Who wants a coffee?
When Motif signed up to the MRS Net Zero pledge, it wasn’t immediately clear where to start. Motif has always been very conscious of our carbon footprint and even pre-pandemic we encouraged remote meetings. We don’t have the obvious big-ticket items: we don’t manufacture any physical product, not even printed reports. We have very few business flights: most of our work is UK-based and so are our clients. We closed our call centres at the start of the first lockdown and they now operate as a virtual call centre. The majority of our interviews are completed online. Our office in London is open three days a week and all 42 of us are hybrid working. Our electricity supply is on a renewable/nuclear tariff.
So how could we possibly reduce our carbon footprint?
What can an SME do?
As with individuals and households, if we all just shrugged and said "What difference can we make? It's the big polluters that need to be tackled", then nothing would change. Motif is an SME, and there are tens of thousands of SMEs in the UK; so together our actions can have an impact.
When I looked around the office for possible ways to reduce our carbon emissions, my eye was caught by a coffee machine. Most people in the UK still use instant coffee, including in our office; but we do also have a Nespresso machine on each floor for staff and visitors. Surely those pods can't be environmentally friendly?
It's complicated
As with all things net zero, it turned out that the answer is more complicated than it would first appear. Yes, the pods are difficult to recycle. You have to send them back to Nespresso for special processing - and let's be honest, how many people can be bothered with that? As a result, most pods end up in landfill. And even if the pods are recycled, there are still emissions associated with manufacturing them and recycling them.
So, should we be throwing out our Nespresso machines and going back to instant only?
Some people argue that coffee pods are less harmful to the environment than, say, instant, because pods reduce waste. They use exactly the amount of coffee and hot water needed, and no more. The greatest environmental impact from coffee is in the growing and processing of the beans, and boiling the water to make the drink.
But that's not the whole story. Coffee pods need complicated machines with metal and plastic components and electronic wiring and circuit boards. The carbon footprint encapsulated in a coffee machine is big compared with a kettle. If you discard a coffee machine it will be difficult to dismantle and recycle. So, if you have a machine, you should use it, and repair it when it breaks down.
And that's still not the whole story. If you take your coffee with cow's milk, you may be doubling its carbon footprint. Sugar adds yet more emissions. The lowest carbon option is to drink your coffee black, no sugar. Even better, black tea or herbal tea has half the footprint of a black coffee. If you can't do without milk, using a plant milk is a good alternative.
So, what to do in our office?
Now that we have our coffee machines, we will not be discarding them before the end of their lifespan. We send the spent pods off for recycling, rather than chucking them away with the general waste.
When making instant coffee and tea, we have put up posters in the office asking people to boil just enough water, no more. We don't feel that we can impose plant milk although we will supply it - it must remain a personal choice. The important thing is to keep Net Zero in front of people's eyes, to encourage them to make the green choices - not just in their working lives, but in their personal settings as well.
What have we learned from this?
In a service industry setting, it can be difficult to know how to reduce our carbon footprint, and it's easy to think that the difference we make is so small that it's not worth it. But multiply those tiny differences by millions of cups of coffee, millions of people, millions of SMEs - and it all becomes worthwhile.
This just one initiative of many, but it illustrates the level of detail and research we have to do for each identified opportunity. We can think about changing the lighting in our office, but would it be right to replace and discard light fittings before they stop working? We no longer provide printed reports for our clients, but are we neglecting the carbon footprint of our data centre and our portal?
What crystallised all this for me was completing our carbon calculator: we use compareyourfootprint.com. By collecting and compiling all of the inputs, you are automatically forced to consider all the ways that your business is adding to the world's carbon emissions.
My top tips for any business starting on the journey to net zero are:
Be clear why you’re doing this, and what you’re trying to achieve. The whole thing takes time and energy and there is a cost involved – so you need to be committed and not just be doing it for the sake of it. Choose your lead and your team carefully – they have to have the time, energy and headspace to do this.
Get lots of advice and information, but be selective. Seek out industry webinars and linkedin groups because they will be most relevant and helpful. Your bank may also be a good source – they are all very keen to be seen to help. My go-to sources are ethicalconsumer.org, the book How Bad Are Bananas, and the Insight Climate Collective on linkedin. We’ll probably use goldstandard.org for offsetting.
Share information with colleagues and peers. Keep your colleagues up to date with what you’re doing so that any initiatives you put in place are understood and welcome. Share information with the industry and suppliers.
Sign up with a carbon calculator. Everything will fall into place and feel more manageable then. I made several mistakes when I was filling in the carbon calculator – I was counting emissions that were not directly related to our business, and I got into a complete muddle with website dwell times. So it’s important to choose a calculator that includes human support and that’s relevant to your industry.
Make friends with your accounts person and work with your suppliers. You will need to collect a lot of information so allow time for this.
Remember it’s an estimate. You will never get a 100% accurate reading of your emissions. But as long as you’re consistent in how you measure and report your emissions, you will be able to track whether you’re reducing and how close you get to net zero.
Petra van der Heijden, Senior Associate Director
