Getting Started: Creating a climate action plan and setting reduction targets

Last week we held our third and final Getting Started session, part of three introductory sessions to help guide a small group of Bristol organisations with starting their climate action journey. In this session participants explored how to set carbon reduction targets and create a climate action plan.

The initiative has been possible due to the generous backing of Redcliffe & Temple and City Centre BIDs, who are committed to supporting businesses in the BID areas with reducing their impact on the environment. And it has been developed and delivered with our consultancy partner Eunomia.

Participating organisations range in sizes and sectors, from local coffee roaster Extract Coffee, architects Spratley & Partners, nursery providers Raised In and property consultants DJ Foley.

After the three sessions our cohort of organisations have left with an understanding of the importance of decarbonisation and the key terms involved, a calculated carbon footprint, and the beginnings of a climate action plan. Here are the key takeaways from this final session:

The importance of a climate action plan

A climate action plan sets the strategic direction for organisational emission reduction over a set period of time – it’s a living document that is developed and adapted throughout the process.

The plan will be unique to the organisation creating it. In essence it is a list of actions that will outline the steps needed to reduce emissions in your high emission impact areas. Key features commonly included are:

• An action plan timeline
• The associated costs of the plan
• The stakeholders involved and that need to be consulted
• The dependencies that need to be met to achieve the action steps
• An outline of how progress will be monitored
• A consideration of associated risks

Steps to take before building an action plan

There are five key steps that an organisation needs to take before they can start deciding their actions.

1. Boundary setting. This identifies what you have organisational and operational control over that will be included in the decarbonisation target.
2. Understanding the scale of the challenge. This is an organisation’s carbon footprint.
3. Ambition setting. Also known as setting your decarbonisation target. Targets help motivate action, hold organisations accountable and enable the tracking of progress.
4. Governance. It’s important to involve organisational stakeholders from the beginning of the climate action plan process to ensure sign off and to identify ownership and feasibility of actions.
5. Decide your areas of focus. Prioritise which emission areas that your plan will focus on.

Tip #1: Be ambitious but keep the plan manageable. When first starting out, focus your plan on one or two emission reduction areas and then expand focus over time.

Ambition setting

The overall aim of a decarbonisation target is to reduce emissions as far as possible, with the option to offset hard to reach emissions. It’s important when setting your target that you are transparent about the decisions you make and what is and isn’t included.

The key target decisions to make are:

• Target definition. Is your organisation working towards carbon neutral, net zero or taking a different decarbonisation approach?
• Target year.
• The scale of emission reduction. For example, choosing to exclude hard to reduce emissions from the target.
• Target type. There are a variety of decisions that you can make to tailor the target to your organisational needs, such as creating scope-specific targets (see session two) or setting interim targets as well as long term ones to maintain momentum.

Industry ‘best practice’ sees some organisations aligning with the SBTi Net-Zero Standard – a 90% (or more) reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across scopes 1, 2 and 3, with the remaining emissions offset, with a long term target of 2050. Other targets that can be aligned to include national government or your local authority.

Tip #2: while your target should be ambitious to motivate action, it needs to also be feasible for your organisation. Consider this balance when setting targets and the potential fall out if targets are not met e.g. risk of credibility to clients. Reviewing targets of others in your sector can help guide the level of ambition.

How to start building a plan

Once you have the targets you are working towards, there are three key steps involved in building a climate action plan.

1. Identify interventions. These are the physical things that need to happen to reduce emissions in your priority reduction areas.
2. Engage with colleagues and stakeholders to agree on the interventions required and refine based on feedback.
3. Build detailed actions. These are the steps that need to be taken to achieve the interventions.

Tip #3: When setting actions, ensure that each one has an action owner and that sufficient funding has been allocated.

Sign off and monitoring

Once the plan is in place it’s important decide how you will monitor your actions and adapt the plans if needed. There are two main ways that progress can be tracked:

• Review your carbon footprint on a yearly basis to track emission reduction.
• Track agreed KPIs. This is a good method to identify progress towards decarbonisation if your actions haven’t started to reduce emissions yet.

Additionally, ensure that the plan is signed off by senior leadership, and that the needed resources and funds have been allocated. Create support networks by connecting with other organisations on their decarbonisation journey.

Tip #4: While your target is usually set over a long period of time, your climate action plan should be focused on the short term and adapted / renewed as your organisation progresses, with a maximum period of five years. Most are set for two – three years.

Further tools and reading

• Explore local examples of targets to align with, such as the  Bristol City Council.
• Learn more about how to create an engaging climate action plan with our step-by-step guide.
• Get some action plan inspiration by exploring Bristol Climate Hub‘s directory of climate actions ranking them by impact, effort and cost saving.
• If your organisation is looking for further support on creating a climate action plan, Eunomia has numerous tools available. Contact them for more information.
• Our Climate Action Programme has loads of free, practical resources on a range of topics.

If your organisation is interested in starting your climate action journey, we will be running the Getting Started Programme again next year. Spaces will be limited. To be the first to hear when applications open, make sure to sign up to our free network as a Partnership member.

Sign up

Find out more about the Climate Action Programme