Barriers to Climate Action

Barriers To Climate Action Among Tunbridge Wells Businesses

Knowing Where to Start

The most common barrier identified across all businesses attending the Amplifi sector groups was knowing where to start. Whilst many organisations were knowledgeable about climate issues and keen to have an impact, the initial barrier was, and still is, knowing the best way to channel this passion. Many organisations found the sheer scale of resources and information online overwhelming, and thus found it difficult to narrow down a clear path to taking meaningful action.

What came out of discussions was the need for reliable and trusted information to advise on how to start the process of reducing emissions and decarbonising businesses. The phrase ‘one source of truth’ was widely used in reference to identifying trusted and informative information.

Many businesses had already started taking action in the form of installing LEDs, improving insulation where possible, looking into renewable energy tariffs and reviewing general organisational practises. However, once the quick wins were achieved, the wider barrier remained of where to go next and what will have the biggest impact.

Emissions Monitoring

Conducting emissions reports and monitoring emissions over time was highlighted across all sector groups as another key barrier to taking action. Many organisations were unaware of the need for calculating emissions and the process for doing so. As discussed across all sector groups, establishing a baseline emissions report was key to understanding the areas within a business that contribute the most. Thus, understanding a business’s emissions sources was identified as a key barrier to determining next steps and where to focus efforts.

The lack of clear and concise guidance for establishing an emissions report was a significant barrier to businesses in Tunbridge Wells. Without formal training in emissions reporting (understanding scopes one, two and three), or an understanding of where to find key emissions data, both online and within the business, this can be an onerous and time-consuming process.

Emissions reporting and understanding what this data means is a key first step on a business’s journey to climate action. Without knowing how a business releases emissions, the right interventions cannot be identified, and the business simply will not be able to identify the key next steps to climate action.

Time Commitments

As touched upon in the above barrier, time commitments are another barrier to climate action among businesses in Tunbridge Wells. Most businesses do not have dedicated staff resources to support their journey to achieving net zero. As such, climate action is often an add on to other job roles, or limited to, as and when directors or managers have the time to dedicate towards it.

Consequently, without clear guidance, information, and support, it is much harder for businesses (especially small businesses) to find time to deliver climate action.

Building Ownership

For those businesses that do not own their office, lease agreements and landlord relationships pose a significant challenge to climate action. For such businesses, improving the energy efficiency of office space, and even collecting data on energy consumption can be a challenge.

Some of the most significant interventions a business can deliver to reduce emissions, include improving the thermal efficiency of their office space and moving away from gas consumption. As a leaseholder, there is often not much that can be done to deliver such interventions. As such, businesses are reliant on landlords making such improvements, which often do not align with climate ambitions.

Building ownership arrangements also have impacts on the ability for some businesses to calculate their emissions, as they do not have access to the required meters to collect key data. As such, emissions baselines cannot be established, and progress cannot be monitored.

Many businesses across all Amplifi sector groups highlighted this as a key barrier to them taking action. Discussions to overcome this barrier included local landlord lobbying, speaking with other businesses using shared office space, and looking into green / climate clauses within leases for future office spaces.

Funding

Funding was widely highlighted as the most significant barrier to businesses taking immediate action to tackle climate change. With businesses already stretched, finding space within budgets to dedicate towards climate projects is difficult. Even changing organisational practises and looking into ‘greener’ products has an increased financial burden. Therefore, finding the required funding to get started with projects, such as improving energy efficiency calculating emissions and or implementing staff incentives can be challenging.

Whilst, many measures that have a positive climate impact, also can help reduce organisational running costs (energy efficiency improvements for example). Having the capital up front to make such changes is again a barrier to organisations taking action.

It was highlighted widely that dedicated support grants from government (local and central) would be welcomed to support businesses on their net zero journeys. It was further highlighted that businesses were not aware of where and how to apply for funding to deliver climate action projects.

Engagement

A further barrier faced by businesses when looking to deliver climate action projects is how they engage with staff and the public. When workers are not fully engaged in the company’s sustainability goals, efforts to reduce emissions can fall short, leading to inconsistent implementation of green practices and a lack of innovation in finding fresh solutions. This disengagement can stem from a lack of awareness, insufficient training, or a perceived disconnect between individual actions and broader environmental impact. Another reason can be the feasibility and ease of implementing greener practices into businesses, due to location, resources, and time being a limiting factor.

Similarly, if consumers are not committed to climate action, businesses may struggle to justify the costs of sustainable practices, fearing that greener products or services might not attract enough market demand. Without public support, businesses may find it challenging to maintain momentum in their decarbonisation efforts, as they struggle to balance and prioritise short-term financial gains over long-term environmental goals.