Brent Business Climate Charter

With almost a quarter of Brent’s direct carbon emissions generated from commercial and industrial sources, we are committed to working with organisations across the borough to help them reduce their carbon footprint. This includes business, places of worship and community groups.

What is the Brent Business Climate Charter?

Our new Climate Charter is a way for local faith and community organisations and businesses to make a public pledge to doing their bit to tackle the climate and ecological emergency, whilst being supported through access to resources from the council to help businesses to achieve this.

When signing up to the Charter, you will need to pick a minimum of 3 pledge areas to work on in order to sign Brent’s Business Climate Charter. In doing so, you commit to improving your organisation's carbon footprint in those areas over the next year.

The pledges are linked to our Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy.

• Cut waste through reducing operational waste, especially plastic and food waste, and prioritising repair, re-use and recycling. This could also be through providing a product or service that helps others reduce their waste, such as a repair service.
• Enhance local biodiversity in creative ways – whether by “greening” your workplace, installing window bird feeders or supporting local nature conservation projects.
• Procure sustainably by using spending power to purchase sustainable goods and services.
• Promote climate action by enabling and encouraging your workforce, clients, customers, suppliers, stakeholders and the local community to help tackle the climate emergency.
• Reduce energy impact to cut associated carbon emissions and reach net zero. This could be through measures like improving the energy efficiency of buildings, using electric vehicles, or using renewable energy.
• Travel sustainably by choosing active travel or using cargo bikes, public transport or electric alternatives in your operations rather than relying on private petrol and diesel vehicles.
• Use water responsibly through measures that reduce water waste in building use, recycling rainwater, or providing a product or service that helps others use water sustainably.

Signing our climate charter demonstrates a commitment to sustainable principles. All Brent businesses, places of worship, community groups are encouraged to apply.

By signing up to the Brent Business Climate Charter, your organisation will be highlighting its commitment to tackling climate change and pledging to reduce its carbon emissions.

All signatories will receive:

• free access to an exclusive online tool to measure your energy usage and carbon emissions (first come first served)
• an opportunity to form a network with like-minded sustainable organisations
• invitations to attend exclusive informative webinars and workshops on how to decarbonise your business and discover opportunities to save money at the same time
• promotion from the Council on social media, on the Council website, through our Brent Environmental Network newsletter, and in Your Brent Magazine
• a digital and/ or physical badge to use on your website or workplace to demonstrate your commitment. 

The sooner your business signs the Charter, the higher the chance it has of accessing all its eligible benefits!

Your application will be reviewed by a panel of relevant council officers from both the Climate Emergency and Economic Development teams, by considering the following key questions:

• How many pledges has the business committed to?
• Have the pledges been well thought out with enough detail?
• Are the pledges ambitious enough?
• Are the pledges realistic for the business?

Top tips

• We encourage leaders and owners of organisations to complete this form on behalf of their organisation. (If you are not the leader or owner of the organisation, please ensure you have the appropriate permission to fill in the form on behalf of your organisation.)
• There are a minimum of three pledge areas you must commit to, but you are welcome to commit to more.
• The more pledges you commit to, the higher the likelihood that your application will be considered favourably.
• Try and answer the questions as fully as possible, including what you are currently doing as a business in that pledge area, and what your goals are for the next year.
• If you have not already made changes in your pledge area, focus on the work you will be able to do in the upcoming year. Examples of goals will be given for each pledge area to give you some inspiration.
• If you have any supporting documents or images, make sure to upload them! For example, if you have reduced your bills, worked with a local school on a climate action project, made some energy efficient changes to your building, or started taking public transport to work instead of driving… We would love to hear about it! Pictures can tell a thousand stories.
• Remember: every little helps! We are still in a cost-of-living crisis and we don’t expect every business to have the same amount of time and resource to commit to this. Any change, big or small, is encouraged. It’s better not to overpromise and instead think of realistic ways you can make your business greener.
• Should your first application form not be approved by Brent Council, our officers will be on hand to support you make changes to your application for a better chance of success. Please email business@brent.gov.uk if you require further support after your initial application outcome.
• Try and follow the SMART goal setting method. Goals should be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Timebound

Check our Green Business Guides for practical advice on what steps your business could take, which should provide you with some inspiration for the Charter.

You may also want to have a look at our Faith Climate Action Plan which is a helpful resource to get you ready to apply for the Brent Business Climate Charter.