65% of manufacturers have taken action towards their Net Zero target – from starting point of almost zero 18 months ago

Industry leading the charge in green revolution to Net Zero target
65% of manufacturers have taken action towards their Net Zero target – up
from a starting point of almost zero just 18 months ago
 Almost two thirds (65%) of manufacturers have taken positive action
towards their Net Zero target in the past 12 months
 35% of businesses have a fully formed Net Zero strategy in place and
are implementing it. A further 14% have set their strategy but not yet
activated it
 Over a third (35%) said that achieving Net Zero is a high priority for
their business
 9 in 10 manufacturers are planning further action on net zero in the
next 12 months as activity ramps up
 77% of companies said cutting energy costs was their main Net Zero
focus within their factories with nearly half (48%) looking to make
production processes more energy efficient
 Gaining competitive advantage through innovative products or services
was a driver for 38% of companies
 While a quarter said that commercial opportunities like being listed as
an approved supplier for public/private procurement schemes was a
key driver with 24% citing access to new higher value ‘green’ markets
as a major benefit
 Just one in ten (11%) do not have a net zero strategy and have no plans
to introduce one
 40% of companies said a lack of skills to implement changes is a key
barrier to moving towards Net Zero

Britain’s manufacturers are leading the charge towards Net Zero as the sector makes a huge leap
forward from just 18 months ago when very few companies had a specific Net Zero strategy in place.
The positive influences of COP26 and increased practical help in implementing positive green
strategies in the workplace has turbocharged industry in the Race to Zero.
According to new research published today by Make UK, the manufacturers’ organisation, almost
two thirds (65%) of manufacturers have taken positive action towards their Net Zero target in the
past 12 months, while 35% of businesses already have a fully formed Net Zero strategy in place and

have started to implement it. The research – ‘COP26 6 Months On’ – shows that a further 14% have
set their Net Zero strategy but have not quite set it in motion and over a third of companies said that
achieving Net Zero is high priority for their business.
These figures are all the more impressive against a background of unprecedented challenges for
manufacturers who have had to navigate the changes to trading rules following the UK’s full exit
from the EU alongside the global pandemic which saw order books decimated, sales plummet and
supply chains temporarily destroyed. Yet despite these challenges and ongoing inflationary
pressures, manufacturers have realised the critical importance of Net Zero and the benefits a green
economy can bring to their business and made headway accordingly.
A regional breakdown shows that the further North you go, the higher up Net Zero is on a company’s
priority list. Almost half (48%) of companies in the North stated that achieving Net Zero is a high
priority for their business right now compared to 28% and 25% in the Midlands and South
respectively. Tackling their own internal factory emissions has been the number one focus, with 77%
of companies working on energy efficiency followed by nearly half (48%) looking to optimise their
production processes. A further 32% want to increase their resource efficiency by using or wasting
less resources.
This could be something as simple as moving production lines nearer to the exit, so forklift trucks
move only a short distance to load up the final products, to introducing complex energy saving
sensors across the whole of the production line and full-scale electrification of processes. Some 32%
of companies have started to use on-site renewable energy generation with a further one in ten
manufacturers now keen to improve their buildings for space heating and cooling.
Getting staff on board and bought into the green agenda has also been shown to be key in the
report, with a quarter of companies already training their staff on sustainability to make sure they
have the right skills for the transition to net zero. A lack of skills was cited as a barrier to change,
with some 40% of companies stating they did not have the relevant skills within their business to
implement changes.
Outside the factory it is encouraging to see that almost three quarters of manufacturers are already
engaging with their supply chain to deal with their emissions (scope 3 emissions). These ‘indirect’
emissions from the value chain constitute the bulk of a company’s emissions, but they are not
directly under the business’s control and are therefore harder to manage.
This is being done mainly by communicating their own net zero ambitions across their own supply
chains (53% of companies took this route), while a further quarter (33%) are working on cutting their
logistics journey and transport emissions from third party vehicles.
Nearly two thirds (62%) of manufacturing businesses are driven to take further action on net zero by
the rising cost of energy, while another two thirds (63%) are being pushed by their customers or
their employees (31%) to up their green credentials. While overall awareness of Government-led
initiatives is not high, there was good engagement around COP26 (e.g., Race to Zero and the SME
Climate Hub), with a quarter of companies saying these helped speed up the process.
Some 38% of companies see competitive advantage through the introduction of innovative products
or services and having a positive Net Zero strategy as a key attraction for recruiting new talent to the
business (35%).
A quarter of manufacturers also mentioned commercial opportunities such as being listed as an
approved supplier for public/private procurement schemes (24%), access to new higher value
‘green’ markets (24%) and access to finance for new projects (25%) as a driver to speed up their
decarbonisation journey.

Stephen Phipson, CEO of Make UK, the manufacturers organisation said:
“Britain’s manufacturers have long shown that they are at the forefront of innovation globally and
they have already gone a long way to improve their processes in the quest to reach Net Zero. They
are making huge leaps forward and have taken much from initiatives such as COP26 as a driver for
further change. With energy costs at historic highs, cutting energy consumption has taken on a
further layer of urgency, and new business opportunities from the green economy make change
even more attractive. We will continue to work collaboratively to come up with solutions which
work for manufacturers and allow them to forge forward towards Net Zero with even greater
speed.”
The report also revealed that 43% of companies found digital transformation an important enabler
for transformation to Net Zero. And 37% had already implemented at least one digital project
related to sustainability while a further 35% had a digital project in the pipeline in the next 12
months.

Read the full report here:
https://www.makeuk.org/insights/reports/uk-manufacturers-are-leading-the-charge-in-green-
revolution