How businesses can help employees achieve Net Zero | Addressing Scope 3 emissions

At Snugg, we spend lots of time talking to homeowners about the environmental benefits of making their homes more energy efficient. But helping the UK reach net-zero carbon emissions is not a challenge for homeowners to tackle alone. Businesses have a significant role to play too.

For many businesses, Scope 3 emissions account for more than 70% of their carbon footprint.¹ Therefore, it is highly encouraged for most businesses to actively monitor their 'Scope 3' emissions. Scope 3 emissions represent a global standard that takes into account the indirect emissions resulting from a company's activities, including their work-from-home environment and the equipment they use. Reducing these emissions is essential for a comprehensive approach towards addressing environmental impact.

This Net Zero Awareness Week, we are connecting with businesses to help them discover some of the many ways they can support their employees to make their work-life greener.

If you are a decision-maker within a large business, or you are looking for ideas to share with your manager, read on to learn about some powerful actions that your business can take to help its employees reduce their carbon footprint.

Businesses are becoming more environmentally conscious

We have seen companies becoming much more environmentally conscious in recent years, with many adopting initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint.

One notable example is the proliferation of the cycle-to-work scheme, where the cost of the bike or cycling equipment is deducted from the employee's salary before tax is paid. The scheme experienced a surge in popularity in recent years. In 2010, an impressive 100,000 people participated in the scheme. But by 2022, that number had swelled to over 500,000. Given that cycling produces up to 92% less CO₂ emissions than a medium-sized car, it has been a significant boost to the UK's net zero goals.²

Recycling has also become an area of particular focus for companies. Replacing individual under-desk bins with larger, clearly labelled communal recycling bins, has become standard in many businesses.

Businesses can play a key role in improving home energy efficiency

Not only are companies adopting environmentally-friendly practices within the workplace, but some are also recognising the importance of extending this responsibility to the homes of their employees, especially in the era of remote working.

For those regularly working from home, an efficient, comfortable and affordable home could make a world of difference. Our assessment of properties in Edinburgh found that implementing a tailored selection of energy efficiency improvements could reduce CO₂ emissions by over 4.5 tonnes per year.³ At the same time, these improvements could reduce energy bills by over £1,600 per year and increase the property’s value by over £16,500 per year. That is a potentially massive win for an employee and the environment.

And since 48% of people say they have not adopted a more sustainable lifestyle because they do not have enough information,⁴ empowering employees to reduce their environmental impact through education is a critical component of a company's journey toward net-zero emissions.

Businesses can encourage employees to make their homes more efficient by providing access to a home energy assessment tool like Snugg, subsidising or matching the employee’s investment in efficiency measures, or hosting educational events.

At Snugg, we help companies educate their employees on improving their home energy efficiency via online ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions. Our talks include:

• The challenges of meeting net zero
• The benefits of living in an energy-efficient home
• How to make your home more energy efficient

If you would like to arrange for us to host a Lunch & Learn at your company, please email us.

Understanding Scope 3 emissions

Scope 3 emissions are carbon emissions that are indirectly the result of a company's business activities. They can include an employee’s commute, the equipment they use to work from home and much more.

There is no specific law that holds companies to account but monitoring and reducing Scope 3 emissions is an important part of meeting a company’s net zero commitments. Larger companies, in particular, should take note as institutional investors and pension funds increasingly choose to disinvest in companies that do not make efforts to reduce their emissions.

Sustainability Empowerment: Hill Dickinson's Approach to Scope 3 Emissions and Hybrid Working Education ‍

‍Hill Dickinson, a leading commercial law firm, has taken proactive measures to address Scope 3 emissions by incorporating questions about home heating systems and energy tariffs in their sustainability questionnaires. This approach demonstrates their commitment to environmental responsibility and provides an opportunity to educate and empower their staff in making sustainable choices.

‍Ariel Edesess, ESG Senior Analyst at Hill Dickinson, explained the firm's approach to managing the hybrid working model and supporting employees in understanding its implications. Edesess emphasised the inclusion of questions regarding home heating systems and energy tariffs in their sustainability questionnaires, stating:

“Hill Dickinson have started to approach the home-work line in our calculations of Scope 3 emissions, or our indirect emissions. We, like many other businesses, have reduced our office space in line with our post-covid hybrid working model – which means emissions from our building operations have also reduced significantly. But we also recognise that, just because our own offices require less energy, that energy is still being used to conduct work - except now it’s attached to each person individually when working from home. Rather than seeing this as something to fear or avoid, we are instead seeing it as an opportunity to educate and empower our staff to make personal choices that have a wider positive impact, both for them personally and their place of work. When conducting our surveys to gather commuting information, we asked our colleagues how far they commute, how often, and by what means. But this year, we have also gathered information on what type of energy tariffs and home heating systems people use. Moving forward, we can use this information to better inform us on how to encourage and educate our employees to locate and access renewable energy sources.”

To learn more about reducing your company’s Scope 3 emissions and helping your employees reduce their environmental impact, please email us for a chat.

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1 https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/focus/climate-change/zero-in-on-scope-1-2-and-3-emissions.html

2 https://ourworldindata.org/travel-carbon-footprint

3 https://www.snuggenergy.com/home-energy-efficiency-report/edinburgh

4 https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/sustainable-consumer.html