What is the Small99 Action Box Workshop and Action Box itself?
The Action Box
The Small99 Action Box is a comprehensive toolkit and methodology to help small businesses and organisations reduce their carbon footprint and get an action plan together.
The Action Box forms the basis of the Workshop, which uses the tools and resources contained within the Box itself.
The Action Box Workshop
The Action Box Workshop is a workshop in a box!
Practical and cost-effective, the Workshop is either delivered in-person at a physical venue or as an online interactive learning and discussion session via Zoom and Miro.
What are the benefits of attending a Small99 Action Box Workshop?
Attending a Small99 Action Box Workshop brings many benefits, including:
- Learning and basic carbon literacy – an overview of the key concepts
- Knowledge and experience sharing – learn from others and share your own experiences and learning
- Engagement and team building – with your own internal teams and stakeholders
- Data gathering – without the need for complicated calculations or carbon accounting
- Benchmarking – how you are doing compared to other businesses and organisations
- Informal networking – with other businesses and organisations on the same journey
- Gaining new contacts – who can help you on your carbon reduction journey
- Tangible evidence – of what you have done previously and what you are doing now to reduce carbon and increase sustainability, plus what you are going to do going forwards
- Access to tools and resources – to log and track your Actions, Achievements and Progress
By the end of the session, you will have:
- Built a 2030 Sustainability Plan, in 2 to 3 hours, which you can then use to engage suppliers and meet contract requirements
- Seen the key ways you can reduce your carbon footprint and the impact it has on your business or organisation
- Made real progress on carbon reduction planning, so that you reach your targets and keep pace with other businesses and organisations
- Built your sustainability story in a collaborative, hands-on way that engages your key personnel and stakeholders, so that you can communicate what you are doing
Contact me to find out more. Please book a 30-minute Discovery Call with me.
Who is the Small99 Action Box Workshop for?
Anyone who is feeling stuck and not sure where to start with effective carbon reduction steps will benefit from the Workshop.
The Workshop is ideal for community groups, CICs, charities, businesses and organisations – anyone looking to reduce their carbon emissions but doesn’t know where to begin.
If you’re a Sustainability Manager who needs to engage your internal teams and stakeholders, a small business owner who is looking for effective carbon reduction solutions, or even a climate enthusiast who want to champion carbon reduction in your organisation or community – this workshop is for you!
How long does the Workshop take?
Typically, the Workshop runs for around 2 to 3 hours, but there is flexibility on the running time.
The core content of the Workshop lasts around 1 hour 50 minutes, with the opportunity to spend longer on key elements on the day, depending on how quickly the participants get through them. If you need more time for discussion and completing the tasks then that’s absolutely fine.
Equally, if you would like a more condensed version, some of the elements can be stripped out to focus on your core aim or goal – such as getting the Carbon Reduction Plan and the Action Plan together. That could take as little as 1 hour. It really does depend on what you want to get out of the Workshop and the time available to you.
There’s also the option to include additional segments in the Workshop – for instance, at the start of the session with an extended overview of carbon footprint terminology and definition of the jargon and terms used; or time for networking and socialising at the end of the session, for example.
There is a set structure to the Workshop, but it isn’t rigid or staid. It’s a fun and engaging way to find out more about what makes up a carbon footprint and what your carbon emission levels are and where they come from, plus the opportunity to explore practical solutions to carbon reduction and future-proofing, as well as creating a bespoke action plan and 2030 Roadmap for your business or organisation.
How does Action Box Workshop work?
The Action Box Workshop has 5 core components, which are each given some time to work through. They are:
- The Higher or Lower exercise
- Estimate your Footprint
- Net Zero versus Carbon Neutral
- Action Cards
- Reflection and Next Steps
The Action Cards segment takes around 50 minutes and forms the main part of the Workshop. It uses 30 action cards to cover the six key areas that any small business or organisation needs to tackle to reduce their carbon footprint and impact:
- Energy
- Transport
- Digital
- Suppliers
- Waste
- Systems change
Each Action Box card has detailed guidance on the back with how-to steps and industry facts, to engage, inform, educate and motivate you in creating that all-important action plan for reduced carbon emissions and lessened environmental impact.
Key concepts are explained and examples of what carbon footprints look like are given, as well as definitions of all the basic terminology.
No more passively staring at PDFs or dashboards, or death by PowerPoint presentation!
The cards get you thinking and working together, as a prompt to help you come up with practical, workable actions to take.
For in-person, IRL workshops the cards and supporting material are passed around the room for shared understanding, without the need for complex slides and documentation.
If you are doing the workshop activities in-person, you hold the physical cards in your hand, placing them on the table or workspace and moving them around yourself.
It’s an engaging tangible and physical activity as well as being a thinking exercise.
If the Workshop runs online, an interactive Miro virtual whiteboard provides engagement, participation, collaboration and interaction.
Where can the Action Box workshop run?
The Action Box Workshop can run anywhere, without the need for wi-fi, screens and lots of tech – in-person at your premises or venue of choice. It can also take place in village halls, community hubs, or even pubs! Anywhere people can get together. If the weather is nice on the day, the Workshop could even take place outside – at the local park or green space.
Alternatively, run it virtually with participants working together online via Zoom and Miro, whatever your preference is.
What does the Workshop achieve, and what will I get out of it?
Embracing and implementing a Carbon Reduction Plan improves the eco credentials of your small business or organisation by reducing your carbon footprint, enhancing your reputation and winning you more customers, clients and contracts. This has been proven. Businesses and organisations are now being asked by suppliers to provide their 2030 Sustainability or Carbon Reduction plan.
The Action Box Workshop is a facilitated collaborative process with high levels of interactivity to get you thinking and working together about that all-important Carbon Reduction Plan and 2030 Roadmap.
By the end of the session you will have built a 2030 Sustainability Plan, which you can then use to engage suppliers and meet contract requirements.
The Facilitator is there to guide you and keep everything on track, but it’s very much about attendee participation – without the need for complex slides and documentation or lots of tech. In fact, the in-person Workshop is deliberately lo-fi, which makes it possible to take place just about anywhere.
The perfect solution for small internal teams
It’s the perfect solution for small internal teams, but is also effective for wider stakeholder engagement too.
Engage others in your team or wider organisation on sustainability issues and involve them in helping you with data gathering for carbon footprint calculation.
The Workshop provides a structure for thinking about your sustainability and carbon reduction journey so far, what you are doing now, and what more you can do going forwards.
Workshop helps achieve 3 key aims
The Workshop helps achieve 3 key aims:
- Clarify and consolidate the key ways you can reduce your carbon footprint and the impact it has on your business or organisation
- Make real progress on carbon reduction planning so that you reach your targets
- Build your sustainability story in a collaborative, hands-on way that engages your key personnel and stakeholders
In just 2 or 3 hours you’ll gain the knowledge you need to formulate that Carbon Reduction Action Plan – from a high-impact workshop experience that brings people together and really makes a lasting impression.
What will I take away from the Workshop?
Workshop Participants take away 4 key things to help them on their journey towards being low carbon.
They are:
- Basic Carbon Literacy – an overview and understanding of what a carbon footprint is and its constituent parts
- An estimation of that carbon footprint – by answering a few simple questions, for free as part of the Workshop, and without the need for specialised data gathering or carbon accounting data
- Workable ideas for your own Carbon Action Plan – which you can then put into practice
- A 2030 Roadmap – the actions you are going to take and the year in which you are going to do them, in order to cut your carbon emissions by 2030, on the way to organisational net zero
Plus useful hand-outs and additional resources.
How much does the Workshop cost, and how can I book one?
For in-person Workshops, the price is dependent on your requirements and choice of venue.
Online Workshops, via Zoom and Miro, cost from £100 per attendee. Or, if a team or cohort from the same business or organisation is participating in the Workshop, we’ll work out an appropriate total cost.
Please book a 30-minute Discovery Call with me and provide more details about what you’d like, so that we can discuss your exact requirements and I can provide you with the pricing accordingly.
FAQs
Can the Workshop really run anywhere, without the need for tech or a screen?
The in-person, IRL version of the Workshop – yes, absolutely. There is only one small section of the full Workshop that would benefit from the participants being able to scan a QR code on their phones, for example, but otherwise the Workshop is purposefully designed to be lo-fi so that it really can run anywhere.
Why is there not a fixed price for the Action Box Workshop?
Quite simply, because there are too many variables and one size does not fit all.
Delivering the Workshop online is easier to price, as it all happens remotely via Zoom and Miro. The only variable is the number of participants.
An in-person, IRL Workshop is more nuanced and there are more variables – the number of participants, the venue where it takes place, if I, as Facilitator, have to travel long-distance to the venue etc. – many different factors are involved and that affects the pricing.
This is why it is best to have a chat with me about your requirements first.
How flexible are you on the run-time for the Workshop?
Very flexible. Again, the core content of the Workshop lasts around 2 hours (give or take). But, more content can be added-in to extend the running time, or bits that you think would be less useful can be taken out to shorten the length of the session. It really is up to you.
If more than one business or organisation is at the Workshop I’m on how will the take-aways be specific to me?
Even though the Workshops are designed to encourage discussion and learning from other businesses and organisations that have already put carbon reduction measures in place, and this is valuable in terms of sharing experiences and thinking about what future actions could be taken, the take-aways like the Carbon Footprints and Action Plans are bespoke to the individual business or organisation.
There are tools for you to use to generate your own estimate of your Carbon Footprint (which is 90% accurate, without the need for lots of data and expense, and gives you somewhere to start), and the action points in your Action Plan are ones that are relevant to you and your operations.
Does the Workshop session need to take place all on one day?
No – not necessarily. Whilst there are advantages to the Workshop happening all on the same day – a morning or afternoon session, for instance, or either side of a lunch break – the content and delivery can be broken down into segments and delivered in small chunks. Especially so for the online version.
You could also combine the Workshop with other learning and training, to create a Lunch and Learn session, for example.
For instance, if a venue has already implemented energy efficiency measures, you could combine the Workshop with a tour of the venue and hear about what they did, why they did it, and how it has helped them save money and reduce carbon.
So, please book a 30-minute Discovery Call with me and let’s chat about the best Workshop option for you and how it can be delivered – whether that’s online or in-person at a venue of your choice.