What business can do

Our environment and climate change commitments

Kent and Medway’s local authorities place significant value on the area’s rich and diverse natural environment and have made formal commitments to reduce overall impact on the environment, achieve net-zero emissions and plan and adapt to a changing climate.

Kent and Medway’s county, unitary, borough and district councils have an important role in ensuring residents and businesses benefit from clean growth and a competitive, innovative, and resilient economy. This must be balanced with protecting and improving our natural and historic assets, for their unique value and positive impact on our society, economy, health, and wellbeing.

We know that our activities and services have an impact on the environment. We have a responsibility to make sure environmental risks and opportunities are managed positively and our use of natural resources is minimised for the benefit of future generations.

Our councils are working hard to establish environmental improvement programmes and each Council has committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by or before 2030 (Kent) or 2050 (Medway) within their own estates and activities.

We use the latest evidence of how the climate is predicted to change to inform business planning, to adapt and prepare services to minimise the disruption caused by severe weather, and to take account of the risks and opportunities of long-term climate change.

Working with public and private sector partners, Kent and Medway’s local authorities will take action with the aim to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 for the county. You can read about our plans to reduce emissions across the county in the Kent and Medway low emissions strategy.

For the county to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, environmental commitments must extend to all contracts and to the providers who deliver them on behalf of our Councils. Kent and Medway’s local authorities are committed to working with the providers who deliver our contracts in order to ensure that we are all working towards a more sustainable future. We will work 

collaboratively with our key providers and ensure that we adopt a proportionate approach to implementing net zero objectives into our contracts.

In order to help us to achieve this aim Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council ask that our providers begin to consider the following actions where appropriate and proportionate for your organisation:

• calculate your scope 1 (gas/petrol/diesel) and scope 2 (electricity) carbon footprints as a minimum and as much of scope 3 as possible (e.g. emissions from water use, material use and purchases). Smaller companies can join Low Carbon Kent and attend a STEM scheme to help them with this
• confirm your own organisational commitment to working towards net-zero emissions for services provided to the Council. Ideally, committing to net zero emissions by 2050
• devise a carbon reduction plan to detail how you intend to reduce your emissions
• identify and apply approaches to avoid or minimise carbon emissions/embedded carbon from materials, equipment, vehicles and working practices
• report on progress towards net-zero carbon emissions, providing a breakdown of scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
• understand your climate risk and undertake adaptive action to minimise impact from climate change. Consider risks to business or services including business continuity and supply chain management. Also, understand your opportunities to improve and make a positive impact
• holistically consider asset or service delivery plans to include long-term climate risks and opportunities over their anticipated lifetime
• adopt a formal approach to environmental management, ideally by applying a recognised Standard such as the Kent STEM Scheme, ISO14001, EMAS, or Acorn

We understand that appropriate approaches to incorporating net zero will look different depending on the characteristics of your organisation and what it is that you provide. We also understand that some organisations may be further ahead in reducing their emissions than others and we do not wish to discourage any organisations from coming to work with us. Kent and Medway’s local authorities are committed to supporting our providers to make these changes.

Going forward Kent and Medway’s local authorities will be working on embedding net zero requirements into our procurement processes and contracts. Providers can expect to see the following actions taking place where appropriate:

• inclusion of low emissions requirements in our specifications such as the use of materials, equipment, property, travel and delivery mechanisms which will consequently be evaluated in tender responses
• requiring providers to commit to achieving lower carbon emissions and improved environmental performance throughout the duration of our contracts
• requiring providers to obtain and maintain relevant environmental standards or accreditations in our contracts
• requiring providers to report on environmental performance at regular intervals throughout the duration of our contracts
• regular discussions regarding environmental performance and continuous improvement as part of normal contract management
• requiring suppliers to calculate emissions

We understand that for many of our providers reducing carbon emissions presents a significant resource related challenge. For this reason Kent and Medway’s local authorities will ensure that providers are engaged and supported through this journey. There are several programmes in Kent aimed at supporting organisations with reducing carbon emissions, these include:

• LoCASE matches EU grant funding of up to £10K with energy/resource efficiency projects for SMEs and supporting growth plans or innovation for those in the low carbon, renewable energy or environmental goods and services sectors
• the Kent Realising Electric Van Scheme (REVS) allows organisations driving on the county’s major roads an opportunity to ‘try for free’ an electric van for up to 8 weeks
• Upcycle Your Waste is seeking firms keen to look at ways of turning their company’s waste into a resource
• BLUEPRINT to a circular economy takes this concept wider, looking to partner with anyone seeking to increase recycling rates in the region and using social enterprises to help teach the benefits of the circular economy to our Kent and Medway communities
• Clean Growth South-East seeks to support the opportunities available to businesses in the low carbon and renewable energy sectors as we seek to transition to a green industrial revolution across the South-East.
• our Steps To Environmental Management (STEM) scheme helps firms benchmark their environmental performance and formalise plans to improve
• the SME Climate Hub is a nationwide resource for tools and advice for SME’s on reducing their emissions

For more information on these programmes visit Low Carbon Kent or contact lowcarbon@kent.gov.uk.