Understand your SME’s carbon footprint with our free tool
We’ve launched a free tool that helps SMEs take the first step toward net zero: understanding their emissions.
The world has seen an exponential increase in carbon emissions, resulting in drastic changes to the climate and causing harm to humans and the environment.
We need an equally drastic effort to reduce emissions – and especially from businesses, who are responsible for the global majority of emitted carbon.
That’s why Normative was founded: to guide businesses to net zero emissions through accurate and comprehensive carbon accounting. Today, we’re launching a free offering to help small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) reduce their carbon footprint and contribute to the planet’s most important fight.
Now launched: Industry CO₂ Insights for SMEs
The newly-launched Industry CO₂ Insights will help SMEs understand where their emissions come from, based on the average carbon footprints of similar companies in their sector and country.
Developed with support from Google.org, and in collaboration with SME Climate Hub, Industry CO₂ Insights will be available cost-free to businesses that commit to net zero through SME Climate Hub.
This is the first offering resulting from our collaboration with SME Climate Hub and Google.org. We’re currently developing a free tool enabling SMEs to calculate their specific carbon footprints, scheduled to launch in early 2022.
Using the insights to reduce your SME’s carbon footprint
Industry CO₂ Insights shows you the average emissions from businesses in your same sector and country. These emissions are broken down using the scopes defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP).
You can use this information to identify potential emissions hotspots in your own carbon footprint and reveal potential high-impact reduction measures.
While raw emissions numbers can be difficult to interpret, Industry CO₂ Insights gives you national and sector averages to benchmark your own emissions against.
Carbon footprints that get measured get managed
The first step toward reducing business CO2 emissions is understanding where they come from – which is much easier said than done.
The emissions that are the most straightforward to calculate come from a business’s direct activities – like driving company cars – and certain indirect activities like electricity purchases. The GHGP defines these as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions explained
Learn the emissions categorization defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and what they mean for businesses when it comes to calculating and reducing carbon emissions.
But the majority of business emissions occur in Scope 3, which includes indirect emissions from a business’s supply chain, goods transportation, and business travel. These emissions are much more difficult to calculate, and businesses can find their carbon accounting efforts obstructed by the complex and time-intensive process of calculating Scope 3 emissions.
SME Climate Hub helps businesses reduce their carbon footprints
SMEs lack the financial and human resources of larger corporations, and therefore face challenges when accounting for and reducing their emissions.
The UN-backed SME Climate Hub was started to supply this guidance to SMEs cost-free. Through this initiative, thousands of SMEs have committed to halving emissions by 2030, achieving net zero by 2050, and reporting their progress on a yearly basis.
With help from partners like the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Race to Zero campaign, The We Mean Business Coalition, and Oxford University, the SME Climate Hub maintains a library of business sustainability resources available to every committed SME.
Normative is the official software provider for the SME Climate Hub, and we’re proud to add Industry CO₂ Insights to their library of resources.
The action plan for achieving net zero
- For cost-free access to Industry CO₂ Insights, your SME first needs to make the SME Climate Hub commitment to net zero. Make the commitment.
- After committing, you can find Industry CO₂ Insights in the SME Climate Hub library of resources.
- In Industry CO₂ Insights you can also find an early access signup for the free SME carbon calculator we’re developing with support from Google.org.
- To start a tailored path to net zero, learn how Normative’s full offering of carbon accounting software and advice from net zero experts enables companies to reduce their carbon footprints. Book a demo.
