Reducing energy consumption and related emissions. What are the top 3 actions to take?

It’s not long ago that Glasgow hosted COP 26, the delayed 26th UN Climate Change Conference. The summit, which took place in November, brought together governments, NGOs, trade unions, businesses and individuals to accelerate action towards the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

Methods to lower emissions, improve sustainability and transition to renewables that actively protect the environment will be discussed in depth. Transitioning to a zero carbon economy and meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement requires companies across all sectors to understand the emissions they generate directly and to map their emissions footprint right across the value chain.

Calculating, then eliminating value chain emissions (known as GHG Scope 3) can be an intimidating prospect. Unlike Scope 1 and 2 emissions, Scope 3 emissions are not easily ring fenced and are much more difficult to track accurately.

With Scope 1 and 2, a company will normally have the source data needed to convert direct purchases of gas and electricity into a value in tonnes of GHGs. For most companies, Scope 3 emissions represent a much greater proportion of their carbon footprint than operational emissions and are something that most companies have much less control over.

But addressing them is an absolutely critical element in the journey towards reaching net zero.

For water and energy companies, Scope 3 emissions include emissions created from domestic consumption. According to the UK government, the UK’s carbon footprint related to electricity, gas, other fuels and water amount to almost 32% of total carbon dioxide emissions, making it the largest impact category that must be tackled¹.

Top 3 actions to reducing domestic consumption

There’s no time to wait. Action needs to be taken now, and in our view, these are the top 3 actions that energy companies need to take to reduce domestic consumption, whilst at the same time tracking and reporting on progress on consumption and related emissions reduction.

1. Start implementing and testing usage tracking alongside carbon footprint monitoring. You need to monitor and report on progress – and that requires analysis of consumption data.
2. Continue to create smarter customer experiences with tailored User Experiences and actions for each household. Customer engagement is essential and providing personalized information and advice is key to increasing engagement and action.
3. Stop doing things in isolation and start partnering with a data and behavioral science based organisation to drive both mitigation and adaptation of actions towards climate change. Individual corporate action on climate change is great – but real change requires systemic re-thinking.

It’s time to consider the whole system as an essential step to creating meaningful change.  This involves working with specialist partners to drive emissions reductions throughout your value chain in order to generate faster Return On Investment (ROI), and help grow more sustainable customer value and relationships.

How will you instigate, track, monitor and report on consumption and related emissions reduction from your customer portfolio? Talk to us today!

Source ref
¹UK’s carbon footprint – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)