Net Zero Accelerator tool

Today, many companies are aiming to achieve net zero emissions.  

In this context, ‘net zero’ means that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions your company produces is equal to or less than the emissions it offsets or removes. 

If you reach this goal, your company is effectively adding nothing to the total of damaging emissions released into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Climate change is the defining issue of our time. Its impacts, such as shifting weather patterns, threaten food production and livelihoods and increase the risk of sea levels rising and flooding.  

The Paris Agreement in 2015 saw 195 of the world’s governments commit to prevent dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius.  

Scotland’s world-leading climate change legislation sets a target date for net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2045.  

Without real efforts from governments, citizens, and businesses, climate change will likely exceed 2°C. This will have a catastrophic impact on people and ecosystems everywhere. 

Governments, regions, citizens, organisations and businesses around the world understand the important role each one plays in reducing emissions, with many signing up to a net zero goal.  

Net zero is used as a target for companies to show that activities within their value chain result in no net impact on the climate from greenhouse gases. This can include the removal of any remaining greenhouse gas emissions with carbon offsetting.

Companies across Scotland are working to reduce carbon emissions and, in many cases, become net zero operations.  

There are many business benefits to developing a low carbon strategy. By reducing the carbon footprint of your business, you can:  

• Cut energy costs
• Increase sales and find new markets
• Support customers’ low carbon goals
• Improve employee morale
• Reduce overheads through efficiency savings

Science-based targets offer a set of clear goals developed by your business. These targets can provide your business with a clear route to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.     

The NZA Tool is designed to support organisations of all sizes in creating and embedding a practical, data-driven, and people-focused roadmap to achieving net zero. 

The tool provides performance scoring across key areas, including: 

• Understanding your impacts  
• Commitments, targets, and reducing impacts  
• Leadership and staff engagement 
• Collaborating, supporting, and innovating 
• Climate change adaption  

By completing the tool, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of what’s required for a best-in-class net zero strategy. You’ll get: 

• A summary of your current position 
• Detailed results 
• Actions and support to improve your scores 

This will help you prioritise areas for improvement and develop a stronger, more effective net zero strategy for your business.

Go to the tab titled 'NZA Questionnaire'. Then take the following steps to complete the tool: 

1. Enter your company details and date.  
2. Complete the questionnaire by responding to the five statements within each section. You’ll need to indicate how much each statement describes the current situation for your business. Give a score between 1 and 5 using the scoring key criteria. You’ll need to complete all 25 questions to get your results. 
3. Enter 'not applicable' only where a question does not relate to your business. 
4. Complete the ‘What are we doing well and what can we improve?' box for any statement where you want to record specific examples of actions or challenges in your business. 
5. Navigate to the 'Results and actions' tab to see a spider chart that represents your current net zero progress against five key areas. 
6. Read through your action report. You’ll want to look first at the highlighted actions. These will suggest potential ways to progress on your net zero journey in relation to the five key areas listed in the tool. 
7. Consider completing the NZA Tool on a yearly basis to record your improvements and areas that still need work.   
8. You can find definitions of common net zero terms in the ‘NZA Terminology’ tab. 

The NZA Tool has been aligned to the following standards and programmes:  

GHG Protocolopens in a new window 

UK government guidanceopens in a new window 

BEIS emissions factorsopens in a new window 

Race to Zeroopens in a new window