Partnerships can pave the way to net-zero

KERRY HAMMOND , PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT FOOD & ENTERPRISE | SAC CONSULTING

Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” He wasn’t wrong - partnerships are key to success. What one person can achieve on their own, is amplified, magnified, and extended when that effort is shared amongst others with the same purpose, drive, and passion.

In the rural sector, people have worked together in different ways over 100s’ of years. Informal neighbouring between farmers saw labour, tools, and resources shared equally and freely without expectation of gain or profit.

Collaboration, co-operation, and partnership all sound like the same thing, so what’s the difference?

Collaboration is an informal approach, much like neighbouring, where there is an understanding that two or more parties will work together towards a common goal, helping each other, but not necessarily on a long-term basis.

Co-ops (Cooperatives) started to gain traction in agriculture over one hundred years ago, with The Ayr Farmer’s Market being amongst the first. A co-op is owned by individual members with a similar common goal and is run by them (as opposed to investors or shareholders). As a business, the bottom line is important in all decision making, and ultimately business success (and profitability) is what drives the activity of the Co-op. Co-ops now are big business for Scottish Agriculture with co-ops like First Milk, Scottish Pig Producers and The Scottish Potato Co-op.

A partnership brings together the benefits of informal collaboration, formal co-operation, and adds a new ingredient all of its own, ‘purpose’. Partnerships offer opportunities to any organisation, institution, or business to work together, as part of a collective, to improve or change things at an industry, national, or even global level. A partnership transcends an informal collaboration, as it is a formal and binding agreement, it is something concrete, with alignment, shared vision, and efficiencies, that requires commitment. It remains different to a co-operative as the partners are not members or owners, and the partnership doesn’t necessarily have purely a business interest. Partnerships allow all parties to bring the absolute best of themselves to the table, elevating purpose and leaving commercial sensitivity in the dust.

SAC Consulting recently announced an innovative new partnership with environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful. With a growing emphasis on sustainable business activity to access funding, and on the measurement and reduction of carbon footprints in the rural, food and land-based industries, it is crucial that there are opportunities to build a broad understanding of the carbon landscape, terminology, and technical information. The main output from the partnership is a course designed to deliver opportunities for people operating in the agricultural, food and drink, and landbased sectors to gain a recognised qualification in carbon literacy.

As we know all too well, Scotland has committed to achieving net-zero by 2045, five years earlier than the rest of the UK. In order to achieve this goal, we (Scotland) are going to need some real innovation and collaboration in our approach. We believe that this partnership and the course, “Carbon Literacy for Rural Industries”, supports the aim of helping future proof the industry, one business at a time, in support of Scotland’s net-zero ambitions. We understand the intricacies and difficulties encountered by agricultural, rural and food and drink businesses when trying to make real changes to mitigate their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Climate change and the issues surrounding it have become more polarised in recent years and unfortunately this looks set to continue. The key to combating negativity and scepticism is to embrace new or different skills, seeking out relevant knowledge and looking for opportunities for unity between organisations that can make a difference. It relies on recognising that while our individual emission mitigation actions do have power and contribute to tackling climate change, we have more collective power as a partnership of industry, nation, and planet to get to net-zero together, than alone as individuals.

Keep Scotland Beautiful were an obvious partner for SAC Consulting because they share our purpose. We both are determined for Scotland to achieve a just transition to net-zero and believe that the biosphere (our ecosystem) is foundational to this. This groundbreaking training course, ‘Carbon Literacy for Rural Industries’, is the first of its kind in the UK, designed specifically with the needs of the rural and food & drink industries at its heart, looking in-detail at mitigation actions we can take in our biosphere. This was the purpose that united us and led to success in our partnership. “Carbon Literacy for Rural Industries” is a course that delivers science in an easy to digest format, equipping the participants with the knowledge they need to understand how to reduce their own emissions. The course also explores how an individual can work as part of a group, collective, or partnership to use their influence, skills, and knowledge to help others to reduce their emissions. This course could help every individual who feels that they are tasked with mitigating their emissions alone, to find alignment, and opportunities for partnership, and co-working, making the transition towards net-zero, more achievable and easier to understand.

If you are on your own path to net-zero and want to explore how a partnership could benefit you, then firstly, find like-minded businesses or organisations and assess your alignment, do you have a shared vision of how to achieve net-zero? Work out how to harness efficiencies, enjoy co-benefits, and formalise the agreement. When you realise that you’re making strides towards your purpose, that your teams and stakeholders are on board with a shared vision, and your emissions are successfully reducing, you’ll be on the right track for success.

Find out if your first step to making those connections and finding partnership opportunities could be through our course, Carbon Literacy for Rural Industries.

www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/carbonliteracyruralindustries

Get in touch kerry.hammond@sac.co.uk