On May 2nd, BSI held an online focus group discussion on line with some experts and users of the new Flex 3030.

As you’ll all know, BSI decided to develop the freely available online BSI Flex 3030 standard for net zero planning some months ago now (and V.1 is now available to all).

The Flex content was designed to help support organizations with net zero transition plans – particularly those that are SMEs and those with SMEs in their supply chain.

Before we started on the project, there was a good deal of exploration and talk with different groups (organizations, member bodies, businesses, researchers and academics, government bodies and initiatives) to decide on the right direction to take: which is when it was fixed on that we should share a freely available standard on planning for the net zero transition, largely for SMEs.

During the first consultation period for v.1 of Flex 3030, several people with an interest in the tool were invited to the focus group meeting to discuss the content and intentions of the Flex in detail.

Focus group discussion aims:

• Uncover some thoughts about the way the Flex content is designed:  its language, tone and layout
• Act partly as a rehearsal for the public webinar planned about the Flex and transition planning on 11 June at 10.30am.

Focus discussion outcomes: 

BSI, the focus group members, and the technical author for the Flex quickly got stuck into an in-depth conversation about what businesses and SMEs in particular need right now.

The intention was to consider ways to ensure the Flex really does adapt to help meet these needs with people who are dealing with the issue on a day-to-day basis. Taking part in the conversation with technical author, @Ian Byrne, and myself from BSI, were a director of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) from a company which manufactures and supplies inks commercially, the founder of a company helping other businesses implement sustainability programmes, a company helping others with carbon solutions, costs and procurement issues, and one of the leading professional environmental management institutions (IEMA).

Some responses from a recent survey of IEMA’s about SME attitudes to the challenges of net zero, prompted initial thoughts about the Flex and ways it could be improved. These challenges for SMEs included:

• finding it difficult to understand the requirements being made of them: what’s voluntary and what’s mandatory
• knowing how to build a business base for making changes for senior management so that steps CAN be made
• setting targets: knowing what good looks like
• engaging with their supply chains confidently and knowing what questions to ask and what criteria to expect
• understanding which reporting formats to use.

The others in the group shared that there was often difficulty in knowing what references to use day to day, and in SMEs, which were already operating at tight margins and with fewer resources, there’re also likely to be fewer directors of sustainability or teams in place working solely on net zero and related activities.

A few of the ways in which it was felt the Flex could better meet the pressing needs of SMEs now included the following:

• Layout, design and tone: more visual prompts and better design for accessibility and understanding, shorter phasing for clarity, some adjustments to ensure the appropriate tone for both audience and material (i.e., showing awareness of priorities of SMEs, innovators and entrepreneurs).
• References and requirements: The text could still be clearer re requirements v guidance - SMEs may well have to comply soon with regulations currently aimed at larger organizations and this needs to be recognized in the text.
• Guidance v recommended actions: Diversity between guidance and recommendations in text
• CASE STUDIES would be a particularly useful addition as an approach for illustration and clarity
• Embodied carbon? (products v services): it would be good to be much clearer about this in text
• Scope, 1, 2 and 3: ensure there are clear definitions w an emphasis on scope 3 for supply chain
• Removals as priority – include clear explanation of offsets and removals.

 Other subjects touched upon were:

• the need to put in reference to UK government procurement note and templates
• a good general explanation of the status of diverse schemes, verification, reporting, data etc
• some more information on the risks v benefits of implementing consistent net zero plans.

I hope this might have encouraged some of you to respond yourselves - to any of the above thoughts or suggestions really. Just let us know in the comments if you agree (or not!).   And remember, you can also put your views directly into the commenting tool here (until 20 May 2024): http://standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/projects/9024-10173

You can also find the slides from the discussion here