Become a Carbon Charter Pathfinder Partner
As a Carbon Charter Pathfinder Partner, your organisation can help businesses within your supply chain, network or local community take meaningful action on carbon reduction through the Carbon Charter award and sustainable business network.
By supporting suppliers, contractors, SMEs and voluntary organisations to improve their environmental performance, you can strengthen your supply chain, improve emissions reporting, and demonstrate measurable social value.
What is a Pathfinder Partner?
A Pathfinder Partner is any organisation that actively encourages and supports businesses within its supply chain, stakeholder network or local community to engage with the Carbon Charter.
Partnerships can be tailored to suit your organisation’s objectives and budget, including:
- Fully Funded Support – Cover the cost of Carbon Charter membership and award achievement for selected suppliers, SMEs or VCSEs.
- Partially Funded Support – Provide a subsidy that enables businesses to access Carbon Charter support at a reduced cost.
- Supply Chain Requirement – Encourage or require suppliers to work towards Carbon Charter accreditation and a third-party verified carbon footprint as part of their sustainability journey.
- Referral and Engagement Model – Signpost suppliers and stakeholders to the Carbon Charter as a trusted source of environmental support, guidance and networking opportunities.
- Local Social Value Programme – Fund Carbon Charter participation for local small businesses and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations, delivering environmental and social value within your communities.
Why Become a Pathfinder Partner?
Supporting the Carbon Charter through becoming a Pathfinder Partner organisation has huge benefits to both your organisation and those you are supporting, as well as achieving measurable positive environmental impacts. It can:
- Strengthen Supply Chain Engagement – Support suppliers to build environmental capability, reduce carbon emissions and improve resilience.
- Improve Scope 3 Carbon Reporting – Encouraging suppliers to measure and manage their emissions can provide more accurate and reliable supply chain data.
- Demonstrate Social Value – Evidence your commitment to supporting local businesses and communities while helping organisations reduce their environmental impact.
- Strengthen Tender Responses – Show tangible action on carbon reduction, community support and supplier development in bids for public sector, local authority and government contracts.
- Deliver Local Environmental Impact – Create measurable carbon reductions across Suffolk, Norfolk and your wider supply chain through a simple and practical programme.
- Enhance ESG and Sustainability Performance – Demonstrate leadership in environmental responsibility while helping other organisations take meaningful climate action.
How the Pathfinder Partnership Works
- Discuss your objectives with one of the Carbon Charter team – supply chain engagement, Scope 3 reporting, social value delivery, or community support.
- Agree a partnership model – funded, subsidised, mandated or referrals – based on your budget and objectives.
- The Carbon Charter team will support you to engage businesses through your supplier network or local community.
- Engaged businesses will be supported to achieve their Carbon Charter award and carbon reductions.
- The Carbon Charter will measure and report on outcomes including carbon reduction activity, organisational engagement and social value generated.
Deliver Lasting Impact
The Carbon Charter provides an established framework that helps businesses understand, measure and reduce their environmental impact. By becoming a Pathfinder Partner, your organisation can accelerate carbon reduction across your supply chain and local communities while delivering valuable sustainability and social value outcomes.
Ready to Become a Pathfinder Partner?
Contact the Carbon Charter team today to discuss how a Pathfinder Partnership can be tailored to help your organisation achieve its sustainability, procurement and social value objectives.
Email: east@groundwork.org.uk or complete the form below and one of our team will get back to you.
Case Study: The East of England Co-operative has been supporting its local suppliers to join the Carbon Charter for over a decade. Supplier businesses get support to calculate their carbon footprint and to improve environmental management over time which helps support the Coop to manage and reduce its own Scope 3 emissions from its supply chain. Some of the local food and drink businesses that have joined the Carbon Charter through this Pathfinder Partnership include: Stokes Sauces, Fairfield Farm, Wicks Manor, The Woodbridge Tide Mill, Purely Pesto and many, many more.
Read our High House Fruit Farm case study.
Case Study: Ten of Suffolk’s most exciting visitor economy businesses were funded to achieve their Carbon Charter awards and on-going network membership via the Suffolk Growth Partnership. This Pathfinder Partnership supported the Visitor Economy sector in Suffolk to take action to reduce emissions, share experiences and communicate with their visitors and wider stakeholders on key issues surrounding environmental sustainability.