Blog: Our Net Zero Journey- SFA Connect

As COP26 takes place, the Growth Hub asked three local businesses to share their journeys in becoming net zero and what COP26 means to them.

We spoke to three businesses who have made a commitment through the SME Climate Hub, which provides a one-stop-shop to make a climate commitment and access best-in-class tools and resources.

Alderley Edge-based SFA Connect provide consultancy, research and lead generation services to city or national convention bureau and tourist boards as well as conference venues & hotels to bolster, complement and improve their sales and marketing activities in regard to attracting business events. They are experts at identifying high quality conference & event opportunities for a city and/or venue that match to the venue facilities and city infrastructure, have synergy with the city’s strategic goals and are relevant to their sector priorities.

Why is Net Zero important to you? 

We need to tackle climate change, that’s a reality! It is our responsibility as citizens of the world. As a multigenerational and multi-cultural office, we acknowledge that this will have an impact in our lifetime and on the next generations to come, here in the UK and across the globe. We are all on this journey together and we need to act now. Being carbon neutral is ambitious, and we will all have to be creative to achieve it. Here at SFA Connect, we signed up for SME Climate Hub to continue our commitment to reducing our company’s carbon footprint by taking simple actions. As part of our pledge, we are evaluating our main sources of emissions, (especially around energy consumption and transport), we already encourage recycling, limit food waste, encourage the use of public transport and using eco-friendly search engines such as Ecosia but will be looking at ways to improve this and also to introduce other initiatives to ensure we are continually improving. We can always do better, and we are working hard to do just that! 

What benefits do you think it can bring to your business? 

We work in the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) industry where it’s all about bringing people together to share and develop new ideas and build relationships (i.e. professional meetings and scientific conferences). Over the past few years, more and more players in our industry have started to realise their impact in terms of CO2 emissions and the need to transform a destination’s visitor economy into a regenerative force. As a supplier to the industry, it is important that we stand with them in minimising their carbon footprint. We all share these same values and by making this pledge for carbon neutrality it is our way to reinforce our commitment. This isn’t about greenwashing the business or the industry in general, but embracing the challenges in front of us. 

What are you hoping that COP26 will bring for businesses?  

The COP26 is an exciting highly publicized, and globally recognised event which we hope will accelerate public awareness on the challenges we face and the importance of the actions we all need to take. This will hopefully encourage people to question the way they live, what and how they produce and how we all consume from fashion to food to international travel. We hope that Government initiatives, support and regulations coming out of COP26 will ensure that all businesses think about their activities and supply chain, question these practices and force change to improve sustainability performance. There are many simple tools available to support the changes needed, measure organisations’ impact and identify solutions to reduce their carbon footprint. Hopefully COP26 will enable businesses to share their tips and learn from one another so that every business can strive towards achieving our net zero goal.  

Find out more about SFA Connect here

Find out more about the SME Climate Hub here