9,400 reasons for carbon footprinting provides 9,400 reasons why businesses should undertake carbon footprinting. Carbon footprinting measures the carbon associated with a product's or business's lifecycle. It helps managers control costs, customers want more sustainable options, employees are motivated, suppliers benefit, shareholders seek green investments, and regulators increasingly require carbon reporting. Done correctly using standardized methodologies, carbon footprinting identifies opportunities to reduce emissions and costs throughout a business's operations and supply chain.

1. 9,400 reasons for carbon
footprinting
Jane Milne
Director of Business Environment

2. Why should businesses undertake
carbon footprinting?
Because: Because sustainability:
• Managers can control • Saves money
costs • Improves brand and
• Customers want it reputation
• Employees are inspired • Manages resource risk
• Suppliers are motivated • Grows new markets
• Shareholders are
looking to back it Sustainable Development
• Regulators are Commission
considering it

3. Carbon footprinting – how?
Measures the carbon associated with:
• the extraction, production, processing, packaging,
transport and use of a product or
• the extraction, manufacture and transport of
materials, construction and operation of a facility or
asset
• the operation of a service or complete business or
household
Should look at whole life-cycle of products, or annual usage
of business or household

4. Carbon footprinting – how?
• Need to map critical processes and products
• Capture real data of energy and materials
usage
• Estimate missing data using realistic
benchmarks
• Then identify opportunities to eliminate/
reduce/ substitute/ offset
• Need standardised, auditable methodologies

5. Managers can control costs
• About half of GHG emissions reduction measures are
cost reducing
CBI Climate Change Report, 2007
• Alliance Boots reduced transport miles by 7.9 million
miles pa from 1998 baseline
• Walkers saved 9200 t CO2 and £1.2m pa by
changing how they bought potatoes
• Wal-Mart saved 3800 trees and $2.4m pa by
reducing packaging on toys
Sustainable Development Commission, You are what you sell

6. Customers want it
• £32.3bn spent on ethical goods and services in
2006, 9% up on 2005
• Market growth 15% pa since 2002, compared with
5% pa growth in overall household expenditure
• Ethical food and drink could represent 10% of total
sales by 2009
• Home products expenditure £213 per household in
2006
Co-operative Bank, 2007
• £150bn pa UK Government procurement moving
to sustainable basis

7. Customers want it
• 6% consumers committed to ethical products
• 11% consumers regularly purchase
• 31% consumers passive supporters
Co-operative Bank, 2007
• Nearly half of consumers say they would be
prepared to pay more for environmentally
friendly products
• Two thirds say they would only buy
appliances with high energy efficiency ratings
Defra Attitudes and Behaviours survey, 2007

8. Employees are inspired
• New graduates are attracted to companies
with a strong ethical and environmental
stance
• Employees at all levels like to work for a
company they can take pride in
• Employees at all levels engage in approaches
which empower them in identifying potential
savings

9. Suppliers are motivated
• Supply chain analysis identified savings for
Walkers
• Working with toy manufacturers produced
savings for Wal-Mart
• Working with suppliers, sharing cost savings,
contributed transport savings for Alliance
Boots
• Gearing up LCD lighting production produced
massive increase in sales through Tesco

10. Shareholders are looking to back it
• Carbon Disclosure Project asks questions on behalf
of 315 institutional investors – 76% of respondents
say implementing GHG reductions initiatives
• FTSE4Good Climate Change criteria identifies food
and drink, trucking, pharmaceuticals amongst
medium impact sectors requiring public disclosure of
operational emissions
• 53% Small ethical investors say climate change is
one of top 5 concerns
Standard Life Ethical Investors Survey, 2007

11. Regulators are increasingly using it
• EU Electrical products labelling scheme (A-G
ratings) already a form – and likely to be
extended
• Energy Performance of Public Buildings and
Buildings used by Public extending this to
built environment
• …..and UK Government’s Housing agenda
embraces this, as does Mayor Livingstone’s
Green 500

12. The future for carbon footprinting?
“Customer information is unlikely to achieve significant
shifts in markets or behaviour, however labels can be
a useful tool for signalling to consumers who are
already committed to buying more sustainable
products.”
“Customer-facing labels need to be carefully designed,
recognising what they can and cannot achieve.”
“To change behaviour, however, monetary incentives
need to be combined with other interventions that
enable change, and provide people with a genuine
alternative.”
Sustainable Development Commission