The road to Net Zero: a report card for UK businesses

This Net Zero Week there’s lots of conversation about the progress being made in the UK towards reducing carbon emissions. Our Environmental Sustainability Lead, Claire Thew, gives an honest appraisal of the positive steps being taken and the areas where we’re just not doing enough as a country.

It’s been a tumultuous couple of years for those of us keeping our finger on the pulse of the climate emergency. On the one hand, we’ve seen regulations tighten, corporations buy in to carbon reduction strategies and impressive progress towards the decarbonisation of the grid – which we can all agree is an essential step in hitting our broader targets in the UK. 

However, there’s also been a troubling counter-narrative in some quarters which has challenged the validity of the climate emergency and we’ve also seen parts of the business community simply sit on their hands and defer their reduction planning to the “future to-do” list as they’ve been let off the hook by relaxed government policies. 

So, with that in mind: what should the UK business report card look like as we reach the halfway point of 2025?

The positives

In order to get a sense of how committed businesses are to any idea or principle, we need only look at where they are spending their money. The good news is that we are clearly seeing many UK businesses increase their investment in climate initiatives. 

In fact, according to the 2025 Business Breakthrough Barometer, 91% of UK business leaders have maintained or increased investment in transition plans. Similarly, a survey found that 92% of business leaders thought inaction would be costlier than shifting to low-carbon models.

As the cost of wind and solar has reduced and green energy becomes more cost effective than fossil fuels, this shift in thinking from the business community will only gather pace. Organisations are no longer seeing sustainability as a burden; in most cases it is becoming an opportunity for strategic growth.

Take Tesco as an example: the supermarket chain has become something of a leader in operational emission cuts. In 2025, the company announced it had reduced total emissions by 65% compared to its 2015 benchmark. 

Another leader in this space is Kingspan Group, which has set an ambitious target to slash 90% of its carbon emissions by 2030 through its Planet Passionate programme. Since 2020, it has already managed a 26% drop in total emissions, with Scope 1 and 2 emissions down by 61% in the same period of time. 

The negatives

While it’s great to see more organisations taking meaningful steps towards lowering emissions, the Climate Change Committee asserts that between 80% and 95% of emissions typically lie in Scope 3 for organisations.

This means that a combination of government regulation and collaboration between businesses is going to be needed if supply chains are to be brought up to speed. Collaborative supply chain governance is now essential and shared targets are now necessary to ensure that companies align their efforts over the years to come.

Of course, this is also a challenge because many UK businesses have suppliers in other parts of the world where efforts to tackle the climate emergency are much slower and decarbonisation of the grid is happening at a much slower rate.

The grade

While it is difficult to grade the UK business community as a whole, I’d have to say that overall we sit at a B- right now. Compared to many other countries around the world, the UK has made great advances in moving away from fossil fuels and tackling carbon emissions. However, there is still so much to do and such urgent action required if we are to make any meaningful strides towards preventing the rise in global temperatures.

Want to do more to reduce your business’s carbon emissions but don’t know where to start? Find out more about our carbon reduction workshops.

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