Net zero is easy to declare and hard to deliver. The businesses that struggle usually start in the wrong place, buying generation or offsets before understanding where their energy goes. The sequence matters, because each step makes the next one smaller and cheaper.
Verification
- Verified as at:
- Source:
- Omnium method; separate carbon reporting briefing covers measurement and disclosure
- Last reviewed by:
- Omnium
Figures in this sheet were current at the verification date above. Regulated charges reset each April. If you are relying on a figure, check the source or ask us.
Designed A4 fact sheet, ready to print or circulate.
The order
| Step | Stage | Why it comes here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Measure | Establish a real baseline of energy use and emissions. You cannot reduce what you have not measured, and the data shows where the cost and the carbon actually are. |
| 2 | Reduce demand | Cut waste and improve efficiency first: controls, lighting, fabric, and consumption outside operating hours. Every unit removed here is one you never have to buy, generate or offset. |
| 3 | Buy better | Procure the remaining demand well, and where renewable supply is wanted, on a named backing mechanism in writing rather than an assumption. |
| 4 | Electrify and generate | Replace fossil heat and add on-site generation, sized against the demand that remains after step two rather than against the demand you started with. |
| 5 | Offset the residual | Only what genuinely cannot be removed, and last. |
Why the order saves money
A building that has not been through step two is oversized for every step that follows. Generation sized against unreduced demand costs more and returns less. Heat pumps sized against an inefficient building are larger and more expensive than they need to be.
Doing it in order is not a moral position. It is the cheaper route to the same end point.
What a credible plan contains
- A baseline built from actual consumption data rather than an estimate.
- A reduction trajectory with dated targets rather than a single distant date.
- Named interventions with the numbers behind them, including the ones that were considered and rejected.
- Progress reported against the baseline each year, including where it has not gone to plan.
What we will not do
We will not describe a switch between two renewable supply contracts as a carbon reduction. If a business already buys renewable supply, moving to another renewable contract maintains that position rather than improving it, and we will say so.
We will not recommend generation or offsetting before the demand reduction work has been done, because it makes both larger than they need to be.
Related sheets
- Carbon reporting and the three scopes
What Scope 1, 2 and 3 actually cover, how reporting goes beyond the legal minimum, and why customers now ask for it.
- Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting
Which companies and LLPs must disclose energy and emissions in their annual accounts, what has to be in the disclosure, and where SECR usually goes wrong.
- ESOS Phase 4
Who qualifies for the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme on 31 December 2026, what Phase 4 requires, and why the group rule catches organisations out.
Take this sheet into a meeting
The net zero roadmap is available as a designed A4 fact sheet, dated and set for printing or circulation.
If this sheet raises a question about your own sites, speak to us.