When founders become aware of their responsibility towards the climate crisis, they have already laid the foundation for their own sustainable transformation. Only with a corresponding awareness of the problem and the resulting will to make positive changes can the path to greater sustainability be paved. This applies not only to the management level, but also to all employees of the startup. Therefore, the very first step should be to clearly communicate the mission to the entire team and ensure that everyone is on board and will reliably pull together even when difficulties arise. Once this fundamental understanding has been established, the following important steps can begin.
1. A ruthless look at your own carbon footprint
To determine the best areas for improvement, the startup's areas that cause the most CO2 emissions should first be defined and examined in detail. Numerous supporting digital tools and providers are available for such a fundamental CO2 analysis of business processes, such as the startup Plan A, which includes both corporate data and public data from government or scientific sources. This is particularly important for startups, as their business models are often very new and subject to legislative regulations, such as the GHG Protocol, have not yet been fully recorded.
A large proportion of startups' emissions usually arise in Scope 3. This refers to all indirect emissions that arise in a company's value chain, while Scope 2 includes indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heat and cooling, and Scope 1 describes all direct emissions from own or controlled sources such as the company's fleet.
2. Reduce emissions
Once the emission-intensive business areas have been identified, corresponding reduction targets can be defined. What these targets look like ultimately depends on each individual startup. However, they all have one clear and simple savings potential in common: choosing a green electricity provider. 46 percent of the electrical energy generated in Germany already comes from renewable sources, so purchasing completely "green" electricity is no longer a major problem for startups and can already significantly reduce their carbon footprint.
Other quickly implementable measures include more sustainable use of resources in the office – from mindful electricity and paper consumption to vegetarian business lunches – or sustainable mobility for employees. In this regard, flights should be avoided whenever possible, especially for business trips, and the train should be used instead. Employees' daily commutes can also be steered in a more sustainable direction through incentives such as a subsidy for a monthly public transport ticket or a company bicycle. It is also particularly important to consider energy guzzlers that one might not initially think of, such as those caused by the IT infrastructure. For example, choosing climate-neutral servers makes sense to minimize the company's carbon footprint.
3. Communicate the shared sustainable mission internally and externally
This last point also leads to another important task: addressing and engaging the entire team. To ensure that the team is not only motivated initially but also stays on board in the long term, achieved goals and measures should be communicated clearly and positively to all employees. In particular, transparent figures and data make shared successes tangible and strengthen the team's self-efficacy, which is urgently needed to ensure everyone continues to persevere on the path.
Just as internally, external communication measures should also be used for climate protection. This is less about announcing achieved climate goals—although these can of course be mentioned—but rather about public and political advocacy for sustainable issues and changes in the entire economic system. A company's own sustainable corporate culture provides the starting point for joining forces with like-minded companies and partners and working together for systemic change toward a sustainable future.
