Adam Bastock, Founder
99% of businesses in the UK are small and existing guidance isn’t accessible for them to take action.
Many existing organisations and government agencies focus their efforts on advising large multinationals. Reducing the carbon impact of Sainsburys will provide a better return on their efforts than chasing many small ones.
This has meant small businesses are often overlooked, yet together can make a huge contribution to reducing the carbon output of the UK economy. 99% of businesses in the UK are under 49 employees.
On the other hand, much of the advice out there is focused on consumers. Organisations such as Fully Charged have brought huge change to consumers’ understanding of electric and zero carbon technology out there, but again tend to focus on big companies making big, news worthy changes rather than the small businesses making lots of small changes.
So, there is a gap of those who are not consumers, and not big businesses, who fail to get any advice.
My aim is to have Small99 take the role of someone like Martin Lewis in the consumer finance world and have Small99 be the go-to resource for news and “How to” guides for reducing small businesses’ carbon footprint.
While larger organisations chase after the 1% to make changes, we are here to advise you, the small99, on how you can make an impact today. So, please join me on this journey as we transform the carbon output of the UK’s economy, one small business at a time.
We believe in giving business owners the simple tools to reduce their carbon footprint.
Our guidance is easy to understand and leads to clear recommended actions.
We make high impact guidance for businesses to follow.
In 2020, there were over 5 million small businesses in the UK who account for 22% of the economy.
52% of revenue in the UK is from companies with less than 49 employees.
Just 8,000 companies have over 250 employees, while over 5 million businesses have less than 9. The importance of supporting these 5 million employees in reducing their carbon footprint is vital in making an impact.
Number | % economy | |
0 – 9 | 5,613,000 | 22% |
10 – 49 | 211,000 | 15% |
50 – 249 | 36,000 | 15% |
250+ | 8,000 | 48% |
Over the next decade (if it even takes that long) I am expecting to see Carbon become treated in a similar way to financial budgets.
Carbon will be a currency, and companies will need to save CO2 emissions like they do money. We’re here to make those savings easier to achieve.
You’ll want to be getting as little carbon for your £ as possible. When we see carbon pricing become legislation in the next decade, this carbon accounting will be more important than ever.
Not only will this be a beneficial lifestyle tickbox or marketing bonus, it will be vital in companies being able to access certain schemes, organisations (e.g. B Corp) and perhaps even financial support.
If companies can’t prove due diligence around their carbon footprint, then it may cause issues similar to accounting failures. This is pure speculation, however at the corporate level there do seem to be shifts happening in this direction:
There are a few key ways we make money, but first let’s focus on how we don’t:
No Sponsors or advertisers – Many sites will place adverts on their site, or build relationships with companies for sponsorship. We do neither, as we don’t want our advice to be influenced by commercial gain.
No Membership – There’s no point encouraging business owners to make changes but then gatekeeping access to the information for them to make that change. We want our advice to be free to everyone so that we can make the most practical impact.
So, how do we make money?
A common method of monetising content, this means that if you click a link and make a purchase on a partner’s website, Small99 may receive a payment. This can be based on action – e.g. if you completed a form (Lead Generation) or a transaction (a % based commission). These are deals we access through networks such as Affiliate Window and Skimlinks, or may have been
Note: The availability of affiliate links does not influence our decision or recommendation. Guides are written first, and as a separate action we look for paid links. If non exist, so be it, and links remain “normal”
If a recommended action is going to reduce your carbon footprint, we will recommend first and try to monetise it second. All affiliate links can be identified is they have a “*” next to them.
If business owners don’t have time to read all of our free content, we offer paid packages such as industry specific guides and 1:1 advice that is effectively a shortcut for business owners to take action.
If you have time, you can read up on what you need to do. If you don’t have time but do have money, you can pay us to tell you what to do instead. This advice is identical to what is on the website.
Eventually we hope to run virtual events that bring together specific speakers on industry topics. These may attract sponsors, but are run separately to the content on our website.
Small99 is a resource hub for small business owners to get practical guidance on how to achieve net zero.