The imperative for action on carbon is growing – the political and economic climate reflects this

The term ‘net-zero’ has saturated the business landscape since COP26; however, many businesses we encounter don’t fully understand what it means to be net-zero and the steps they need to take to decarbonise. Some organisations are deterred from attempting to explore the steps required because it is considered expensive and unattainable. Others perceive the issue to be easily solved via carbon offsets.

This document consolidates our knowledge in this area in order to make it simple for businesses to understand how they can achieve net-zero and how we can help navigate some tricky areas.

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Solving for Net Zero:
Inspiring Positive Behaviour Change

Yesterday morning, I woke to the news that Theresa May will commit to legislation requiring the UK to achieve a Net-Zero emissions target by 2050, making it the first G7 country to legally mandate 100% reduction. I actually leapt out of bed and there was an early morning, Boogie Wonderland feeling in the air.

Despite some uncomfortable allowances for international carbon offsets, this is a hard-won triumph made possible through years of tremendous work and collaboration in the scientific, NGO and business communities. This law will carve out a leadership role for the UK as we build a more sustainable, international economy and provide incredible opportunities for UK job creation and infrastructure development.

But just a few swipes further down my news feed, I read something that made my stomach turn:

“’High Likelihood of Human Civilisation Coming to an End by 2050’ Report Finds.”

Halfway through reading this Independent article I was already fuming.
We are better than this, people!

For decades, scientists have known about the exponential, impending dangers of climate change. It has taken an incredible amount of hard graft and lifetimes of dedication to finally get consensus around the reality and urgency of the problem. While there are still a few climate deniers firmly burying their heads in the sand, for the most part, mainstream governments and businesses are getting on with the undeniable truth…

If I’m being generous, I will allow that the authors of the report, issued by the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, had the best of intentions by showing us that our future reality is likely much worse than we previously acknowledged. And, as I’m in such a big-hearted mood, I will posit that the journalist wasn’t trying to actively derail the work set in motion by thousands of experts for the last 25 years.

Yet in all of the social research I’ve reviewed in the 16 years I’ve been in the business of systems change, I’ve never once come across a study proving the best way to motivate people towards positive, sustained behaviour change involves fear tactics and Doomsday illustrations. In fact, people who tend to look at situations through the lens of the worst-case scenario often suffer from reduced ambition, lack of focus, and little to no faith in success. So in the very best case scenario, this report and subsequent article are extraordinarily irresponsible.  We already know that there is a very limited amount of time to reverse the course of events, and every available resource should be invested in efforts that enable positive change.

I believe the reason that we are having a year of unprecedented progress towards a sustainable economy is because we are FINALLY starting to collectively pry our way out of the ‘Sky is Falling’ approach, and move into a more generative, opportunity-driven dialogue about solutions to the Climate Crisis.

The Net-Zero Recommendations from the Committee for Climate Change (CCC) are being advanced into law because this highly detailed, clearly-articulated plan stayed focussed in the realm of the achievable, and because it is underpinned with a faith in humanity to find creative solutions as we evolve our way out of this emergency.

But this highly celebrated new legislation presents a formidable challenge to millions of UK businesses.  All too soon, there will be new regulatory measures to ensure that everyone does their part to meet the Net Zero targets. Does your organisation know what that journey looks like?  How nimble is your supply chain? How might you engage, educate and inspire your team to be part of the movement of UK businesses committed to achieving Net Zero?

Start with presumed success.
Net-Zero provides an opportunity to be solution orientated and avoid spending too much time focused on the problem. I don’t think I’m the only planner who has wasted countless hours in meetings where each decision-maker felt it necessary to put their own particular spin on the challenges and barriers. With everyone in the room so bogged down in the constraints, most suggestions lead to only incremental gains (and the hardest problems rarely get tackled).

The best part of zero-sum goals is that you can start the planning process accepting that you will have to solve 100% of the problems.  So, there’s no need to start with battling over where to start.  Instead, take your teams on a backward-looking journey.  Begin in the year 2050 and instil the inherent belief that you’ve already successfully implemented the solutions.  What might they look like?

Look around corners and allow space for inspiration.
Only ten years ago most of the energy solutions presented in the Net Zero plan were not feasible. Problems with battery size, storage, and cost made the idea of global electrification of vehicles entirely laughable, but today, BloombergNEF forecasts that it will be cheaper to own and operate an electric car (vs. petrol or diesel) by 2022. And that timeline is turbocharged – in 2018, that predicted crossover date was 2026; meaning that improved technology has already shaved four years off the delivery time.

As you and your team start building your future Net Zero plans, remember to keep looking ahead and around you.  What new innovations and technologies are set to influence your infrastructure? How might pre-competitive collaboration speed up systemic solutions in your industry? What success stories (inside AND outside your field) can you highlight to spark creativity and innovation in your own teams?

Connect the work to a higher purpose.
67% of employees around the world expect their employer to have a social purpose, and for their job to have a meaningful impact. Given the current trajectory, I expect that number will continue to rise. Positive societal impact will become a significant differentiator for organisations, enabling them to attract and retain the best talent.

Let’s not kid ourselves, in order to survive and thrive in the next few decades, 100% of UK businesses will need to make seismic shifts.  Plenty won’t make it. So, spend your time where it counts, connecting your sustainability strategy (including Net Zero objectives) directly into your company’s raison d’être.

Set clear, measurable targets, and then have faith in people to achieve them.
For so many companies out there, the idea of navigating their teams to Net Zero in just over 30 years is entirely overwhelming. A bit like trying to get from Sao Paulo to Helsinki on foot. Without a map. Or money. Or shoes.

It’s important to remember you are not alone on this journey. There is a planet full of active collaborators, all working to solve similar problems and armed with the knowledge you need. Ask for help. Find trusted advisors to help you devise targets that are rooted in rock solid methodology. Arm your teams with education, set parameters for external collaboration, and you might be surprised to see the ground-breaking solutions that can result.

The groundswell of positive, business engagement with climate change over the past year and a half has me positively giddy. In just the last two months, I have sat in rooms with giants of industry – key decision makers at global energy providers, air and ground transport, and global banks. Each one of them leaning forward in positive anticipation of this legislation. Signing Net-Zero 2050 into law means more UK jobs, more investment capital for renewable infrastructures, and more opportunities for industrial and political leadership in the UK at a time when we desperately need to build back our strength.

We will achieve Net Zero not just because we must.

But because we can.

Photo credit: Paul Skorupskas

Four months in and 2019 already feels like a landmark year for corporate sustainability. 2018 was defined by the issue of plastics and 2019 is surely going to be remembered as the year we collectively woke up to the realities of climate change and the urgent need to act.

Forget about short-termism and incrementalism, and any other ‘ism’, it’s all about Net Zero. In short, if Net Zero was a racehorse (it’s actually a great name for a horse…), you’d surely put your house on it. And here’s why.

We’re used to hearing about tipping points in this sector, mostly associated with climate change and environmental degradation. But it feels like we’ve reached a series of other crucial tipping points this year and these will have a profound and lasting impact on business. I’m talking about the political, social and economic tipping points associated with climate change.

Two weeks ago, the Committee on Climate Change delivered its long-waited recommendations to UK Government, unequivocally suggesting that the UK follows a path to Net Zero emissions by 2050 as its contribution to stop global warming – and, by the way, setting out a hopeful and realistic plan to do so. In the same week, Wales, Scotland and then UK Parliament itself passed a motion to declare a climate emergency. For the first time in years, the political headlines weren’t about Brexit. Even the first question on Question Time was on climate change. And that’s before we consider movements calling for a Green New Deal in both the UK and the US. Make no mistake, sooner than you think, climate change is going to be front and centre of every political decision affecting every sector, business and city in the UK.

Of course, political parties also need to win popular support. And public concern about climate change has reached a record high , with a majority of voters indicating they would now support radical political action to address climate change , even taking into account the costs. This is thanks in large part to something of a social revolution, most notably the Extinction Rebellion protests and the inspiring, straight-talking Greta Thunberg who has led the international movement of school students to strike for climate. Add to that the David Attenborough effect, with the BBC (incredibly as it is to say this) beaming its first documentary showing the reality of climate change and its impacts on the world into our homes. Even Bafta has called for more plot lines and references to climate change on TV to help tackle the issue . This has all contributed to behaviour change and consumer consciousness going mainstream, which in turn will profoundly disrupt every sector. It will also mean huge public scrutiny on business – expect those companies not seen to be aligning their ambitions with these changing values to be quickly called out.

And let’s consider the economics for a moment. Money ultimately flows towards opportunity and away from risk. We already know that the UK low carbon economy is significantly outperforming the wider underlying economy. Elsewhere, the cost of renewable energy is now starting to dip below fossil fuel generation , and prices are coming down all the time . Battery technology is advancing apace and prices are tumbling, a trend that is predicted to accelerate. It seems that market forces are lining up behind the low carbon revolution. Add to this that investor scrutiny is turning on those companies exposed to climate risk or reliant on fossil fuels with no plan to transition. This too goes to the very heart of how companies create value for shareholders.

So, use this as momentum to engage and agitate in your business to start planning your pathway to Net Zero. It’s where the smart money is now.

The damaging impacts of climate change are indisputably already being felt today. Thanks largely to the IPCC, we now fully understand the urgency of limiting temperature rises as quickly as possible. As we stand, the UK has experienced one of its warmest, driest winters to date and is forecast to exceed existing carbon targets in 2025 and 2030. Dramatic change at speed has never been more necessary, and last week we witnessed that the tides may be turning.

Last Wednesday, following months of climate protests across the UK and globally, Parliament passed a motion declaring an “environment and climate crisis.” It makes the UK the first state in the world to declare a climate emergency, in theory placing climate change at the very centre of every political decision made in this country.

Following hot on the heels of this declaration is the Committee on Climate Change’s much-anticipated report stating that the UK must immediately set a legally binding target to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. If the UK heeds this recommendation, which it is expected to, it will place the UK as a global leader in combating carbon.

The Recommendations

“The Committee on Climate Change’s report and recommendations mark a new dawn for climate change action in the UK.”  – Rain Newton-Smith, CBI Chief Economist

‘Net Zero’, as the report is titled, refers to reaching zero carbon emissions by 2050. It means dramatically reducing all emissions, and for those unavoidable emissions, balancing the amount emitted with equivalent emissions that are either offset or sequestered. This differs from zero carbon, which requires no carbon emitted as its key criteria.

Crucially, the CCC target includes flying, shipping and all greenhouse gases, whilst allowing no offsetting of emissions abroad. This make it the toughest of any major economy to date.

Hitting zero emissions by 2050 will require a leap in the ambition of government policy, particularly in areas such as heating and transport. It will mean the end of petrol and diesel cars and gas boilers, less meat in our diets, quadrupling clean electricity generation and planting an estimated 1.5 billion trees.

Whilst this may seem a daunting task, the CCC also confirmed what many in our sector already know. The UK possesses the technical capabilities, natural resources, and financial capital to deliver all the key pillars of a net-zero economy within this timeframe. The foundations are already in place, and many of the technologies and systems required are already in development.

Encouragingly, nothing about the report seems impossible. All scenarios are firmly rooted in technological, economic, and political reality. Further still, the Committee believes the recommendations could be achieved within the same cost envelope (1-2% of GDP) as the current, less-ambitious Climate Change Act. And this is before even considering countless benefits such as health, green economy growth and many more.

What does this mean for business?

Reaching net zero by mid-century will require a series of paradigm shifts happening in unison across all sectors of the economy. It will touch every business, small and large. Expectations and subsequent scrutiny on business to align ambitions to UK Government and support this monumental transition will inevitably increase.

Two sectors facing the biggest challenges due to their current reliance on fossil fuels are Transport and Home Building and Heating.

Transport

This sector, which currently accounts for a quarter of UK emissions, will see dramatic changes by mid-century. Transport is already undergoing a transformation with a number of existing targets in place at a policy level, such as the ban on the sales of new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2040.

But the CCC argues they don’t go nearly far enough. It recommends moving this phase-out nearly two decades earlier, to 2025. It also recognises that these cars will still require a lot of electricity – clean electricity. Therefore, clean power generation will need to quadruple by 2050 to meet new demand, and more big storage will also be needed.

Aviation, currently the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, is also included in the CCC targets. Further behind the automobile industry in terms of low-carbon technology, expansion will likely have to be limited, with potential aviation growth dependent on airlines cutting their emissions per flight and introducing electric planes.

Home Building and Heating

At present hugely reliant on natural gas for heating, this sector requires radical, systemic transformation. Homes account for 22% of the UK’s CO2 emissions. Yet since 2012, there has been a 95% reduction in installation of energy efficiency measures in UK homes – this is a trend which needs to be reversed very quickly.

The CCC recommends that no new home should be connected to the gas grid after 2025. Natural gas will need to be replaced – electrification will be an important part of this but the CCC also recognises that a low-carbon alternative gas such as Hydrogen is part of the solution. Building this infrastructure and capability would also support decarbonisation in other sectors such as transport.

Final thoughts

The headline benefits of a zero-carbon economy are obvious. But beyond leading the way in preventing the catastrophic impacts of climate change, we can also expect to see huge benefits to people’s health from better air quality, less noise thanks to quieter vehicles, more active lifestyles, heathier diets, and increased recreational benefits from changes to land use.

In addition, the UK will receive an industrial boost as it leads the way in low-carbon products and services. We have both a responsibility and an opportunity to lead the decarbonisation of the economy, and the CCC’s Net Zero Report provides an evidence-based, hopeful, and (most importantly) achievable blueprint to follow. Aligning corporate strategies to the aim of achieving net zero is surely the only sensible commercial response.

Our clients often come to us with similar challenges. They’re looking to develop a new sustainability programme or improve what’s already in place. Yet they don’t know where to start. It’s either too complicated or they’re over-stretched. Often both.

Within the companies, there might be a variety of more obvious initiatives in place. Either to meet compliance or that have been established by passionate employees.

But frequently, things have stagnated and these no longer meet the growing demands of customers, partners and colleagues on an ever-increasing range of topics. Or they’ve noticed there are more sustainability-related regulations to keep up with. In short, these companies know they need to do something but they need some help in getting started.

This is where a sustainability audit comes into its own. Done well, it’s a quick, easy and inexpensive way of understanding how your business stacks up against best practice across a broad range of areas – from energy, water and waste to employee practices and programmes, and everything in between.

However, when companies hear the word ‘audit’, they often think of a long, tediously painful exercise, with an under-compassionate ‘expert’ asking them to dig up details of things long since disregarded. Whereas here, there is almost no prep work involved for the company. And the audit that we have developed is done in half a day, during which we use a set of questions as a framework for friendly discussion to find out how sustainability is applied. We’re not there to judge or debate, simply to understand what is already happening.

An audit like this also doesn’t need to go into excessive detail on any of the topic areas. For instance, we’re not there to scrutinise data or the content of policies but to understand if data is captured and monitored or policies are in place and actively applied. This is the information we take away, applying a score against each criteria which enables you to quickly understand your relative strengths and areas for improvement. Scoring is done relative to best practice, taking a company’s size and sector into account. And the tool we’ve developed can be applied to any company in any sector, whether an SME looking to start or a larger organisation with a more established approach.

Crucially, we then develop tailored and targeted recommendations to address gaps and improve performance in each area, with a clear view of what should be prioritised. This concrete set of actions can quickly and easily be pulled into a plan, saving time and fuss.

It isn’t easy to know where to start when you’re under-resourced and overwhelmed with information and competing priorities. But with the right tool at the right time, a sustainability audit will cut through the complexity and show you the way forward.

If you would like to find out more about our sustainability audit service, please do get in touch.

The evidence is clear, society faces a seemingly insurmountable task: to rapidly transform our economic system to operate within the earth’s social and ecological thresholds, whilst at the same time meeting the needs of all humanity. We need to accelerate progress towards a Green, Inclusive and Open Economy – one which is regenerative and redistributive by design.

The current pace of business action – CSR, ESG and incremental gains – although needed and heading in the right direction is not sufficient in terms of scale, scope or pace to create the necessary change. Indeed, these efforts often fail to address the sustainability of actions, instead focusing on indicators and impacts without placing them in the necessary context. All in all, these efforts result in plateaued ambition, incremental changes, or ‘doing less bad’, without catalysing transformational change.

I was lucky enough to attend Part One of Reporting 3.0’s Transformation Journey Program in Amsterdam – Basecamp, kindly hosted by global financial services provider ING. The Transformation Program, mirrored by others around the world, aims to accelerate progress towards a Green, Inclusive and Open Economy. It aims to fill the gap in organisation’s plateauing ambition, and accelerate the transformation towards what is needed.

Drawing on Ray Anderson’s famous metaphor in which he speaks of climbing Mt. Sustainability, the Reporting 3.0 Program is working its way up towards Mt. ThrivAbility, providing the context and guidance necessary for organisation’s to reach the peak. Here, a business is balancing all of humanities wellbeing within the means of one planet – no small achievement!

Below, I explore a few key learnings on what’s needed to reach the peak:

Finding your North Star

Backcasting is the planning method which starts with designing a desirable future, and then works backwards to identify the policies and programmes which will connect that future to the present. The fundamental question it asks is “if we want to attain a certain goal, what actions must be taken to get there?”.

We are very trained in forecasting, and the implications of where we are going. Looking into the future and identifying what is demonstrably necessary – your North Star – introduces new trajectories and necessary preconditions to achieve your long term goals. Rather than taking steps that are merely a continuation of the present, you are working towards the future which is needed.

Liberate the transformational power of reporting

Done well, it is clear that reporting has the power to drive transformational change. Unfortunately, reporting is often seen as the glossy booklet which comes at the end of the year, not all the (important!) processes in-between. Reporting 3.0, with its mission to help catalyse the trigger-function of reporting to spur the emergence of a regenerative and inclusive global economy, is out to change this view and turn reporting back into the powerful tool which it is.

People have often felt that the platform does so much more than reporting, and is misleadingly named, however once we see reporting as the strategic process which it is, it begins to make more sense. It is a journey which starts and ends with a report, but everything in-between is part of this all-encompassing journey.

The takeaway is simple. If done well, reporting and everything it involves has the ability to catalyse systems change.

Bridging the context gap

We need a much better understanding of underlying ecological and social thresholds and norms – in other words, the carrying capacities of the resources we need for society and the environment to survive and thrive. Kate Raworth’s Doughnut is a great visualisation of this. Only with this understanding, can companies set meaningful targets based on allocations or shares that are fair, just and proportionate.

We have seen the beginning of this with Science-Based Targets, but to drive transformative change we need to apply this to everything else (for example, the UNGP’s as social norms). And, we need a platform coordinating and regulating these efforts. This is where Reporting 3.0’s Global Thresholds & Allocations Council (GTAC) comes in. Building on efforts to establish science-based targets, GTAC will identify thresholds & norms for sustaining the carrying capacities of capitals (that is, the doughnut), design and validate allocation methodologies (the pie), and create off-the-shelf solutions.

This approach is much needed to take us from an inherent incrementalism to a more normative and transformational change.

Mono- to multi-capitalist

Multicapitalism starts with a critique of mono-capitalism. The extensive use of financial capital as a proxy for other capitals is clearly faulty – the state of collapse in our social and natural environments has shown this.

During our time in Amsterdam, we were lucky to hear from Michel Scholte, Executive Director at True Price. Everything we buy leaves a trace, and often natural (e.g. air pollution) and social costs (e.g. extremely low wages) are involved yet not accounted for in the price. True Price has made it its mission to expose the true price of products, and guide organisations and consumers to use this knowledge to inform change. This is just one example of how we can begin to understand how companies create value beyond the financial.

Reflections

It is clear that the rate and complexity of environmental and social change poses unique challenges, and developing ways to address these challenges demands innovation, flexibility, and the capacity to think across existing disciplinary boundaries. The Transformation Journey Program, and indeed all of Reporting 3.0’s work, cuts across these boundaries and has resulted in some truly innovative thinking, which when applied to business has the potential to drive transformational change.

The IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C has laid out in very stark terms what is required to keep global average temperature rise below 1.5C and avoid the worst impacts of runaway climate change. Realistically, it may be the last warning and chance we have to turn this around.

Although there are causes for optimism, the scale of change required is unprecedented and we must all – policymakers, businesses and individuals – redouble our efforts. The report calculates that a 1.5C warming trajectory would require the global economy to cut greenhouse gas emissions by around 45 per cent between 2010 and 2030, before then delivering a net zero emissions economy by 2050.

So how can companies use this report?

• First and foremost, read it, understand it and get the headlines onto the Board’s agenda;
• This is the latest science – embrace science-based targets for long-term emissions reductions, striving for net zero emissions by 2050 or earlier;
• Talk the language of business and use the report as impetus to start disclosing and understanding climate change as a financial risk to the business;
• If you haven’t got one, speak to people across the business to develop a detailed climate risk register;
• Use the scenarios outlined here to analyse how different levels of climate change will impact the business in the future;
• Develop your climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies that respond to the above.

The Government has a number of policies in place to encourage organisations to invest in energy efficiency and drive decarbonisation. Coming into effect in April 2019, The Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) is part of a package of changes announced in the March 2016 budget which aims to simplify the current policy landscape.

Last month, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published the Government’s response to the consultation on SECR, which closed in January last year. An impact assessment has also been published. The government response and impact assessment can be found here.

The current policy landscape

Presently, the policy landscape is complex and hard to navigate, with companies facing a significant administrative burden by the overlapping suite of requirements.

To summarise the key existing policies:

• The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, introduced in 2016, requires over 5000 eligible business and public sector organisations to annually report UK energy use and purchase allowances to cover their carbon emissions. All emissions are published by the Environment Agency. The current phase of the scheme covers emissions until March 2019, after which it will be abolished.
• The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) requires ‘large’ undertakings to audit their energy use. Whilst this includes elements of reporting, it does not include public disclosure.
• Mandatory GHG reporting (MGHG reporting) already applies to all UK quoted companies, but only delivers transparency of carbon data, and only for around 1000 companies.
• Many businesses voluntarily participate in reporting schemes such as the CDP, TCFD, and use international standards such as ISO 50001, GHG Protocol, ISO 14064-1, EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), and Climate Change Agreements (CCAs). Some of these publish emission data, however, this is often done at the level of installations (EU ETS), or target units (CCA), not whole businesses.

Despite the number of reporting requirements, environmental data included in companies’ strategic reports remain far from a comprehensive set of corporate energy and emissions data. The outcomes of the consultation suggested that this package of policies is too complex and that more could be done to bring together and disclose information.

In comes the SECR

In response, the UK government has proposed to introduce a Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting system through reforms that reduce the administrative burden of compliance when compared to the current landscape.

The SECR will require large UK companies to publicly report on their energy use, carbon emissions and energy efficiency actions. It will replace the reporting aspects of the CRC, with a simple framework which builds on and combines elements of existing mechanisms such as MGHG. It also proposes to include a narrative section on energy efficiency actions taken in the financial year and cites the potential to use ESOS outputs in the streamlined reporting approach.

Crucially, it will be implemented through the mechanism of directors reports within annual company accounts, rather than requiring additional filings with Companies House or another regulator (as is currently the case).

In the recently published Impact Assessment, the Government estimates that the simplification package is likely to save business £20m per year in administration costs, and cut non-traded greenhouse gas emissions by 5 million tonnes, and traded emissions by 7.9 million tonnes. It is one of the largest carbon saving measures in the Clean Growth Strategy.

Who will qualify for the SECR?

The new SECR reporting framework will have a much wider remit than the existing CRC and is estimated to extend the number of companies that report the SECR information from around 1,200 to 11,900.

• It will apply to all quoted companies.
• It will apply to large UK incorporated unquoted companies which meet certain criteria within a financial year. These are having at least 250 employees or annual turnover greater than £36m and an annual balance sheet total greater than £18m.
• To reduce the complexity and administrative burden, UK subsidiaries that qualify for SECR will not be required to report if they are covered by a parent’s group report.
• There is also potential for voluntary participation.

In August 2017, the Chinese Government announced a ban on the import of 24 types of materials (including plastic and mixed paper), following intense campaigns within the country against “foreign waste”. In April of this year, China issued a list of an additional 16 materials to be banned by the end of 2018, and another 16 by the end of 2019.

For the UK, the Chinese ban is particularly pertinent. Given that Britain does not have the infrastructure to recycle and process all of its waste, particularly plastic, it has continued dispatching it abroad after the implementation of the ban. Millions of tons of waste have been sent to other countries, particularly Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam – which are in the top ten for the quantity of plastics entering the ocean – and Turkey. Not only is there concern about where this waste actually ends up, but these countries are now looking to implement bans themselves, with severe implications for Britain.

Later this year, the UK Government is expected to publish its new Waste and Resources Strategy, which will address the Chinese ban and suggest how Britain will meet the ambitious targets set in its 25 Year Environment Plan: zero avoidable waste by 2050 and eliminating avoidable plastic waste by the year 2042. The UK has also adopted the EU Circular Economy Package, with a target of recycling 65% of municipal waste, recycling 75% of packaging waste by 2030 and reducing landfill to a maximum of 10% of all waste by 2030.

In this complicated scenario, businesses will need to be prepared to face much more challenging regulations and expectations, and develop comprehensive waste and resources strategies in response that lead to significantly different ways of working.

Having supported many businesses in the development and implementation of such strategies, here are our 5 key principles, to ensure the success of your strategy:

1. If you can’t measure it, you can’t control it

You will need to fully understand your current waste footprint: what materials your business is using, how much waste you are producing and where waste ends up. Having data available will allow you to gain management buy-in and to make informed decisions about your future waste management approach.

2. Collaborate with your suppliers

Businesses have a Duty of Care for the waste they produce and must take reasonable steps to ensure that waste is managed properly. A breach of Duty of Care can lead to unlimited fines and significant reputational damage.

Collaborate with your suppliers to understand how waste is generated and disposed of and to identify opportunities for; using alternative materials, reducing material usage at the source, simplifying the materials used; reusing materials where possible. These actions will increase the circularity of your waste management streams.

3. Engage with key external stakeholders

Waste and plastic usage is now a high profile and emotive issue. Be prepared to initiate conversations with key external stakeholders, particularly customers, around waste and what your business could do to meet their expectations. For companies producing products, it is essential to understand where packaging ends up.

Focus groups, interviews, feedback cards, surveys and social media are all excellent catalysts for innovative ideas and opportunities to integrate their considerations into your approach and demonstrate your commitment to the issue.

4. Enthuse your employees

Working together for a common goal is a key pillar of any business strategy. Thus, involving your employees when developing and implementing your strategy is going to be a critical success factor. Depending on the nature of the business, you will be heavily reliant on certain functions such as procurement, R&D and marketing to deliver anything meaningful.

More broadly, aim to recruit enthusiastic individuals through employee engagement programs and enable them to support your staff to reduce, reuse and recycle effectively and implement key waste management initiatives for the delivery of your strategy.

5. Avoid knee-jerk reactions

Avoid choosing what seems like an easy option without carefully evaluating the trade-offs involved in different initiatives. For instance, it may seem like an easy win to replace plastic with compostable items, but in the absence of facilities to deal with compostable waste, these items are likely to be treated as general waste and to end up in landfill, potentially offsetting the financial and environmental benefits of your initiative.

Evaluate all of your options carefully, instead of taking the easy way out.

The Chinese ban and the UK’s response will doubtless raise challenges but will also open up new opportunities for businesses. A well-designed and comprehensive waste and resources strategy will support a business to prevent waste from being generated as well as supporting it to measure, control and report on its footprint. Not only is this the right thing to do but it’s good for business – Defra, for example, found that easy-wins alone could save businesses £3bn per year – and will ultimately ensure your company is responding to stakeholder and UK Government priorities amid rapidly changing expectations.

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