Show funders your environmental impact without spending your grant on consultants

Why are funders asking charities about carbon?

Charities and social enterprises are increasingly asked to show how they look after the environment, as well as the people they serve. The questions arrive in grant forms, in partnership agreements with companies, and in tenders from councils and NHS bodies that buy services from the voluntary sector.

The National Lottery Community Fund is a good example. Its environmental priorities include helping community organisations improve their impact on the environment, and it says this can include your own organisation. Its environment funding can pay for energy efficiency work and energy audits. A footprint is how you show where you are starting from and what a project would change.

Funders’ requirements change between programmes, so always read the guidance for the scheme you are applying to. What stays the same is that specific figures make a stronger answer than good intentions.

What counts in a charity’s carbon footprint?

ESG Now follows the GHG Protocol on an operational control basis. In plain terms, you count the places and vehicles you run.

• Your own office or centre. Electricity, gas or heating oil. If you do not have the bills, the questionnaire estimates energy from your floor area and labels it clearly.
• A shared or co-working space. Your share is estimated from desks and days, so no bills are needed.
• Charity shops. The energy and waste from shops you run are part of your footprint. Choose the shops and premises route when you start.
• Minibuses and vans. Calculated from fuel litres or mileage.
• Staff mileage in their own cars, taxis, trains and hotels. These are Scope 3 business travel, and they are often a large share of a community organisation’s footprint.
• Commuting and homeworking. Estimated from how your team gets to work and how often they work from home.
• Waste and water. Estimated from your bin sizes and, for offices, your headcount.

A community hall you book for a two-hour session each week, where the owner controls the heating, usually falls outside your operational control or adds very little. Note it and stay consistent.

As an example, a youth charity with eight staff in a rented office, one minibus and a shop on the high street might find its minibus diesel and shop electricity are its two biggest sources. That points straight to the projects a funder may be willing to support. Your report shows each calculation using the UK Government’s conversion factors, so a grants officer or trustee can follow it line by line.

The social and governance questions suit charities well

The social and governance sections often feel more natural for charities than for many businesses, because so much of your work is already about people and accountability.

The social section records your headcount, women in the team, staff turnover, Real Living Wage or National Living Wage, benefits, training, health and safety policy and risk assessments, harassment policy and data protection, including ICO registration. It also records community activity and charitable giving, which is where your volunteering and partnerships belong.

The governance section asks about your directors. For a charity, that means your trustees, including how many are women. It records who owns ESG, whether you have a code of conduct and an environmental policy, how you manage risk and whether you keep a risk register, your supplier checks and payment terms, and certifications such as Cyber Essentials or Investors in People.

Each practice is marked established, developing, not in place, not applicable or unknown. Nothing is scored against other organisations, so a small charity is never compared unfairly with a large business.

Turning the report into stronger applications

Once you have the report, you can answer environmental questions with real numbers: your total in tCO2e, your energy use in kWh and your largest sources. Your action plan lists priorities and the data gaps worth closing, which gives you a credible “what we will do next” for any bid. If you are applying for capital funding, our guide to a carbon baseline for grant applications shows how to present your starting point.

If you deliver contracts for councils or the NHS, the same report helps with tender questions. See our guides to the sustainability section of a public sector tender and NHS suppliers.

How long it takes and what it costs

A small team in a shared office usually finishes in 15 to 20 minutes. An organisation with its own centre and no vehicles takes 20 to 30 minutes, and one with minibuses, vans or shops takes 30 to 45. Answers save as you go, so a staff member can start and a trustee can add details later.

Your first report is free, so it costs your charity nothing but a little time. Start your report and have your figures ready before your next funding deadline.