Don't be paralysed by the enormity of the task at hand. Here's what you can do now to make a genuine difference and why you don’t want to put it off. Stephen Fisher and Tim Hodgson explain.
From January 2025, Australian businesses will be required to include carbon emissions in their financial reporting. First, organisations with more than 500 employees and a turnover of $500 million or more will have to comply. In the months and years ahead, smaller businesses will be required to follow suit.
If you run an independent agency, it might seem like you’re off the hook for now but here’s the catch: many of your clients will already be preparing for this. And part of that preparation involves understanding the emissions generated from their supply chain.
If you haven’t already, you’re likely to soon hear from clients and the broader industry asking for details of your approach to emissions reduction. You’ve no doubt already seen questions to that effect in new business and pitch documents.
Even for large corporations with dedicated environmental, social and governance teams, getting data from their supply chain is a big challenge.
Conversely, most small independent Aussie businesses – and there are plenty of them with about 97% of local businesses small to medium enterprises – don’t have the resources to make sustainability their top priority.
This is true of Hatched which has just 75 people.
Despite being committed to building a sustainable business, like many small organisations, Hatched is only at the beginning of its ESG journey.
Navigating the unknowns and pitfalls, however, is not an excuse not to do anything or put in the too-hard-basket. Taking action, albeit small, and finding the right partners is a step in the right direction.
Here’s how to get started.
Step 1: Identify the carbon footprint of your organisation
Most small businesses are people-led which means a large part of their carbon footprint comes from the emissions created by the energy staff use in providing services (including their commute to work!).
If you don’t have the expertise in-house to drill down on what that actually looks like, and few indies will, you may need to engage the help of a specialist organisation.
Step 2: Develop a roadmap
Once you know where you stand, you can create a plan. That could be as simple as committing to a single new initiative each budgeting cycle.
Start by getting your people involved. Create an internal team empowered to identify and action small wins such as recycling in the office or finding ways to reduce energy consumption and wastage. Give them the time to work on this and a budget.
At Hatched, our plan is a constant work in progress, iterated by our Green Team and centred on a commitment to offset emissions with the help of My Net Zero.
Step 3: Find trusted partners to guide you on the journey
You don’t know what you don’t know but when it comes to your impact on the environment, organisations like My Net Zero can help you fill knowledge gaps and take those concrete first steps toward being more sustainable.
While these efforts are crucial to the health of the planet, there are additional benefits for organisations that commit. With businesses increasingly shifting their focus to matters of ESG, having a plan in place will make you a more suitable partner for them.
There’s also a benefit when it comes to recruitment.
With more Gen Z workers entering the workforce, and a UK study finding one in three of them will reject jobs because of ESG values, this is fast becoming a necessity for businesses looking to attract talent.
Finally, it’s not going to happen next year or the year after but eventually, even small businesses will need to report on their emissions. If you start taking steps now to reduce them, when that day comes the cost and time commitment will be minimal.
Step in now and cover yourself and you’ll be rewarded in more ways than one.
Stephen Fisher is the CEO of Hatched. Tim Hodgson is the founder of My Net Zero.