Sustainability & ESG
Practical carbon accounting and sustainability support for growing businesses.
Environmental reporting is becoming increasingly relevant to businesses of all sizes. For many SMEs, the pressure is not necessarily coming from legislation directly, but from customers, larger businesses, lenders, investors and tender processes asking for better information about carbon emissions and environmental performance.
At williams lester accountants, we can help businesses understand their carbon footprint, establish a reliable starting point and turn environmental information into something that can actually be measured and managed.
What is carbon accounting?
Carbon accounting is the process of measuring the greenhouse gas emissions associated with a business and its activities.
In much the same way that financial accounting turns transactions into meaningful financial information, carbon accounting takes information about energy use, fuel, travel, purchasing, waste and other business activities and converts it into measurable greenhouse gas emissions.
This gives the business a carbon footprint that can be monitored over time and used to identify where meaningful reductions can be made.
Why should an SME measure its carbon footprint?
For many smaller businesses, carbon accounting may initially feel like something that only large companies need to worry about. That is changing.
Increasingly, businesses are being asked about sustainability and carbon emissions as part of:
- Customer and supplier questionnaires
- Public and private sector tender applications
- Supply-chain requirements from larger organisations
- Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting
- Finance and investment discussions
- Net Zero and carbon reduction commitments
- Internal cost and efficiency reviews
Understanding your carbon footprint can also highlight areas where environmental improvement and financial savings go hand in hand. Reducing energy consumption, fuel usage, waste and unnecessary travel can reduce both emissions and operating costs.
Understanding Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions
Business carbon emissions are generally divided into three categories.
Scope 1 – Direct emissions
These are emissions produced directly by the business, such as fuel used in company vehicles, boilers or other equipment owned or controlled by the organisation.
Scope 2 – Purchased energy
These are emissions associated with electricity, heating or cooling purchased and used by the business.
Scope 3 – The wider supply chain
Scope 3 can include emissions arising from purchased goods and services, employee travel, commuting, waste, deliveries, outsourced activities and other parts of the business’s wider value chain.
For many SMEs, Scope 3 is the most challenging area to measure. The aim should be to develop useful and proportionate information rather than making the exercise unnecessarily complicated.
How we can help
Our approach is designed to make carbon accounting manageable for owner-managed businesses and SMEs.
Establish your carbon footprint
We can help identify the information required and establish a baseline carbon footprint for your business.
Collect and organise the data
Much of the information needed for carbon accounting already exists within your accounting records, utility bills, mileage information, purchasing systems and other business records. We can help bring this information together into a usable format.
Measure emissions
We can help translate business activity into meaningful carbon information, including appropriate consideration of Scope 1, Scope 2 and relevant Scope 3 emissions.
Identify opportunities for improvement
Once a baseline has been established, the next stage is to identify where realistic reductions can be made and which areas deserve the greatest attention.
Monitor progress
Just as management accounts allow a business to monitor financial performance, regular carbon reporting can help track environmental performance against an agreed baseline.
Support tenders and customer requests
Where customers, contractors or larger organisations request carbon or sustainability information, we can help you understand what information is required and prepare the underlying data.
Carbon accounting should be part of good business management
We do not see sustainability as something that should sit entirely separately from the financial management of a business.
Many of the activities that generate carbon emissions also generate costs. Energy, fuel, transport, materials, waste and inefficient processes all have both an environmental and a financial impact.
Combining financial information with carbon information can therefore help business owners make better-informed decisions and identify areas where greater efficiency benefits both the business and the environment.
Carbon Literacy trained 
David Poole has undertaken Carbon Literacy training and holds Carbon Literacy certification through The Carbon Literacy Project.
The training covers the science and impact of climate change, individual and organisational carbon footprints, and the practical actions businesses and individuals can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This additional knowledge complements our accounting and business advisory experience and enables us to help SMEs approach carbon accounting from a practical commercial perspective.
A proportionate approach for SMEs
Carbon accounting does not need to become an enormous corporate reporting exercise.
For most SMEs, the sensible starting point is to establish what can reasonably be measured, understand the most significant sources of emissions and build from there.
Our aim is to help you create useful information that supports better decisions rather than producing reports simply for the sake of reporting.
Want to understand your business’s carbon footprint?
If customers, tender requirements or your own sustainability objectives are making carbon reporting more important to your business, talk to us about how we can help you establish a practical starting point.