The Net Zero transition is here, and every business needs to participate.

We have a range of free guides ready to read. In these guides, we explain what your business can do to become more sustainable, cut carbon, and use resources efficiently. We are here to provide resources to help you make your business as green and resource-efficient as possible.

How to use the sustainability guides

Each guide provides: 

  • On this page, general tips to reduce the impact of the major utilities you’re likely to use as a micro business, split into five sections: Materials, Transport, Water, Energy, and Waste. These tips are relevant to most businesses.
  • Tips specific to retail, manufacturing, hospitality and office-based SMEs can be found by following the relevant links at the bottom of the page.
  • Three factsheets full of tips and tricks for measuring and tracking your energy, water, and waste. These are designed to help you understand how to make sense of your bills and meters and then use what you find to help focus on the fundamental changes you need to make.
  • A glossary of key terms you might want to refer to as you navigate the guides.

 

Utilities advice for all micro businesses  

2.1 Materials

Every business uses various products and materials in day-to-day operations. Each of these inputs has an impact, so making smart choices about what you buy and where you buy from can help reduce your environmental footprint.

The Procurement Hierarchy 

The first and most important step is to reduce the materials you use. This might mean checking your stock before buying more, sharing with other users, reusing what you already have, or repairing items instead of throwing them away.

If you need to buy something, purchasing something second-hand or that has been refurbished or remanufactured is a great way to reduce your impact - for example, buying a refurbished phone rather than buying new. If that’s not an option, look for products with verifiable sustainability credentials. Perhaps they contain recycled or bio-based material or are designed for easy recycling.

Finally, if none of that’s possible, try negotiating end-of-life options with your suppliers to give your products the best chance of being processed correctly when they’re no longer needed.

This order of purchasing preference is commonly described as the Procurement Hierarchy.

PROCUREMENT HIERARCHY PROCUREMENT HIERARCHY

The Circular Economy

The Procurement Hierarchy promotes material consumption in line with so-called ‘circular economy’ principles. Lots of material consumption in today’s economy can be considered ‘linear’ – we take, we make, we dispose – but more businesses are adopting circular economy principles to keep resources ‘in the loop’.

In this section, we’ve listed some tips to help you align with the circular
economy.

Here are some common certification schemes to look out for: 

Quick Wins

  • Keep an inventory of all your products so that you only buy when you need them rather than on a schedule (e.g. replace a monthly copier paper delivery with a purchase triggered only when you get down to a pre-determined quantity).
  • Have a stationery ‘amnesty’ event to get all those unused pens and staplers
    out of people’s drawers.
  • Go paperless with digital alternatives to receipts and internal documents.
  • If you need to use paper, use recycled paper from sustainable sources. Look
    for the FSC label.
    Eliminate single-use items by investing in reusable on-premises alternatives
    (e.g. reusable cups and crockery, water fountains and reusable bottles in
    workplaces).
  • Look for certification labels for materials and products from trusted and
    verified suppliers that control their environmental impact (some of the most
    common certification labels are listed earlier in this section).
  • If you have unwanted or unneeded equipment, donate or sell it to someone
    who could use it. See Section 2.5 on Waste for more ideas on how to
    sustainably manage what you no longer need.
  • Reach out to The Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub which helps Greater Manchester SMEs find ways to replace some of the materials they use with
    sustainable alternatives

Medium-Term Wins

  • If you need occasional access to equipment you don’t currently own, hire it
    instead of buying it – or look to share with another local business. There are
    various tool and equipment sharing and peer-to-peer rental apps, or consider
    setting one up yourself.
  • Instead of replacing items when they’re broken or worn, get them repaired or
    refurbished.
    Buy refurbished or fully remanufactured items such as furniture, IT
    equipment, or tools. These are often cheaper than new but should still come
    with a warranty (remanufactured, by definition, should be ‘as new’, with a full
    warranty).
  • Buy items that contain recycled material or bio-based material content.
    Recycled material should ideally come from post-consumer sources, and
    bio-based materials should be from crop waste or sources that avoid
    deforestation.

Long-Term Wins

  • Switch your suppliers to ones with similar ambitions around climate change
    and sustainability (e.g. have a ‘Net Zero’ strategy).
  • If you need new equipment (cars, tools, furniture) for regular use, lease it
    instead of buying it. This can help to smooth cash flow and improve reliability
    – suppliers should service the equipment and take it back at the end of its
    life.
  • If you have to replace machinery or tools, look for models that are easy to
    repair. Some products are designed to be modular, so if one part breaks
    beyond repair, it can be removed and replaced without scrapping the whole
    thing
Sus Travel Hierarchy Sus Travel Hierarchy

2.2 Transport

Transport is the largest source of carbon emissions in the UK. This means that changing the way you move around can be a great way to reduce your impact.

For businesses, transport might include how you and your employees get to and from work; how you visit your clients or suppliers; and how clients, suppliers, and servicing personnel visit you.

The Sustainable Travel Hierarchy: 

The best way to reduce your transport impact is to travel less. This might mean holding meetings with suppliers online instead of in person or allowing employees to work from home.

When travel is necessary, you should promote active travel (like walking or cycling) wherever possible and public or shared transport where it’s not (like trains, buses, or trams). Using electric vehicles as an alternative to traditional petrol or diesel ones is another way to reduce the environmental impact of travel. We call this order of decision-making the Sustainable Travel Hierarchy:

  • Reduce travel where possible by arranging for staff to work remotely and using video calls for internal meetings or client meetings (this can even work for site visits).
  • Undertake a workplace travel plan survey to identify opportunities for staff to travel to work in more sustainable modes.
  • Support staff to make sustainable choices by reimbursing their active travel mileage (walking or cycling) for client trips or other site visits.
  • Help employees get a tax-free bike or accessories by signing up for a Cycle to Work scheme. Although not everyone will want to cycle, this is an excellent incentive for those keen.
  • Set up a lift sharing scheme for staff for commuting and work trips to improve the efficiency of essential journeys (software is available to help facilitate this).
  • Establish a company travel policy to prevent very high-impact forms of transport when they’re not needed (e.g. ban flights for journeys that can easily be done by rail; cars for trips that can be done by rail, tram, or bus).
  • If you have a website, provide information on using public transport and cycling to reach your premises.
  • If active travel and public transport are impractical for staff, they might be able to purchase an electric vehicle using a salary sacrifice scheme. They are easy to set up and cost nothing for the employer to maintain.
  • Contact your local MP and council to let them know you support provision for active travel and public transport in your area.
  • If you deliver goods, consolidate your deliveries as far as possible and optimise routes to minimise total miles travelled. You could also talk to clients about onward distribution or back-hauling their goods using your empty vehicle. Routing software packages can be costly, but they can help you to make multi-stop routes more efficient.
  • Smaller, local deliveries can be carried out by zero-emissions logistics providers who use bikes to transport goods. A growing number of companies offer this service and are often cheaper because they have lower operating costs.
  • Depending on the distance and frequency, a cargo bike might be a good alternative to a van if you regularly carry out deliveries or move things around yourself. Electric-assisted cargo bikes are now available.
  • Provide a few company bikes that can be used by employees to get to meetings or site visits. Ideally, these would be folding bikes that can be taken on trains or trams for visits that are further away.
  • Become a cycle-friendly business by installing bike parking outside your premises. Including secure bike storage will also encourage employees to commute by bike.
  • Have speed limiters installed in company vehicles such as vans, which could
    save up to 25% on fuel and pay for themselves in four months.
  • If you haven’t got the capital to move to zero-emission transport options yet, you can sign staff up for subsidised fuel-efficient driver training, which reduces fuel use by 15% on average. You could even run competitions to see who has the most improved miles-per-gallon
  • Add shower and changing facilities at your workplace to encourage people to walk, run, or cycle to work.
  • If you have company vehicles, consider replacing them with an electric alternative, but make sure that your journeys are compatible, (journeys need to be less than about 200 miles a day, and vans shouldn’t be much larger than a medium-wheel base).
  • Install charging stations so your staff and people visiting your site can recharge their electric vehicles. Standard charging will probably do if it’s just employees using these charging points, but if you’d like customers and suppliers to use them, you might need to consider fast-charging stations instead.

2.3 Water

Most small businesses significantly underestimate the amount of water that they use. Water is not yet a scarce resource in the UK. However, it’s still a significant cost to some businesses (about £3 per m3 if you’re on a domestic style tariff), and the pumping and treating of it uses energy which contributes to global warming.

Water Meters

If you don’t already have one (i.e. you’re just charged on rateable value), a excellent first step is to get a water meter fitted. This will help you understand how much water your business uses and how this use varies.

Once you understand how much you use, reducing the environmental impact of your water usage essentially means using less! Turning off taps and using water-efficient appliances are ways you can drastically cut your water consumption, along with all the other tips we’ve included in this section.

  • Help everyone in the business save water by discussing where it’s being used and how it could be used less.
  • If your taps aren’t automated, add signs to remind employees and customers to turn them off once they’ve finished using them).
  • If you’re on a water meter, take regular readings and send them to your supplier to ensure that bills match what you’ve used. This will also help you to notice if usage changes or becomes excessive.
  • Once a month, check your meter reading before leaving the building and first thing when you return the following day, or after a weekend, to see if water is being used when the building is not in use. You might find a leak, tap or process that isn’t being turned off.
  • If you have an old-style large toilet cistern (often 9 litres or more), place a 1-litre bottle filled with water or a cistern water saver in the toilet cistern to reduce the amount of water used per flush.
  • Fit tap aerators to old-style taps. This can reduce usage by 50%, and the devices are cheap and easy to install.
  • Consult your local water supplier (e.g. United Utilities) for more advice on saving water.
  • If you have outside space, install a water butt to collect rainwater. You can use this to water plants or wash cars at zero cost. Ensure your plumbing is properly maintained (e.g. fit new washers to taps
    and cistern ball valves to stop them leaking/overflowing).
  • If you have high water pressure (i.e. powerful flow from taps), fit flow restrictors or turn the valve on the supply pipe isolator (normally visible beneath a sink) a little to reduce the flow rate at the tap.
  • Purchase appliances that use less water by checking the A to G Energy Label for equipment like dishwashers and washing machines. Although they can cost a little more upfront, they pay back through ongoing savings.
  • Fit automated (occupancy sensor) flush controls for urinals. Repeat ‘fill and flush’ systems are a serious waste of water if urinals aren’t heavily used!
  • Prepare your business by insulating tanks, cisterns and external pipework. This prevents potential damage and leakage caused by freezing temperatures. A plumber can help you with this.
  • Install sensor taps (no more remembering to turn them off!) and upgrade
    toilet cisterns to more efficient dual flush models if you still have the old
    single-flush systems.
  • Install waterless urinals. These are straight swaps for conventional urinals but
    use almost no water (a small amount is needed to flush the drain once every
    few months).
  • If your premises are being refurbished, or you’re moving into a new build,
    consider installing rainwater harvesting tanks or tanks that divert grey water
    (water from sinks, washing machines and dishwashers) to provide non-potable services like flushing toilets or washing vehicles

2.4 Energy

Every business uses energy. The amount you need will vary depending on what sort of business you run, but there are always things you can do to reduce your daily consumption.

The Energy Hierarchy

Using less energy can be as simple as reminding people to switch off electronics when they’re not needed. Savings can also be made by swapping old, inefficient appliances for new energy-efficient alternatives.

Think about where you get your energy from as energy can be generated from fossil fuels like petrol or gas (known as brown energy) or from renewable sources like solar or wind (known as green energy). Energy from fossil fuels tends to have a substantial carbon footprint compared to renewables.

Understanding where your energy comes from, and switching it if it makes sense, can be a good way to keep the impact of your energy low. But remember: the cleanest (and cheapest) energy is the energy you don’t use in the first place, so follow the Energy Hierarchy when making decisions.

Woter Woter
  • Remove the guesswork from calculating your energy costs by installing a smart meter. You’ll have to ask your supplier to install it, but they’ll do it for free.
  • Add signs to machines and lights to remind people they should be turned off when not in use.
  • Get the most out of natural light! Keep windows and skylights clean and blinds open so you can leave lights off during the day.
  • Keep windows and doors closed when the heating or air conditioning is on.
  • If you have lots of draughty windows and doors, think about using draught excluders to stop unwanted cold air coming in. You can also fit draught curtains to doors that can’t be closed.
  • Check radiators and thermostats regularly to know if they’re on and at what temperature. If you rely on timers, you may end up heating your space unnecessarily, especially between seasons.
  • Make sure there’s nothing blocking radiators. They need air flow to work well, and placing objects in front of them can prevent this.
  • Add heat reflectors on the wall behind radiators to get the most from your heating.
  • Ensure equipment like fans, pumps and compressors are off when your business is closed (consider putting someone in charge of this, so it’s not forgotten!). You could also consider installing an overall master switch so everything can be turned off from one place.
  • Switch your energy provider to one that offers 100% renewable energy. Be careful, though. Many companies that are presenting as ‘green’ are not actually as green as they look
  • Ask an experienced builder to inspect your business and recommend energy efficiency measures. When looking for new premises, check the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) and look out for BREEAM (Outstanding, Excellent or Very Good) and SKA (Gold or Silver) ratings.
  • If you’re replacing old appliances, look at the Energy Label and choose A-rated products wherever possible. They might cost a bit more to start with, but you’ll make back your money in savings over time.
  • Ask an electrician to help install timers and occupancy sensors for lights, heating, and air conditioning.
  • Have your boiler and other heating devices maintained annually to keep them working efficiently.
  • Add shutters or blinds onto south-facing windows. This helps prevent rooms from getting too hot and requiring cooling in the summer and keeps heat in during the winter.
  • Check the seals on fridges. If they are broken, damaged or weak, you might need to upgrade the equipment. Maintained or new kit will use less energy, last longer, and quickly repay the investment.
  • Get an electrician to replace your light fittings with LEDs. These use less electricity and last much longer.
  • Refurbish your space with double glazing on windows and insulation in walls.
  • Replace your gas boiler or other gas heating when it becomes problematic/ inefficient. Ask a local specialist to identify affordable and sustainable upgrades such as heat pumps.
  • Buy directional infra-red heaters for space heating in open and high spaces like workshops—these heat people rather than the air.
  • For more open spaces, destratification fans can also make a big difference by keeping heat circulating rather than gathering in the roof space.
  • Install solar panels to generate your own green energy on-site. If you generate more than you need, you might be able to sell the excess back to the national grid.
  • If you generate solar energy on-site, installing a battery could allow you to store any excess so that it can be used later when it’s no longer sunny
ENERGY ENERGY

2.5 Waste

Reducing the environmental impact of your business’s waste means making less of it and sorting what you make so that it can be disposed of correctly.

The first step is understanding what’s in the waste you’re creating. You might find conducting a waste audit helpful as it will show you, first-hand, what’s ending up in your bin. You can then look to address the source of the waste, which will ultimately save you money and reduce your impact

The Waste Hierarchy will help you prioritise your options for things you no longer want or need. Your first port of call should be prevention, which means not creating waste in the first place. This might mean buying less (see Section 2.1 on Materials for more information on this).

For waste you cannot avoid, the next priority is finding ways to reuse it. This could mean repurposing old items yourself or selling or donating them to someone else. If you can’t reuse something, you should look to recycle it properly. Energy recovery (i.e. incineration) or landfill should only be a last resort when no other options are available.

  • Survey the waste that you create. Depending on your business, this might mean weighing food waste, tracking the weight of residual (general) waste, or just looking in your bins to see what’s there. Do this once every few months to track progress.
  • Check how full your bins are on average when they’re emptied. If they are less than two-thirds full, you should ask your waste contractor to provide smaller bins or empty them less regularly. That will save you money and reduce the distance travelled by waste collection vehicles, helping the environment.
  • Go paperless by switching to digital processes. This will also save you money on paper, ink and other office supplies.
  • Help to reduce the amount of waste you make by buying less. Is there a reusable version of that single-use product you would buy? Can you hire or lease instead of buying?
  • Provide clearly signed recycling points that are more numerous and convenient than general waste bins to make recycling the automatic choice for customers and employees.
  • Ask your suppliers if they can deliver goods to you in returnable packagings, such as refillable containers. If your current suppliers can’t, there may be others who can.
  • Sell or donate items that you don’t want anymore. Local community websites such as Freecycle can be a great place to find people and businesses in need.
  • Check to see if your council offers food collection services for local businesses. If not, consider working with a private food waste collection company to safely dispose of your food waste to prevent it from going to landfill.
  • See if you can refurbish or repair any broken or faulty equipment before you consider throwing it out. Take care with anything electrical and only use a qualified electrician.
  • If you use the council for your commercial waste disposal, ask if they can recycle all the types of waste you produce. You might want to switch to a specialised commercial waste provider if the council cannot maximise recycling rates or manage more difficult wastes.
  • Choose suppliers that take back products at end-of-life for reuse or recycling. Note that e-waste, such as phones or old computers, should, by default, be taken back and recycled free of charge by the supplier (unless you’ve signed away that right – check supply contracts before signing!).
  • Think about using equipment sharing, reuse and waste exchange platforms such as Olioex and Warp-IT for IT and furniture.
  • Consider providing a Terracycle recycling point at your site for customers and staff to return harder-to-recycle packagings such as crisp packets, cosmetics containers and tablet packs. A Terracycle collection point could also be helpful to restaurants that use a lot of cork.
  • Explore partnering with neighbouring businesses to create joint collection schemes for waste and recyclable materials. This might consist of a shared set of recycling bins or a shared Terracycle point. This will reduce costs, disruption and pollution in the area as fewer collection vehicles will be needed.

Section 2: Measuring & Tracking

This section contains advice and guidance for measuring and tracking your energy, water, and waste.

2.1 Energy

Why measure energy use?

To reduce your energy consumption and bills, you need to UNDERSTAND IT, DIVE DEEPER and TRACK IT. This will allow you to experiment with reduction measures and see if they have an impact. Although you can take readings from a standard meter, smart (digital) meters provide more accurate real-time data and can be checked anytime online or via an app. Naturally, energy use will vary depending on how busy your business is, so take account of this by considering your energy intensity for a given period:

energy intensity = energy use (e.g. kWh) ÷ turnover (£’000)

 

How do I measure energy use?

How does this help?

  • Tracking your energy intensity each month will allow you to draw comparisons and identify changes over time. Remember that energy use related to space heating will vary according to the outside temperature, so make sure you compare periods with similar weather conditions from the previous year.
  • If you see a significant change in the wrong direction (e.g. more than a 10% increase in energy intensity), you need to investigate the possible causes. Thin about where you use energy and how – have you got a new or faulty piece of equipment or a new staff member who may be leaving things switched on overnight?
  • Try turning things on and off to see how much difference it makes to your energy consumption, and take a look at Section 2.4 for ideas to cut your energy use and bills. Keeping copies of your energy bills will show if you’re cutting costs over time and help you predict cash flow.

2.2 Water

Why measure water use?

As with energy, to reduce your water use, you need to UNDERSTAND IT, DIVE DEEPER, and TRACK IT. This will allow you to experiment with reduction measures and see if they have an impact. You can take readings from a standard meter, but smart water meters provide more accurate data, allowing you to take measurements anytime. They also contain leak detectors which alert you when you have a leak and can switch off the supply automatically. This can help prevent major and often costly damage. 

Your water use will change depending on how busy your business is, so take account of this by considering your ‘water intensity’ for a given period:


water intensity = water use (litres or cubic metres) ÷ turnover (£’000)

Note that this is only possible if your business is metered (rather than just charged by rateable value).

How do I measure water use?

 

How does this help?

  • As you track your water intensity, you will begin to spot trends and draw comparisons with previous periods, which will help you identify significant changes and possible causes. This might include changes in the business, leaks, external factors (e.g. a heatwave), or the effect of your improvements.
  • Getting to know your water use (e.g. knowing if equipment uses a fixed amount of water or has variable use patterns) can also inform the reduction measures you put in place and identify priorities quickly. Look at Section 2.3 for ideas on the kinds of measures worth considering.
  • Keep copies of your water bills and meter readings to see whether you’re reducing your costs over time. You can also anticipate how much your water use will cost each month, helping you to predict cash flow

 

2.3 Waste

Why measure waste?

Reducing your waste volumes will help you avoid rising UK waste costs and save valuable resources. But first, you need to UNDERSTAND IT, DIVE DEEPER and TRACK IT. Unlike energy and water, there is no meter for waste, so instead, you need to measure the amount you produce over a given period, generally in terms of the number of bags or bins you put out per day or week. You can then establish your ‘waste intensity’:

waste intensity = waste generation (kg/tonnes or cubic metres) ÷ turnover (£’000)

Ideally, you should calculate your waste intensity for both general waste and recycling – it’s important to reduce all forms of waste, even if it gets recycled!

 

How do I measure waste?

How does this help?

  • Once you start measuring your waste, you can begin to understand your recycling rate. This is the total amount of material going to recycling, divided by total waste produced (general waste plus recycling).
  • Use your waste intensity measurements to track progress and brainstorm with your colleagues to see if you can reduce your overall waste or recycle more. Take a look at Section 2.5 for ideas to get you started.
  • If you’re based at more than one site, tracking the distribution of waste across your business may be helpful. By identifying which locations create the most waste, you can give them priority in terms of making changes.

For advice specific to Retail, Hospitality, Manufacturing, or Office-Based small businesses, follow the links below. 

Resources and advice to help you decarbonise your business

Read our series of blogs to help you reduce energy in your business.