Closing the climate action chasm — a solution for business

Paul Murphy, Climeaction, on how every business can benefit from green actions

Rising energy costs, consumer pressures, increased regulatory requirements coupled with a global crisis in energy costs and the pandemic have left business exposed from a climate action perspective.

Across Ireland, in 2021, some businesses have seen a 700% increase in fuel costs, a tripling of electricity costs. This sharp rise, due to numerous market and political factors has sent business searching for solutions to reduce costs and meet the increased demands from a sustainability perspective — and one Cork-based start-up Climeaction, finalists in the National Start-up awards, is in the right place at the right time.

The company, part of the Leading Edge Group which has been transforming and streamlining business processes for over 25 years, was founded in May 2021 and has seen exponential growth in the demand for their services. Climeaction announced in October 2021 that it would be expanding the business with the addition of 30 staff over the next two years. 

However, based on recent successes with over 100 additional clients and international interest in their services, the company expects to reach its targeted growth figures well ahead of schedule.

Climeaction takes a different approach to others in the sector through looking at a holistic view of a business decarbonization. Many of their competitors are still focused on the energy use of a business — but that is only part of the problem. Climeaction looks across the full supply chain, from raw materials through to the consumers to identify carbon hotspots within the supply chain and develop a strategic approach to reducing the impacts, all whilst reducing costs.

Their approach is a practical one — focusing on tangible benefits. Their team has some of the leading experts in the sector and come from engineering, sustainability and other related business backgrounds. Across Ireland they have over 25 highly experienced consultants supporting their clients.

Joe Aherne, CEO of Leading Edge Group, said: “We have been helping clients since 1995 to achieve in excess of €1bn savings through our operational excellence transformation programmes and capacity building — we have always taken a practical approach and at Climeaction this is no different. We are demonstrating tangible results and word is spreading — we are seeing a sharp increase in our requests for business.”

Climeaction’s clients include companies across the entire spectrum of businesses — including dairy, food manufacturing, distilleries, mills, retail, logistics, print companies and everything in between. There is no one sector of the economy that are less focused on decarbonisation.

Paul Murphy, lead at Climeaction, said: “Our client base is highly diverse, working with businesses of all types and scale — to put that in perspective we could be working today on a client site that would have an energy spend on a single site in excess of €5m a year and the following day we are working with a micro enterprise which spends €10,000 per year on energy. 

"Our client scale does not impact the level of service and expertise we offer them — we all have the same goals to meet the climate action targets — and if we can help any business along that journey then we are meeting our Climeaction goals”

This approach to working across the entire supply chain is disruptive within the marketplace — with many companies offering services in this space only looking at larger business or commercial sectors, but Climeaction have done this by design.

 Paul said: “If we are to support the world’s largest companies in decarbonization we need to understand their supply chains, the challenges their suppliers have and the solutions at those levels. Our micro and SME clients are part of the supply chain of many of these larger companies. 

"Take the dairy sector for example — we are in talks currently with several global dairy giants on supporting their decarbonisation efforts — they came to us as we understand their supply chain and can work directly with their farm suppliers to reduce emissions. We also have the experience of over 27 years working in this sector through Leading Edge Group. This interest is accelerating our move across the water to our group colleagues in in Canada and North America and we busy making plans for that move.”

The Climate Action Plan set out by the Government will in time set sectoral carbon budgets and the team at Climeaction advise that any business should move now by developing their strategy and starting their journey. 

SEAI, Enterprise Ireland, IDA, Udarás na Gaeltachta and the Local Enterprise Offices have excellent supports available to companies of all scales. The work being done, through these supports, by the early adopters will set the pace for mainstream transformation.

www.climeaction.com