Carbon and Sustainability Insights

Setting up a small consulting company sounds pretty straightforward. Pick a name, register the company, open a bank account, sort out the tax and VAT, find some insurance and get on with the work.

 

And, broadly speaking, that is what I have done.

 

But starting from scratch also gives you an opportunity to think about how you want the business to operate. In my case, that includes the environmental side of things. It is considerably easier to make sensible choices when you are starting with a blank sheet of paper than trying to retrofit them into an established business.

Some choices are easy. My electricity supply is from renewable sources, so there isn't much of a decision to make there. I also drive a battery electric vehicle, which is fairly obvious for a business where much of my travel is by road.

Then there are the less obvious choices.

For example, where should a small consultancy host its website and email? I chose Krystal, partly because of their environmental credentials and the claims they make about renewable energy and their approach to hosting. It wasn't simply a case of choosing the cheapest hosting package and forgetting about it.

Travel is another issue. Consulting can involve a surprising amount of it, particularly when clients are spread around the country. I am looking at ways of dealing with the carbon emissions associated with business travel, including carbon offsetting. I'm still investigating exactly what approach makes sense, rather than simply buying the first "carbon neutral" option that appears in a Google search.

And that is probably one of the biggest challenges for a small business: working out what actually means something.

There are plenty of companies offering carbon offsets, "green" hosting, carbon-neutral products and other environmental solutions. Some are undoubtedly worthwhile; others require considerably more investigation before you can work out what you are actually buying.

A large company can employ sustainability specialists and spend thousands of pounds measuring its carbon footprint. A one-person consultancy doesn't have that luxury – or necessarily need it.

For me, the sensible approach is to start with the obvious things, make choices that genuinely reduce environmental impact where practical, and then gradually improve the rest. I don't expect my small consultancy to change the world.

If I am going to spend the next few years advising other organisations on environmental and management issues, it seems reasonable to make sure I am applying some of those principles to my own business as well.