The Role of Climate Tech in Decarbonising the Public Sector

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Pete Nisbet
Craig Cheney

Craig Cheney

Managing Partner - Public Sector & Education

In their 2020 report, the Climate Change Committee emphasised the importance of local authorities in national decarbonisation efforts and the UK’s journey to net zero. Quoting the capacity to impact roughly one third of UK emissions, the report highlighted the significant remit of local authorities, including local transport, social housing, and waste, as well as their influence over local businesses and communities.


Unlike private entities and businesses – which also contribute significantly to UK emissions yet often exhibit limited willingness to respond* – local authorities have demonstrated a clear commitment to addressing climate change. Out of 394 local authorities, 327 have declared a climate emergency, with 114 setting net-zero targets and 280 developing actionable plans.


This highlights the readiness of local authorities to act; however, translating this enthusiasm into meaningful outcomes requires clearer direction and support from central government. While the new government has shown a willingness to address these challenges, the reality is that news policies and funding mechanisms take time to develop and implement. Bridging this gap between ambition and action will be crucial to unlocking the full potential of local authorities in driving the UK’s net-zero agenda.


One stand-out and wide-reaching solution to this is climate technology. With the ability to process data more effectively, identify problems faster, and test solutions virtually, technology provides an efficient, transformative vessel for decarbonisation and net zero strategies. In a recent survey, 40% of senior executives said they believe that digital technologies are already having a positive impact on their sustainability goals. And, with the ability to initiate significant carbon reductions across energy, materials, and mobility, and save money at the same time, climate tech has the potential to provide the public sector with the resources it needs toward net zero.


*According to a recent analysis of the FTSE 250 conducted by our sustainability sister-company, edenseven, 41% of the FTSE 250 do not have a net zero target, and those who do have delayed it by an average of 13 months.

 

Climate Technology


According to a study by ICG, decarbonisation is accelerated in heavily digital economies, but with no risk or loss to finances. Between 2003 and 2019, the most digitalised economies in the EU reduced their greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 25%, while continuing to grow their economies by 30%. For comparison, the least digital economies reduced their GHGs by only 18%, and grew their economies by the same amount.


Climate technology can be categorised under three main areas:


  • Decision Making Technologies (such as Digital Twin, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning)


  • Enabling Technologies (Cloud, 5G, Blockchain, Augmented/Virtual Reality, etc.)


  • And Sensing & Control Technologies (eg. Internet of Things, Drones & Imaging, and Automation & Robotics)


In this article, we will discuss how each technology can be, and is being, specifically applied to climate strategies, and ultimately how these practices can be leveraged to benefit the Public Sector.


Enabling Technologies


By increasing efficiency, Enabling Technologies have the potential to accelerate decarbonisation with specific applications in the energy sector. For example, in a study by the World Economic Forum which placed the impact of digital technologies at a reduction of 8% on GHGs by 2050, they named 5G as a boost to energy efficiency in highly networked environments.


Similarly, blockchain technologies promote circularity, transparency, and security, all of which can be used to track carbon emissions within an organisation. This is particularly unique for its ability to measure Scope 3 emissions including the supply chain, which are notoriously difficult to monitor as they are indirect emissions, as opposed to Scopes 1 and 2 which are associated directly with an organisation’s operations.


Cloud technology also has numerous applications in climate endeavours, including grid management, smart meters, asset planning tools, solar propensity modelling, and methane tracking.


Sensing Technologies


Sensing technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled sensors, imaging, and geolocation have the capacity to support climate strategies through their ability to gather real-time data and drive decision-making. Specifically, this has applications in the transport industry, improving route optimisation and decreasing emissions across both rail and road.


Decision Making Technologies


As useful and beneficial as all of these technologies are for accelerating sustainability strategies, their efficacy is predicated on beginning with a strong foundation. One particularly prevalent technology which can provide this comes in the form of the decision-making technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI).


According to a collaborative study by the World Economic Forum and Accenture, AI alone has the potential the reduce global GHG emissions by 4% by 2030. Even greater, CapGemini places the figure at 16% for AI’s climate potential across multiple sectors.


This is due to the substantial boost in efficiency that AI provides when integrated into a business or organisation. This is universal regardless of sector or industry, however it poses the most significant environmental benefit to energy-intensive systems, allowing them to limit their emissions by reducing the energy required to complete their operations.


The most pressing example of this is the manufacturing industry, which can employ AI in order to propel the efficacy of their process optimisation and model production lines, as well as using Machine Learning (ML) to streamline demand forecasting.


However, the efficacy of AI, ML, and other decision-making technology depends upon robust data. Between identifying and tracing source materials, optimising routes, and enhancing efficiency, access to clear and solid data is crucial for building streamlined solutions and a direct path to net zero.


Though not wholly reliant on AI, one example of this data-intuiting technology is cero.earth, the in-house carbon accounting and management platform from edenseven which is been funded by InnovateUK as one of their seven flagship ‘net zero living programmes’. Dynamic and intuitive, and designed to work specifically in the public sector, cero.earth gathers holistic data across all three Scopes of emissions in order to provide an organisation with actionable outcomes to propel them toward net zero. This provides the entity with the ability to track their progress and easily report developments to stakeholders, providing complete control over their climate journey. Thus, cero.earth is the optimal starting point for organisations to understand their current position, future opportunities, and roadmap to net zero.


Decarbonising the Public Sector


Through the combined benefits outlined in this article of transparency, efficiency, and clarity, climate technology has the potential to provide the direction toward net zero that the public sector could benefit from. In particular, climate tech has attractive applications across major emission areas including transport, waste, and infrastructure:


  • Transport: As well as the aforementioned ability of sensing technologies to benefit route optimisation in local rail and road networks, there are already numerous examples of transport technology with sustainable benefits such as electric vehicle charging and energy management.


  • Buildings: In buildings, it is easy to initiate decarbonisation through better controls such as thermostats, air quality monitoring, and smart parking.


  • Waste: Forecasting technologies like AI and ML can support public sector bodies to reduce waste by providing an overview of resources and accurately projecting their usage.


Furthermore, technology can improve the energy efficiency of other public sector organisations such as healthcare. In a survey conducted by Bain & Company, healthcare companies were asked which technological application they had trialled in the previous three years (as of 2022). Innovative solutions included the use of big data to improve medical R&D, digital interfaces for electronic records and telecare, and integrating centralised information on healthcare providers, drugs, and treatments. All of these improve efficiency, and ergo reduce emissions.


The Responsibility of the Public Sector


The public sector also has a part to play itself in improving access and innovation to these technologies, in order to increase their availability and applications to its industries and operations. The World Economic Forum highlighted three ways in which the public sector can bolster climate investment, namely the use of incentives to drive activity from technology suppliers and financial investors; create longer-term certainty through regulatory support, providing security for technology companies to develop their solutions; and set better standards to credentialise green products and services.


These objectives are particularly prescient for those technologies which present a double-edged sword to sustainable initiatives. For example, though Enabling Technologies such as data centres, as explained earlier in this article, have the potential to boost efficiency within highly networked areas of the public sector, they also come with their own climate considerations. As of 2022, data centres account for 1% of the world’s electricity consumption, and 0.5% of CO2 emissions, figures which are more concentrated when analysing Europe in isolation, where a 2020 EU Commission Study revealed that data centres use 2.7% of the continent’s electricity demand, expected to reach 3.2% by the end of 2030 if they continue at the current rate.


This is not the end of the story, however, as technological innovations are being accelerated to offset this carbon contribution. Namely, the replacement of liquid cooling with air cooling provides a much more sustainable alternative to maintaining the efficiency of data centres, which relies on them not overheating. Air cooling leverages variable-speed fans which can run at reduced speeds to match a reduced cooling requirement; paired with strategic containment, this can create ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ aisles that produce a tailored thermal profile and ensure efficient cooling.


Though the growth and application of technologies such as these is largely dependent on bigger organisations, the public sector can still play its part by spurring and motivating the momentum of their development.


Financial Benefits to the Public Sector


The public sector itself also has numerous financial benefits to expect from increased sustainable investment, particularly in climate tech. As aforementioned, a study by ICG revealed that digital economies are able to reduce their GHGs by 25%, while increasing their economies by 30%. A report from the Institute of Local Government provided insight into these benefits, highlighting the role of technology as a crucial component:


  • Energy Efficiency: The Institute listed the replacement of outdated lighting fixtures in streetlights with more energy efficient LED bulbs as a quick way to save money, as well as improving street safety. This is heightened in combination with sensing technologies, such as motion detectors and dimmers. The City of Sacramento, for example, has been able to save an average of $302,800 annually through this change.


  • Transportation: Encouraging and facilitating the use of sustainable transport options comes with the economic benefits of conserving fuel and cutting fuel costs, reducing the health impacts of air and water pollution – and ergo saving on healthcare costs – and reducing traffic congestion, making streets safer for pedestrians and transit users alike.


Overall, increasing efficiency and sustainability through climate tech means that less funding has to be allocated to considerations such as the cost of water, energy, and infrastructure development and maintenance. These savings can then be reinvested into more targeted initiatives which in themselves can spur economic and environmental development, as well as increasing financial stability.


An increased priority and emphasis on sustainability also has the economic benefit of producing green jobs. Defined as any job which ‘contribute[s] to preserving or restoring the environment and our planet’, green jobs go hand-in-hand with the introduction of climate tech, including environmental technicians, wind turbine or solar panel technicians, green construction managers, and nuclear engineers, to name a few.


The Role of Cities


In particular, cities are public sector bodies equipped with the potential to create an immense environmental impact. In a TedTalk from Marvin Rees, on the Board of Directors for Cambridge Management Consulting, he explains that, despite occupying less than 3% of the earth’s land surface, cities are home to around 55% of the world’s population, are responsible for around 75% of CO2 emissions, as well as being prodigious emitters of nitrogen dioxide and methane, and consume 80% of the world’s energy.


However, Marvin explains, due to their reach, size, density, close proximity to leadership, adaptability, and capacity for reinvention, they have a vast capacity to manage those statistics. Attributing much of this potential directly to technological innovation, Marvin lists several of the technologies outlined in this article as being particularly accessible to cities: their population density makes public transport more accessible and cost effective, renewable investment is more financially attractive in large-scale markets, and the heightened presence of a circular economy brings greater benefits to waste management and recycling, in which goods are reused, and unavoidable waste such as food waste can be processed, for example as fertiliser.


Providing inspiration from a global perspective, Marvin names technological examples from around the world:


  • Malmö: Malmö has developed a heat network that is fed by heat generated by processed waste; they intend to be 100% powered by renewable or recycled heat by 2030.


  • Oslo: Oslo is subsidising electric vehicles and charging points, as well as introducing a circular waste management system and the purchase of a biogas plant.


  • Bogota: Bogota has introduced a bus rapid transit system and have one of the largest fleets of electric buses in Latin America.


Innovations such as these are especially concentrated in Smart Cities, defined as cities which leverage information and communication technology to improve operational efficiency with the twin aims of improving economic growth and quality of life. As such, one of their most prescient objectives is environmental and sustainable development.


Conclusion


As this article has outlined, the only thing decelerating the public sector on its journey to net zero is a lack of direction, clarity, and security – technology has the potential to bridge this gap by providing transparency and efficiency. Through the differing and wide-reaching applications of foundational, decision making, enabling, and sensing and control technologies, the public sector can decarbonise across numerous emission-contributing factors. While it is worth noting that the technologies listed throughout this article do not in themselves offer a one-size-fits-all approach, their numerous benefits and uses at least contribute greatly to developing the framework for a coordinated approach.


Furthermore, they also possess incredibly financial and economic benefits to public sector entities, increasing employment through the availability of green jobs, as well as saving money through efficiency which can be reallocated to other initiatives.


For more information on the power of climate technologies such as cero.earth, visit the website for our sister-company, edenseven, here: https://www.edenseven.co.uk/cero-earth


For guidance on how to navigate the public sector, contact Craig Cheney, Managing Partner, here: https://www.cambridgemc.com/people/craig-cheney

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by Tom Burton • 9 April 2025
What Problem do Too Many SaaS Providers Have in Common? Many SaaS security providers have a history of treating important safety and security features as something to upsell. This raises the important question of whether a software vendor has a moral responsibility for the secure operation of their solution. In this article, we explore the implications of treating important security and safety features as an upsell, using Boeing as a test case of where this can go wrong. The Case of Boeing and the Aviation Industry The case against Boeing is emblematic of a more systemic issue across the aviation industry, and many other industries. The public became aware of this issue under tragic circumstances when the Lion Air and Ethiopian Air Boeing 737 Max airliners crashed in 2018 and 2019 respectively. According to the widely quoted New York Times article , the crash could have been avoided if the pilots had access to two safety features that were sold by Boeing as optional extras. 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If there was no safety requirement for the redundancy of two sensors, it is difficult to see why there would ever be more than one. Boeing has now addressed the issue, and the anti-stall system listens to both sensors, responding safely in the event of conflicting signals. It should also be noted that the investigation identified pilot error and deficiencies in the training that contributed to the disasters (and this will be relevant to our points regarding many SaaS product decisions as well). The SaaS Parallels Cloud-delivered Software as a Service (SaaS) has revolutionised the tech industry, and catalysed a phenomenal level of innovation and growth. It has enabled new software capabilities to be brought to market faster than ever before, and facilitated the ability to reach a scale with costs defrayed across multiple customers that would have been unimaginable 30 years ago. However, the benefits of being able to access a service from anywhere, at any time, by anyone also presents significant risks. The ‘anyone’ can be a malicious party operating outside of the reach of law enforcement or extradition. As a result, there are clear commercial responsibilities placed on SaaS providers to secure their infrastructure from attack, and those that do not are unlikely to last long in the marketplace. But just like the aviation industry, there are different flavours of security, and different perceptions of what is considered essential. Taking due care and applying due diligence to ensure that the platform itself is adequately secured from a direct attack is clearly the vendor’s responsibility – but what about those elements of security that relate to risk owned by their customers? One key element of customer risk relates to the security of a user’s password. It is their responsibility to make sure they choose a long and random string drawn from upper case, lower case, numerical, and special characters (if allowed). It is also their responsibility to ensure that they do not ever use the same password for multiple applications or services. But, we know that compromised credentials is a common failure mode. Just because it is the user’s responsibility to mitigate this risk, this doesn’t mean that system developers do not also have some mutual responsibility to make it easier for the user to exercise that responsibility; controls have been developed specifically for that purpose. The most obvious ones are Multi Factor Authentication (MFA, or 2FA), and Single Sign On (SSO). With MFA, we improve the security of the credentials by also verifying that the user is in possession of their trusted device before we trust them at sign in. With SSO, we minimise the number of credentials and accounts to manage by federating with a single corporate account; we can then concentrate our effort to secure that corporate account rather than spreading our resources thinly. Both are relatively easily implemented these days, particularly in the case of SSO where the OAuth protocols are widely offered by Identity Providers. Once implemented, both are essentially free to operate, particularly if MFA uses an Authenticator app rather than SMS text messages. SaaS providers recognise that this security is important, and they will frequently implement MFA and SSO controls into their applications to meet that customer demand. But, too frequently, we see them only offered as part of the more expensive subscription options. This element of security is not enhancing the vendor’s core proposition; it is not making their offering more functional, better looking, or more efficient for their users. It is just making it more secure, and therefore to treat it as an item to upsell comes across as price-gouging rather than the responsible application of good security practice. It is almost as though these vendors have run out of innovative bells and whistles that their clients would value in their core product, so they have had to resort to undermining the security of their cheaper options in order to encourage their customers to pay for their more expensive ones. It is equivalent to a bank only using the CSC code on a card to secure transactions for customers who pay for their premium banking services, because, after all, it is the customer’s responsibility to protect their card details. Conclusion What we have described here is not universal, and probably is not even representative of the majority of SaaS providers. But, when you are reviewing a new service, we urge you to take a closer look at what security your provider is charging extra for. If low cost, high value security controls are being upsold, then you may want to consider what other security good practices are not being considered essential. For more information about our cyber security consulting services and Secure by Design principles in action, please contact Tom Burton, Partner for Cyber Security, using the form below.

BT Gives a Call to Action for CNI Providers to Switch Over to Digital Services

by Clive Quantrill • 3 April 2025
As the UK's ageing copper landline network becomes increasingly unstable, Cambridge Management Consulting reports that BT is urging Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) providers to expedite their transition from analogue to digital voice. With the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) nearing the end of its life, organisations face significant risks if they delay planning and execution for this essential upgrade. Recent data indicates that 60% of CNI providers in the UK still lack a strategic plan to migrate from the legacy analogue network. This statistic underscores an urgent need for action to safeguard essential public services, such as healthcare, water, energy, emergency services, and government operations. The transition is not merely a technological upgrade; it is a once-in-a-generation programme to future-proof communications and improve service reliability. The PSTN, our communications backbone for over a century, is becoming increasingly prone to faults and difficult to maintain, with recent reports showing a 45% increase in significant resilience incidents. The impact of this transition is wide-reaching, affecting critical systems such as telemetry monitoring sensors, emergency phone lines, telecare alarms in hospitals and care homes, CCTV, intruder and fire alarms and older EPOS machines.  As the below graphic shows, a broad spectrum of devices and services will be affected by the analogue switch off, including ISDN, ASDL and Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) broadband services. The majority of organisations are almost certainly in the dark when it comes to common knowledge of all of the devices affected, lacking the internal expertise and records to identify and audit complex, interrelated legacy systems.
Red abstract architecture with a cloud passing through the square arch

Our View: New UK Government Guidance on Multi-Region Cloud & SaaS

by Tom Burton • 27 March 2025
Well Intended Guidance Leaves more Questions than Answers The UK Government Digital Services – part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology – has recently published guidance for how the public sector should adopt a multi-region approach to cloud technology. At first sight this appears encouraging. Any unnecessary constraints on hosting arrangements (or any other non-functional requirements) reduce the available market of providers, constrain competition, and therefore inevitably reduce value for money. If parts of Government, whether central, regional or local, have felt that everything must be hosted in the UK then it makes sense to produce guidance that clarifies this perception and helps to open their options up. But for guidance to be useful it should guide. It should make it easier for people to take actions that they previously would have discounted. The guidance in this case, which at 1420 words is almost as short as this article, probably leaves the reader with more questions than answers. It may reveal some unknowns, but without increasing certainty. The Guidance in a Nutshell A summary of the guidance is as follows: Look wider than UK: Many cloud solutions may not offer UK hosting, particularly new innovative solutions that haven’t scaled up yet. Irrespective, their staff are likely to be distributed around the world if the service is supported 24/7. There may also be other benefits in looking wider than UK hosting, such as enabling better business continuity and disaster recovery options if the vendor only has one UK site. Get legal advice: Before you even consider a non-UK option you need to seek advice from your own legal advisors and your Data Protection Officer (DPO). Ensure compliance with ICO guidance: Before you even consider a non-UK option you need to check and make sure that any international transfer of personal data will be compliant with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance, and you should get further guidance from your own legal advice and DPO. Do a full review of vendor security: Before you even consider a non-UK option you need to make sure the vendor and solution are compliant with your own security policies. In a nutshell, it says: 'you should consider options outside of the UK but only if you have checked everything is legal and secure'. This seems to be verging on a statement of the obvious; the real difficulty in going offshore is covering all of the legal, regulatory and security compliance aspects. Adequacy is a Moment in Time On point 3, the guidance points out data protection compliance is easier if the country in question is considered by the ICO to be adequate – having equivalent regulations for data protection to the UK. Sound advice. But even this is not that simple. For instance, the USA is not considered adequate unless it is under an extension of the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. This framework is dependent on an Executive Order that the Biden administration put in place, and it is entirely possible that it will be revoked by the current administration. If such an action was taken, or if for any other reason the EU decides that adequacy is no longer met (also not unlikely given Herr Schrems has achieved this twice already and has stated he plans to challenge the DPF), then the vendor will no longer be considered compliant. Consideration is Far Wider than Residency Security is far wider than data residency though. This is where point 4 both states the obvious and understates the complexity. Managing risk in the supply chain is inherently difficult. Cloud providers, and particularly SaaS solutions, aggravate this challenge by an order of magnitude. By their nature they are solutions designed for a broad and varied range of customers. This means they will always involve compromise. If they tried to meet the most demanding requirements, they would price themselves out of the scale marketplace. If they went for the lowest common denominator, they would be unable to meet the requirements of the majority. An individual customer can rarely dictate a specific security requirement for themselves. They are also highly opaque. The vendor presents their service as a black box. The features delivered to the customer are defined, but much of the underlying design and the means the vendor uses to manage it in operation are hidden. This makes assessing the risk far more of a judgement call than when the design and delivery is conducted under your control. Depending on the supplier, and the leverage that the customer has over them, it may be possible to get some information and assurances; but the right questions need to be asked, and the answers need to be interpreted correctly. Third party certifications and audits, such as the ISO27000 series of standards or the SOC1, SOC2 and SOC3 reports, can also provide some additional assurances. But only the customer will be able to decide the extent to which they can mitigate the risk, and the confidence they have in the supplier to manage their own. This is a business decision informed by the specifics and nuances of the risks being considered. Summary It is important to minimise the non-functional requirements and keep an open mind about potential solutions and vendors. This includes looking wider than just the UK when national security requirements are not paramount. But this is not something that can be distilled onto a single sheet of A4 in any meaningful way. Yes, there are legal and regulatory issues that need to be reviewed. And geopolitical risk needs to be factored in, considering how you would respond to future external changes that are outside of the UK’s control. But from experience, the greatest challenge is getting comfortable that the vendor’s organisation and their solution have adequate security – this applies equally whether the solution is hosted in the UK or overseas. The SaaS world is opaque, and balances priorities across a broad and varied customer base. The public sector needs to increase its adoption of cloud and SaaS solutions to remain efficient and relevant, in the same way that the private sector has had to. But the route to responsible adoption is more nuanced, requiring candid conversations with suppliers, and ultimately an informed but subjective judgement by the customer’s leadership. Sources/Links: DSIT Guidance for Multi-region cloud and software-as-a-service ↩︎ ICO Guide to International Transfers ↩︎ Executive Order (E.O.)14086 of October 7, 2022, on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities ↩︎ Note: This article originally appeared on Tom Burton's personal blog at https://digility.net/insights/
Palace of Westminster at night

APPG Report Summary: 'Care to Connect: Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Migration'

by Craig Cheney • 25 March 2025
The Digital Communities All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) shared the ‘Care to connect: Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Migration’ report with key parliamentarians on Monday at a launch meeting on Parliament Street. This report highlights key recommendations for managing the ongoing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) migration, focusing on protecting vulnerable residents and ensuring effective solutions. Here are the major takeaways for local government and communication providers: Data-Sharing Agreements (DSAs) DSAs between communication providers (CPs), local authorities, and telecare providers are crucial for identifying vulnerable residents during the migration. Challenges include inconsistent responses from local authorities and fragmented approaches across CPs. The APPG recommends all local authorities and housing associations sign DSAs, regardless of progress in digital switchover, to promote uniformity and resident safety. Telecare Devices The sale of analogue telecare devices must end, as these can leave residents unsupported during the transition. The government, in collaboration with the TEC Services Association (TSA), should enforce higher standards (TEC Quality’s Quality Standards Framework) across the telecare industry to achieve robust digital migration practices. Financial support for local councils is critical to replace outdated telecare devices and prevent double costs. Battery Backup Solutions Existing guidance from Ofcom, requiring one-hour resilience for power cuts, is insufficient. The APPG recommends increasing power backup requirements to at least 4 hours in homes and 6 hours for fixed networks. Communication and energy providers must jointly create resilient power solutions, particularly for vulnerable residents reliant on telecare devices. A multi-sector priority service register should integrate communications and energy service protection for those at risk. Sunset of 2G and 3G Networks UK mobile network operators plan to stop supporting 2G and 3G networks by 2033, with some networks already switched off. There are cases where local authorities and residents have purchased telecare devices using 2G/3G SIM cards, as a lower-cost, interim solution — these devices will need to be replaced again, posing double replacement costs for local authorities and additional risks to residents. The government should stop the sale of analogue devices and accelerate efforts to prevent the redeployment of outdated telecare alarms. Summary We welcome these recommendations alongside the December 2023 PSTN Charter, the Telecare National Action Plan and the PSTN Non-voluntary Migration Checklist. The conclusions make it clear that coordination between local and central government, industry regulators (such as Ofcom and Ofgem), and communication providers (CPs), as well as significant investment in digital teams at a local level, are essential goals to ensure a safe and inclusive digital switchover for all vulnerable residents and telecare users. Read the full report here: https://digitalcommunities.inparliament.uk/care-to-connect-public-switch-telephone-network-migration-report About the APPG The Digital Communities APPG is a cross-party group of parliamentarians, with the aim to promote the delivery of digitally equipped places that support and foster a connected, healthy, and productive community. This includes the creation and maintenance of sustainable digital infrastructure, as well as providing residents with equal opportunity to thrive in a digital world. The LGA provides the secretariat to the APPG. Cambridge Management Consulting Our Public Sector and PSTN teams can help local councils and other public bodies by providing strategy, financial planning, procurement, and project management services to ensure that you have a comprehensive transition strategy and accurate financial costing for the PSTN switch-off. We can help you follow the recommendations in this report by completing a full audit, signing DSAs with CPs and most importantly, protecting vulnerable service users. Get in touch with Craig Cheney, Managing Partner and lead for Public & Education, to discuss a range of services which might suit your needs: ccheney@cambridgemc.com (or use the form below). Act now, before time and resources run out.
A hazy smog view across a city skyline

The Real Financial Cost of Scope 3 for Businesses

by Simon King • 20 March 2025
What Do Your Scope 3 Emissions Have to Do with Inflation? Scope 3 emissions cover everything outside your direct operations —the carbon footprint of your supply chain, purchased goods, logistics, business travel, and more. The higher your Scope 3 emissions, the more energy-intensive your supply chain is. And the more energy-intensive your supply chain, the more vulnerable you are to rising costs. Think of it this way: High Production Costs- If your suppliers are heavily dependent on fossil fuels, their production costs are rising fast Price Volatility- If your supply chain lacks efficiency and resilience, price volatility will hit you harder Locking in High Costs- If you’re not actively engaging with suppliers to reduce emissions, you’re locking in long-term cost increases that could have been avoided Without accurate Scope 3 data and a clear engagement strategy , businesses are leaving themselves open to higher prices, lower margins, and greater financial risk . Why Businesses Struggle with Scope 3 A major challenge is that Procurement and Sustainability teams often operate in silos: Procurement teams focus on cost and supplier relationships but often lack deep sustainability expertise Sustainability teams focus on compliance and decarbonisation but aren’t typically measured on financial performance This disconnect means emissions reduction is rarely treated as a financial opportunity —when in reality, cutting carbon from your supply chain is also one of the most effective ways to reduce exposure to cost inflation. The Businesses That Get This Right Will Lower their Costs Leading organisations are already taking action. They are: Gathering detailed Scope 3 emissions data to map out cost risks in their supply chain Engaging suppliers to drive efficiency, reduce emissions, and lower costs Building resilience by shifting towards lower-carbon, more cost-stable alternatives The result? Lower long-term costs, reduced financial risk, and a competitive edge over those stuck with inefficient supply chains. This is not just about sustainability compliance —it’s about smart financial decision-making. If You’re Not Taking Action, You’re Losing Money Every business will feel the impact of rising supply chain costs—but not every business will be prepared for them. If you don’t have accurate Scope 3 emissions data and an effective engagement strategy, you are: Paying more than you need to for essential goods and services Exposing your business to long-term cost inflation Missing out on opportunities to build a stronger, more resilient supply chain The sooner you act, the better the outcome for your bottom line and the planet. Is your business ready to take control of its costs? Get in touch with Cambridge Management Consulting and edenseven today. About edenseven edenseven is the sustainability-focussed sister-company of Cambridge Management Consulting. We work with businesses across all sectors in multiple regions to deliver robust and deliverable net-zero strategies. The success of any strategy relies on its awareness of how changes in policy and subsidies can create both risks and opportunities for a business. If you are a business trying to enter a new market or evolving in an existing market and would like to learn more about how edenseven can support you, please get in touch with the team at edenseven at info@edenseven.co.uk or use the contact form below. Find out more about edenseven on their website: edenseven.co.uk
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