The report released last week tracks the carbon footprint of Australia’s most popular small businesses in order to help inform business owners how they may better adjust their operations to meet sustainability reporting commitments.
“Small businesses are beginning to face the same pressure [as larger businesses in sustainability reporting],” the report stated.
“With limited access to resources, this could leave them exposed to challenges in access to finance, engagement with suppliers, and customer demand. In the future a small business’s ability to navigate these expectations will be crucial to its survival and success.
“Guidance on measuring the size and composition of their carbon footprint, as well as options to reduce it, will be crucial. Despite this, tools and resources for small businesses remain sparse.”
The report explored the carbon profile of 20 of Australia’s most popular small businesses and the projections used are sourced from Purpose Bureau’s proprietary database, which tracks the carbon credentials of every business in Australia.
According to Purpose Bureau, the two key drivers of a business’s carbon footprint are its dependency on transport and its exposure to the food trade as well as their dependence on traditional supply-chain models.
As a consequence of these factors, businesses with most emissions associated with every $1 revenue earned include butchers, petrol stations and bricklayers.
The report divides the way in which businesses can measure their carbon footprint into three different categories – scope 1 is the direct emissions that occur from the operations and facilities owned by a business, such as from fuel combustion in boilers, furnaces, and vehicles; scope 2 (indirect) are the indirect emissions that occur from the purchase of electricity, steam, heat or cooling; and scope 3 (indirect) are the indirect emissions that occur in activities not controlled by the business. This includes the creation of the goods and services as inputs, but also from the use of its own goods and services by customers.
It found that businesses with the highest carbon footprints with the most scope 1 emissions include furniture removalists, taxi drivers, carpenters and plumbers. Businesses with the highest proportion of scope 2 emissions in their carbon footprint include gyms, accountants, and aged care accommodation, while those with the highest proportion of scope 3 emissions in their carbon footprint include butchers, petrol stations, bricklayers, and clothes stores.
Fresh food stores with a butcher ranked the highest as the most popular small businesses by total carbon footprint for every $1 of firm revenue, as red meat makes up the largest portion of Australia’s agriculture emissions. Not far behind were bricklayers, who use diesel-powered vehicles to transport carbon-heavy building products like cement and bricks.
The lowest-ranked carbon-emitting small businesses were those in the professional services such as accountants who typically have low emissions per dollar of revenue.
The report is the first in a series that are planned to help SMEs by offering solutions to reduce their carbon footprint to meet their ESG commitments.
