesses and the environment.
As a CDP accredited provider and having specialist knowledge in carbon management, ADAS is well aware of the benefits; indeed our own disclosure to the CDP shows that we are well ahead of our sector average. In addition, myths were dispelled, such as the CDP being relevant only for large companies; while investors write to the FTSE to invite them to disclose, there is benefit for businesses of all sizes.
Our carbon specialist, Dr Jeremy Wiltshire, gave an introduction to carbon footprinting and spoke about how Scope 3 (supply chain) emissions might be measured and managed through supply chain engagement. Dr Chris Fawcett highlighted the issue of water scarcity and flooding as the next big challenge that businesses need to face, and that it should be tackled in parallel to carbon management as a risk to be measured and managed. He explained that by failing to focus on water, companies leave themselves open to physical, regulatory and reputational risks. John Elliott detailed how carbon savings can be translated into economic benefits, through efficiency measures and taking advantage of incentives provided by regulatory policies. Behavioural change was addressed as a hugely beneficial means of delivering carbon emissions reductions by engaging staff and suppliers. Vanessa Sturman spoke about this topic, highlighting the effective use of competition amongst staff to encourage sustainable behaviours.
The Sustainability Team are keen to hold a variety of similar events in future, with possible workshops on behaviour change, energy efficiency, legislation and benchmarking for both carbon and water.
If you have any comments you would like to make regarding future topics and/or locations for ADAS Sustainability Workshops, please get in touch with Vanessa Sturman, Sustainability Consultant on 07875 585746 or email vanessa.sturman@adas.co.uk.