ESG
Carbon reduction without the overwhelm
Adult social care providers are starting from very different places on carbon reduction. Richard Ayres considers how the sector can move from uncertainty to credible, measurable action without losing sight of affordability, care quality or day-to-day operational reality.
For some care providers, carbon reduction is already a board-level issue. They are measuring emissions, reviewing estates, answering questions from lenders and investors and asking suppliers for better information. For many others, it remains something they know they should consider but have neither the time nor the specialist resource to begin. That uneven starting point is important. Too much sustainability discussion assumes that every organisation already has a carbon baseline, a net-zero plan and people who understand the reporting language. Adult social care is largely made up of small and medium-sized providers. Many are operating from older buildings, working around the clock and managing immediate pressures around staffing, occupancy, regulation, food, energy and the quality of care. A generic corporate framework can feel remote from that reality. Care England’s view is that carbon reduction
needs to be made practical and proportionate. Providers who have already started should be helped to improve and evidence their work. Those who have not should be given a sensible first step, without being made to feel that they have already failed.
Why the starting point is difficult The first barrier is often uncertainty rather than unwillingness. Providers are confronted with terms such as ‘net zero’, ‘Scope one, Scope two, Scope three’, carbon accounting and transition plans
before anyone has explained what information they already hold or which decisions they can influence. Direct energy and fuel use are usually the easier
part to understand. The harder question is the carbon connected to everything a service buys and uses, such as food, laundry, continence products, clinical supplies, waste, transport, maintenance and the wider supply chain. This is where providers depend on information from suppliers, which may be incomplete, inconsistent or unavailable. There is also no single model care building. The
same intervention will not work everywhere. A heat pump, solar installation or ventilation system that is sensible in one building may be technically difficult, financially inappropriate or cost prohibitive in another. Providers are right to ask about disruption, reliability, payback and the effect on the people living and working in the service.
THE CARE HOME INDUSTRY HANDBOOK 2027 9
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