Decoding Decarbonisation: What Scopes 1, 2, & 3 Mean for Your Drinks Business

With the positive news from the UK’s Climate Change Committee this week that the UK can meet it’s 2050 Net Zero target, I thought it would be worth doing one of our four-part series diving into the subject that’s become such a political football recently.

Around the world, businesses and politicians are making commitments to tackle climate change, and "Net Zero" has become the headline goal. But behind the pledges, headlines, and press releases lies a complex landscape of data, definitions, and strategic decisions. Before we can effectively reduce our climate impact, we must first understand the language of decarbonisation, which I’ll admit, can be confusing at first with talk of scopes, offsets, insets, science based targets, and more.

So, what do terms like "Net Zero," "Scope 1," "Scope 2," and the notoriously tricky "Scope 3" actually mean for a distillery, brewery, winery, or brand?

Consider this first article as your practical guide to decoding the framework.