Barley Communications share their experience of carbon reduction as a small business

Many businesses need a carbon reduction plan, but time, budget and resources can make it hard to prioritise, or even harder to know where to start. Whilst at Reset Connect for London Climate Action Week, people joined the Giki event where our co-founder, Jo Hand shared some top tips and actions on how to navigate these challenges quickly, with confidence and minimal cost.

We spoke with Laura Harrison, Head of Sustainability at Barley Communications, who shared their carbon reduction journey. The challenges, practical actions, and lessons learnt along the way.

Step 1 Measurement  

Laura, What drove you to start measuring your carbon footprint? 

It sounds obvious, but it’s difficult to gauge how we’re meeting our carbon reduction goals without first measuring our carbon footprint. More and more of the new business opportunities we go for require this information, which is really great to see. And as a purpose-driven agency that's delivered many environmental campaigns, it's imperative that we show leadership here.  

What were the biggest challenges you faced during measurement? 

Measuring a company's carbon footprint is complex and seems to get more so the further you drill down into it. There's a lot of jargon to get your head around, conflicting advice, and murkiness around things like offsetting. I found the technical aspects quite overwhelming at times, and I already work in the sustainability sector, so I can imagine it's even harder for others. 

You work differently from traditional agencies. How did that affect your measurement? 

From the start, Barley's been a fully virtual agency without a physical office, which is a major factor in our company's comparatively low carbon emissions. This means we don't actually have Scope 1 or 2 emissions. No building, so no heating, electricity, water use, waste, and no commuting emissions either as our team members work from home. We're just focusing on Scope 3 emissions which is the tricky one.

How did you measure your carbon footprint? 

We worked with an external organisation to measure our carbon footprint which was  mostly based on financial data which is standard practice initially. Our next measurement will include a bit more physical data which will make it more meaningful.

Step 2 Carbon Reduction 

Sustainability seems to be built into Barley's DNA. What were you already doing? 

Sustainability has been in Barley's DNA right from the beginning - which is why we don't have an office and we don’t commute. It was a big part of the reason we work this way. There are also lots of things we put in place early on, including: 

• Choosing a green company pension provider (we use Nest) 
• Moving to more sustainable web hosting and significantly reducing the carbon emissions of our website 
• Creating a strong environmental policy for things like purchasing

Because of this, setting a reduction target is quite a challenge for us as we aren’t going to see huge shifts like other organisations might, as we're at a different starting point and have already done a lot of the work.  

What's your target and which areas does it focus on? 

Reducing our Scope 3 emissions by 90% by 2050 is a significant undertaking, especially when we're starting from a low baseline. It heavily depends on our supply chain and technology advancements, so a lot of it is out of our control.  We are currently measuring our carbon footprint for 2024-2025 and in the meantime, we’re focusing on the actions that are important to us and where we feel we can make the biggest impact.

What specific actions have you taken since measuring? 

We've used Giki Actions to prioritise our reduction actions and have taken the following so far: 

• We’re currently rebuilding our website to make it even more energy efficient.
• Writing to our suppliers asking for their carbon reporting data and putting that pressure on so that collectively it'll make a difference. 
• Being very careful about where we procure products from, these need to be as ethical and sustainable as possible. 
• Putting our old devices to good use through Community Calling. An initiative run by Hubbub where devices get refurbished and given to people who are digitally excluded. 

How do you handle carbon reductions around meetings or travel? 

Even as a virtual team, meeting up in person is important. When we meet face to face as a team, we generally use meeting spaces run with values similar to ours. We also think carefully about locations, so they don't involve people having to travel too far and strongly encourage using public transport or active travel like walking or cycling.

What about engaging staff and getting them involved? 

We're in the process of planning staff and freelancer training with tips and quick wins, particularly on how to reduce their digital footprint and sharing best practice when it comes to file optimisation, changing to green energy tariffs, etc. 

We also do volunteer days with staff - from making stag beetle habitats in a park in Southwark for the RSPB to helping Plan Zheroes sign up more businesses to distribute surplus food. 

Some of these actions wouldn't be captured in your carbon footprint measurements, despite being really valuable. 

When you're a small business, there is a danger of spending a lot of time and resource agonising over how to measure things that don't have a big impact, so that's something to be mindful of. 

Key Recommendations for SMEs Just Starting Out 

What would be your top recommendations for other small businesses just beginning their carbon reduction journey? 

• Share the load. Have a small team dedicated to moving things forward, that way you're more likely to schedule in a catch-up, refocus and set deadlines, as it's incredibly easy to let things slip, particularly if you work in a client service industry. Make sure responsibilities lie with the right skillset, having someone in finance involved on the data side, office manager for procurement, etc.
  

• Get sustainability on the board agenda and don't let it slip off the bottom. Make a guest appearance in board meetings or find an ambassador on the board to support you. I really liked how on Giki Actions, business rationale is set out under each action. This provides the information behind the actions, plus the benefits and cost-saving potential too. All powerful information to take to the board to get approval.
  

• Embed it in your culture. Get sustainability actions written into job descriptions and personal development plans, it really helps bring people along. It communicates that this is something we're all part of, not just the sustainability team. 
  

• Don't get overwhelmed. The whole thing can be overwhelming, so perhaps chunk it up and focus on one area at a time and do that well. Go for the low-hanging fruit if possible. There's no point getting your entire team to do one thing when something else is going to have a bigger impact.
  

• Connect with others. I've actually found it really helpful talking to people taking on this role in other organisations. One client told me they're not rushing to set a target that's potentially meaningless, they're doing all they can to reduce their impact on the environment and get better data. Then they'll set a target later, which I thought was interesting and something we're exploring too.
  

• Remember the broader benefits. There are lots of discussions at the moment around people being encouraged or even forced back to the office post-pandemic. I'd encourage people to remember that by encouraging a hybrid or fully work-from-home model, you're not only reducing your carbon footprint, but there's real social value here too.

 Giki Actions helped Barley Communications uncover relevant actions they could take to help their specific business needs. If you'd like to see how Giki Actions can help your business, get in touch.