Why should your business care about its carbon footprint?

Sustainability; how we protect the Earth’s precious resources and slow global warming, is never far from the headlines.

We’re all taking steps at home to make a difference – swopping to an electric-powered car; recycling and reusing more.

But what about in business?

There are great reasons why assessing your business’s impact on the environment through the greenhouse gases it emits – identifying its carbon footprint - makes sense.

• By monitoring your energy use you’ll identify a problem when it arises; recognising where it comes from and putting a solution in place.
• You’ll be able to market yourself as ‘green’ to customers keen to do business with an organisation that matches their sustainability ethos.
• You’ll be able to produce accurate and meaningful Corporate Social Responsibility reports which are required by other businesses to calculate their own emissions and are a key factor in decisions about who to work with.

At Burnley College we’re creating a Low Carbon Hub to help employers understand more about their carbon footprint – and how to reduce it. We’ve accessed funding from the government’s Strategic Development Fund, led by the Lancashire Colleges, with the support of Blackburn College, Lancaster and Morecambe College and West Lancashire College to make this happen.

Plus, we’re supporting a raft of other regional sustainability projects, including those to upskill the construction industry; install air source heat pumps; conserve fuel and power in existing homes and develop renewable options and offsets for zero carbon, as well as the East Lancs Chamber of Commerce Low Carbon project.

Our Low Carbon Hub will be a one-stop source of invaluable information; training and research, offering:

• Workforce and Management Training - to facilitate greater understanding and behavioural change.
• Energy Management – an introduction to the latest equipment, working practices and technologies to help your business reduce its carbon footprint.
• Technology and Monitoring Solutions – understand the energy demands of business through the latest monitoring technology and identify savings.

Talk to me about how we can help your business ‘go green’. Email n.burrows@burnley.ac.uk