By Duncan Lochhead, Commercial Sustainability Manager at Dulux Decorator Centre.

The past year has been a landmark for climate change.

World leaders united at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, regarded as the “last, best hope” for limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees, while devastating extreme weather events have destroyed towns and communities across Europe.

If companies weren’t assessing their own carbon footprint and setting out plans to limit their CO2 emissions before 2021, they will certainly be thinking about it now.

In June 2019, the UK parliament became the first national government to pass legislation requiring the country to reduce net emissions of greenhouse gases by 100% relative to 1990 and, in effect, become a Net Zero country by 2050.

Since then, organisations across every industry have announced Net Zero targets of their own, with ambitious strategies to reach that goal.

It’s important that businesses take meaningful steps to reduce their CO2 emissions. Not only is it the right thing to do, it’s also essential to retain customers. As consumers become increasingly concerned about the climate emergency, they will choose to support businesses that reflect their beliefs and values.

The government has recently published guidance on how it would like the public sector to cascade that Net Zero ambition down onto service providers tendering for work in the public sector, whether that be social housing, education, health, defence or construction.

The government’s Public Procurement Note (PPN) 06/21 asks its organisations carrying out public sector procurement to apply the PPN’s requirements when procuring goods, services or works with an anticipated average value above £5m per annum to projects advertised on or after 30 September 2021.

According to the PPN’s requirements, suppliers must commit to achieving Net Zero by 2050 for their UK operations, provide current emissions, provide a Carbon Reduction Plan (CRP) and publish the CRP on the company’s website.

In some instances, some clients are putting out tenders for Net Zero projects and contractors need to be prepared to handle these new requests.

So, it’s crucial that painting contractors start measuring their own carbon impact, put together and publish a CRP and position themselves to take advantage of the market shift towards Net Zero.

Whether a contractor’s work is primarily in the public sector or not, the government’s suggested Carbon Reduction Plan template is a good place to start. By following the template, contractors can:

1. Commit to Net Zero
2. Report existing emissions
3. State emissions reduction targets
4. List carbon reduction initiatives that will help your company reduce emissions and reach Net Zero

When mapping emissions, there are some useful modelling tools available that have been designed specifically for SMEs. Free-to-access tools include the government’s carbon calculator, the SME Carbon Footprint Calculator from The Carbon Trust, and a carbon calculator for supply chains from the Supply Chain Sustainability School.

The next step for contractors is to list the most impactful activities they are currently undertaking or are looking to implement in the future. Setting a roadmap to reach Net Zero by a specific date can help contractors categorise plans into short, medium and long term goals in a CRP.

Examples of activities contractors can commit to include: switching to lower carbon paints; reducing waste; encouraging clients to move to more durable paint systems; reducing the carbon impact of company offices and transport fleet and switching to a 100% renewable electricity supplier or tariff.

To help contractors reach their emissions targets, Dulux Decorator Centre has strengthened its commitment to making it as simple as possible for contractors to act responsibly and sustainably.

At Dulux Decorator Centre stores across the UK, contractors can also take advantage of the free-of-charge can recycling scheme, switch from caulk in plastic tubes to the foil-packed equivalent, and access the carbon-capturing solutions offered through partner Graphenstone.

There are also a number of low carbon Dulux Trade solutions available at Dulux Decorator Centre, including the Dulux Trade Airsure range, Dulux Trade Evolve Matt - made with 35% recycled content and comes in at 11% lower carbon¹ - and the Dulux Trade Quick Dry range for trim paints.

And contractors can rest assured that Dulux Decorator Centre is taking a number of steps to reduce its own carbon footprint across its estate, such as by investing in heat pumps to replace oil heaters, installing electric car charging points and LED lights, and recycling fixtures and fittings during store refurbishments.

Undertaking a Carbon Reduction Plan needn’t be overwhelming for contractors. And those companies that rise to the challenge and adapt more quickly will transform this challenge into an opportunity - to change their companies for the better, gain a competitive advantage in tenders and simply do the right thing.

For more information, please visit: https://www.duluxdecoratorcentre.co.uk/our-sustainability-story.

¹ When measured against Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt White