What does a net zero roadmap cost when nobody in-house does sustainability?
For a single-site organisation of under fifty people, a roadmap is about a week of work: a baseline footprint, a costed list of reduction measures with dates and owners, and a way of checking progress each year. Cost rises with sites, suppliers to engage, and any external verification.
What a roadmap actually contains
Four things, and an organisation that has all four has a roadmap whatever it calls the document:
- A baseline footprint for a stated year, with its method written down.
- A target: how much reduction, by when, against that baseline.
- A list of measures, each with an owner, a date, an expected saving in tonnes, and a cost.
- A way of remeasuring next year that produces a comparable number.
Anything else in the document is presentation.
Where the week goes
| Stage | Effort | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline footprint | 1 to 3 days | Whether energy, travel and purchase data are already in one place |
| Options and costing | 1 to 2 days | How many measures are genuinely available: a tenant cannot replace the boiler |
| Written roadmap and board paper | 1 to 2 days | Whether trustees or a board have to approve it |
If no baseline exists, that first stage is the whole cost driver, and it is the same work described in working out a footprint without buying software.
What makes it cost more
- Multiple sites or vehicles. Each one is another set of meters, bills and assumptions.
- Supplier engagement. Asking suppliers for their own emissions turns a desk exercise into a correspondence project, and it runs at their pace.
- External validation. Committing to a target through a scheme such as the Science Based Targets initiative adds a defined route, a fee, and a submission to prepare.
- An immovable deadline. A funder's date usually means paying for the data you could otherwise have gathered slowly.
What makes it cost less
Twelve months of energy bills, a mileage or expenses export, and a purchase ledger already grouped by category. Handing those over at the start removes most of the first stage. So does accepting a rough number in year one: precision can be added later, and a roadmap built on an approximate baseline is still a roadmap.
The mistake that wastes the money
Buying offsets before doing the reductions. Offsets do not change any of the four things above, they cost every year, and they are the first thing a sceptical funder or journalist asks about. Reduce first, offset the remainder last, if at all.
How it is priced
By the job, after a look at what data exists, so the quote reflects the days actually needed rather than a package. The look itself is free.
Send me twelve months of energy bills and I will tell you whether your baseline is a one-day job or a three-day one, before you commit to anything.
More answers
- How does a small organisation work out its carbon footprint without buying software?
- What does scope 3 actually require a small organisation to measure?
- Can AI build a custom tool cheaply enough for a small organisation to afford?
- How do you collect carbon data from households or members over years, not once?
- What should a website accessibility audit cover, and what does it cost?
DON'T PANIC
cyberspaceroad.com