What is the Micro Business Package?
The Micro Business package allows companies within the Micro Business eligibility criteria to become carbon neutral to cover the previous 12 months’ emissions. If you are a micro business and meet our eligibility criteria, you are not required to input any data. This is a flat fee with no hidden costs. You receive:
• Carbon Neutral Certification for the previous 12 months emissions
• 48 Tonnes of CO2e offset by your actions, which is equivalent to 29 flights to New York, or driving 280,00 miles
• Plant one tree every day for a year. 365 trees will be planted across international locations such as Brazil, Kenya, Madagascar, Haiti and more
• You own the carbon credits: For transparency, the retirement of carbon credits is made in your company name
• If you are a micro business and meet our eligibility criteria, you are not required to input any data. This is a flat fee with no hidden costs
• Detailed support pack, including common SME reduction and energy saving actions, climate awareness information, and Carbon Neutral external communications
What do you have to do?
1. Enter Your Company Information into our signup form. Please review the terms and conditions before submitting.
2. If you meet the eligibility criteria (see below), we will verify your information & send confirmation with a link to pay.
3. Net Zero will retire the carbon credits on the registry in your company name, and send you a carbon neutral certificate and badge including offset credit serial numbers.
4. Net Zero will send you a support pack containing information on the data analysis methodology, carbon offset project details, tree planting details. tips and common carbon reduction/energy saving actions, carbon neutral external communication, and information on NZG’s software and consulting services.
5. If you do not meet the criteria, you can still easily become carbon neutral. Complete the sign up form and a member of the Net Zero team will get in touch to discuss how you can progress.
Eligibility Criteria
The following are the criteria which the company needs to meet in order to qualify for the Micro Business package:
• Micro Business: 9 or less employees (FTE)
• Only 1 company property
• ‘Non-Productive’ industry sectors – complete the signup form to find out
• Maximum office size of 200 m² (floor area)
• Each employee drives less than 20,000 miles (in company-owned vehicles)
• < 50% of company fleet vehicles are electric & no on-site renewable energy generation (as your Scope 1 and 2 footprint will likely be smaller than the lower boundary of our micro package)
Why Carbon Neutral?
Beginning your sustainability journey can present a number of challenges, and it can seem like there are thousands of complex options for measurement, reporting and reducing your emissions. This is especially true for small and medium-sized companies; sustainability might not be high on your agenda list, or it might not be on it at all. Even if you have begun to research options, consulting fees and software licences might not be feasible within your organisation’s budget. According to the SME Climate Hub (https://smeclimatehub.org/sme-survey-barriers-to-climate-action/), the most common barrier to SME climate action is a lack of resources, with 68% of the surveyed businesses citing it as a concern. The lacking resources can be personnel, or knowledge, or time to dedicate to the issue. Another key piece of the puzzle is supporting SMEs with the proper tools: 36% of surveyed businesses said they needed support measuring emissions and tracking changes, especially in the supply chain.
Our Micro Business Carbon Neutral Package is here to act as the affordable milestone that your company can take to ensure it is taking climate action. The micro business package invests in high quality VCS and Gold standard offset credits on your behalf to remove 48 tonnes of carbon (48 tCO2e) to account for your previous years estimated emissions activities (carbon inventory), enabling you to be certified as a carbon neutral micro business Scope 1 and 2. A business is carbon neutral if they balance the carbon dioxide they release into the atmosphere through their everyday activities with the amount they absorb or remove from the atmosphere. Being carbon neutral allows you to:
• Differentiate your company in the market
• Increase revenue by attracting customers, providing climate leadership and encouraging employees to create new products and services
• Attract highly skilled employees by prioritising acting sustainably
• Reduce costs by changing behaviour on high emission activities like energy use and business travel
• Engage stakeholders by motivating and retaining staff, and by demonstrating to investors that you are measuring, disclosing and managing climate risks
• Mitigate risks by reducing the risk of possible future regulation that taxes carbon consumption
Methodology
The micro business package allows you to offset your annual footprint based on NZG’s analysis of average national emissions statistics data, including the combination of national emissions by industry statistics, companies by SIC section and turnover size, employment figures by industry, and business population estimates of the UK. NZG’s market research ensures that offsetting 48 tonnes is an overestimation of your emissions to avoid underreporting. The methodology is further detailed in our Support Pack, and the full methodology for the national statistics data analysis is available upon request.
