Get ahead and stay ahead!

Start with one. One something. One office. One event. One product.

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Before you can get down the carbon cost curve and up the innovation curve, you have to get on the learning curve. Carbon is an absolutely new issue. In our experience, it is far better to focus on one small part of your organization - something that can be easily segmented from the rest and where it may be easier to collect initial consumption data. This will be a useful trial and training ground and will also give you some solid early wins.

• Start with an office. An office is a good place to start because changes will not typically affect your organization's ability to deliver. You also have a high degree of control over office-based emissions. Offices may have their own financial records to make data collection more straightforward.
• Start with an event. Events your organization puts on are a great place to start. You have a high degree of control and could have good, event specific records. Because an event may be tangential to your organizational mission, it is easier to try things and see what works. As an event is a one-time thing (i.e. not a continuous operation) you have scope to make changes well in advance without the complications of implementing a change to an ongoing process.
• Start with a product. If your company makes multiple products or services, it is highly advisable to start with just one. Pick a simple product if you can. Pick a product with a simple manufacturing or assembly process and a straightforward supply chain. Pick a product where you add most of the value, have access to information and can make changes.

Work backwards from a stretch target.

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Enterprise Edition

Figure out what you will have to do, rather than what might be easy to do. For some, a 20% reduction by 2012 may be straightforward. For others, it may require significant “retooling” of their strategy and business model.

Using a reference footprint and working backwards from a stretch target helps you to get early visibility of the character and magnitude of the range of potential changes and business impacts ahead. Developing a stretching target case will help you to prioritize your future efforts.

Take action early.

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Enterprise Edition

Responding to carbon risks will mean changes in your organization. Some will be incremental, others will be fundamental. Footprinting is not an academic exercise. It is a way to prepare your organization for the transition to a low-carbon economy. Our experience is that leading organizations act early. Here are some examples of how they act boldly:

• Be first - beat your competition. Stoking the competitive fire of an organization usually pays high dividends. There are numerous examples, particularly with consumer products companies (for example, cars and packaged goods) where an early low-carbon stance is now the market leader and the slow adopters are playing serious catch-up.
• Go Public. There is nothing like going public to signal to your employees, suppliers, customers, other stakeholders and to your competition, that you are getting out ahead and taking the initiative. Many leading companies have published the carbon footprint of their core products (whether high or low). The market tends to respond positively to transparency. It is better however not to use terms like “carbon neutral” as they can easily be misinterpreted and hard to substantiate.
• Take a symbolic action. When seeking to change hearts and minds it can be just as important to start with symbolic actions as it is to implement substantive changes. This may mean working on your core product or service right away and publishing a footprint. It may mean challenging some “sacred cow”. Who is going to believe an organisation's commitment to a low carbon future when its MD drives a gas-guzzler?

Footprinter has two free paths. Use one. Start today.

Our belief is that the carbon problem is pervasive. It is not just a board room or senior finance team issue. It is an issue for office managers, plant managers, supply chain directors, people in product R&D, the warehouse team, and the marketing team. In short, everyone!

With footprinter you do not have to be a carbon expert – or a modeling expert. We’ve designed the footprinter toolkit so everyone can use it. It is designed to grow with you. It is designed to work across many people in different parts of the organization, all at the same time.