UK Business Climate Hub: Net Zero Progress Hindered by High Costs

🌍 The 2025 UK Net Zero Business Census Report is here, and we're proud to be a partner. Over 2,000+ organisations shared their progress, challenges and ambitions in the UK’s largest snapshot of business climate action, endorsed by the DESNZ Net Zero Council and delivered by UK Business Climate Hub, Planet Mark, Sage and a coalition of 50+ leading business bodies. This year’s findings include: ✅ 51% of large firms asked for supplier carbon data (62% exporters) ✅ Only 11% set a net zero target ✅ 59% improved energy efficiency, 55% cut waste ✅ 66% say costs remain the biggest barrier 📝 Download the full report here: https://t.ly/UKBCH-Census But what does this mean for your organisation? Join Scott Harrison, Experian’s Innovation Director, and a panel of experts for a deeper dive into the findings, plus how to apply them to your business, in our upcoming webinar on 30th October: https://t.ly/NZCWebinar Together, we’re driving the UK’s transition to a low-carbon economy. #NetZeroCensus #Sustainability #UKBusiness #SustainableBusiness

Climate matters and it is impacting businesses - despite the political ups and downs. We supported the work behind this vital report as the definitive annual pulse annual on UK plc’s emissions and climate engagement. It confirms that SMEs are being asked for their emissions metrics more and more, as big businesses set and track against targets; so making this easy and consistent is crucial - that’s where the UK voluntary emissions standard and one to many data sharing come in… Great work Andrew Griffiths and team!

NET ZERO REPORT: The 2025 UK Net Zero Business Census Reports are here and ISEP is proud to be a partner! The 2025 UK Net Zero Business Census is the UK's biggest snapshot of business #ClimateAction, endorsed by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) Net Zero Council. It was delivered by the UK Business Climate Hub with Planet Mark, Sage and a coalition of 50+ leading business groups. Over 2,000+ organisations shared their progress, challenges, and ambitions. This year's results show: ✅ Supply chains are driving accountability with 51% of large organisations having received requests for carbon data from suppliers, rising to 62% for exporters. ✅ Ambition is holding steady, but only 11% of businesses have set a net zero target. ✅ 59% have taken energy efficiency actions and 55% cut waste. ✅ Costs are the biggest barrier, with 66% saying they hold back progress. 'The evidence is clear: organisations that act now will gain savings, resilience and investor confidence. Those who delay risk losing competitiveness.' Read the full reports: https://t.ly/NZC #NetZeroCensus #Sustainability #UKBusiness #SustainableBusiness

The Net Zero Disjoint: When Ambition Outpaces Alignment The UK’s transition to net zero is, at least in narrative terms, one of the most ambitious industrial and social transformations of our time. Yet behind the rhetoric lies a widening disjoint between policy ambition, commercial adoption, and public understanding. Government speaks the language of targets and strategy; business speaks in risk and return; consumers speak in affordability and trust. Between these dialects, the conversation about sustainability is being lost in translation. The truth is that we are generating more green energy than ever before, but producing energy is not the same as producing value. Unless the commercial model that connects government policy to market adoption is re-engineered, the benefits of the green economy will continue to pool at the top of the system, in corporate margins, regulatory reporting, and speculative investment, rather than flowing into the lives of citizens. The problem is structural, not ideological. Most commercial frameworks were designed for scarcity, not sustainability. They reward volume and margin, not efficiency and distribution. As a result, the more renewable capacity we build, the more we feed into the same outdated pipelines that prevent cost and benefit from being shared equitably. For businesses, the barriers are equally systemic. High capital costs, fragmented incentives, uncertain returns, and a patchy ecosystem of installers and service providers make large-scale adoption risky. Even when firms want to invest, the pathways are complex, the technology standards inconsistent, and the regulatory horizon uncertain. For smaller enterprises, the entry cost is prohibitive; for larger ones, the business case is diluted by inertia. And then there are consumers. For many, green technology still feels “bleeding edge,” expensive, unproven, and wrapped in confusing information. Incentive schemes appear and disappear, leaving homeowners wary of committing to heat pumps or solar panels that might never pay back. The behavioural gap widens as the language of sustainability becomes more technical and less relatable. This is not a failure of intent but of integration. Net zero cannot be delivered by government decree, corporate initiative, or consumer action in isolation. It requires a symbiotic system in which all three move in rhythm, policy creating confidence, business converting investment into accessible products, and consumers trusting that their participation is both affordable and meaningful. Until that alignment occurs, the UK risks building a world-leading supply of green energy while maintaining a world-old structure of commercial exclusion. The challenge is no longer how to produce renewable power, but how to renew the power structures through which it flows. Octopus Energy Ofgem Oliver Coppard #GreatBritishEnergy

🌍 Sector Transition Plans: A Blueprint for UK Decarbonisation Just days after new research urged businesses to turn Sustainable Development Goals into action, the Net Zero Council has set out how entire sectors can do the same — launching detailed Sector Transition Plans which provide a clear framework to help businesses accelerate the UK’s decarbonisation journey. Covering sectors responsible for over 80% of UK business emissions, each plan sets out: 🔹 Clear sector boundaries and emissions profiles 🔹 Opportunities, finance plans and delivery actions 🔹 Metrics for tracking real progress It’s a major step towards aligning business, policy and investment behind the UK’s clean growth agenda. 👉 At Low Carbon Alliance, we help organisations bridge ambition and delivery — turning transition plans into actionable strategies that cut emissions, unlock investment and create long-term value. #NetZero #TransitionPlans #Decarbonisation #CleanEnergy #Sustainability #EnergyTransition https://shorturl.at/H8zwX

A focus on the markets is one lens, and one we see often. But public trust has to be included. What we have found speaking about energy and retrofit at the ward level is that trust is fragile and dynamic. It can take one good or bad experience to improve or undermine trust in a technology or intervention. It can take one good or bad story from a neighbour to improve or undermine trust in the housing system. Inconsistent messaging erodes the seriousness of the issue. Just focusing on carbon makes the issue unrelatable to people's everyday lives. Opportunities for better health, better housing, better employment are what connects net zero to people's priorities.

We are thrilled to announce the release of the 2025 UK Net Zero Business Census Report, a landmark study capturing how UK organisations are progressing on the journey to net zero.  Conducted by the UK Business Climate Hub in collaboration with Planet Mark, Sage, and over 50 leading business associations and corporates, this year’s Census gathered insights from more than 2,000 organisations across all sectors, providing the most comprehensive benchmark yet of UK business action on climate.   This year’s Census reveals that no-brainer net zero actions, often linked to tangible cost savings, are being widely adopted across UK businesses, including energy efficiency measures (59%), waste reduction practices (55%), and switching to renewable energy suppliers (33%). Alongside the main report, the British Business Bank (BBB) has released a dedicated SME analysis, shedding new light on the challenges and opportunities shaping small-business decarbonisation. A heartfelt thank you to all our partners and the thousands of respondents who contributed to this critical study. Your insights are helping shape the UK’s transition to a low-carbon economy.    📘 Download your free copy here: https://lnkd.in/efiDJsnh   #UKNetZeroBusinessCensus #UKBusiness 

What's being missed by those advocating a Net Zero roll-back is that achieving Net Zero is a unique stimulus to the re-architecting of our economy so that it is far more effective, efficient, and productive. Net Zero is not a bolt-on. It emerges alongside improved wealth, health, wellbeing and other desirable outcomes through how we enable ourselves to live and behave. Our economic architecture is the key enabler. Improving it requires vision and brave, knowledgeable, and imaginative leadership with well-reasoned and evidenced insights as to what changes need to be made and, crucially, how to make them. The best entrepreneurs recognise that this kind of change is essential and are pushing forward on it. They have the imagination to conceive how to change and the bravery to do it. They know that sustainability and systems thinking leads to increased business effectiveness, efficiency, resilience and adaptability, with significant bottom-line improvements. They know it will put them ahead of the game. Business-as-usual will not deliver better-for-less. BAU has created our current challenges, it's not going to solve them. The South West Infrastructure Partnership (SWIP) is re-thinking the role that the infrastructure of SW England can play in shaping and enabling a better regional economic architecture that stimulates economic vitality. Look out for forthcoming details of SWIP's Visioning workshop in Taunton on 27 November 2025.

Download the 2025 UK Net Zero Business Census Report to compare your approach to sustainability with over 2000 organisations, including challenges and ambitions. Download now: link in comments The results are endorsed by the DESNZ Net Zero Council and delivered by UK Business Climate Hub, Planet Mark, Sage, and a coalition of 50+ leading business bodies. Findings include: - 66% say costs remain the biggest barrier - 51% of large firms asked for supplier carbon data - 59% improved energy efficiency, 55% cut waste

The UK Net Zero Census is 'endlessly quotable' and a vital insight into environmental sustainability activity across UK businesses. Really interesting how this years report has evolved.