A working day: Tiphaine Aries, associate director, business services, The Carbon Trust

Q. What in your background prepared you for your current role?

I did do a business degree at the University of Exeter and then specialised in sustainability for my masters at Bath, which readied me for understanding what was expected of business in this space, the different mechanisms by which governments and consumers encourage companies to pursue good more sustainable business practices and communicate about their achievements.

I also worked in hospitality for many years, where I saw real time challenges around food waste, packaging, recycling challenges competing priorities, cost pressures, staff training pressures and priorities and the difficulty between planning and implementation. It showed me the real challenges between what you plan and how you might implement the changes. It can be more difficult than it might appear, and these jobs really helped me to understand this. definitely helped me to see these issues as a consultant, and I now often reflect back to those days.

Q. What do you think the key issue is for carbon neutrality with regard to the dairy chain?

In dairy, the main challenge is the farming and primary processing stages. Here we have a lot of pressure that is being applied in those initial stages of the value chain. Really, what we need to be thinking about is, how do we incentivise better practices through better access to funding (grants, low interest loans, government schemes etc.), how do we increase access to training, increase access to technology where applicable and ensure that we are all speaking the same language and that there is mutual respect of objectives and priorities, to ensure that everyone’s needs are being met in the process? No farmer sets out to release loads of emissions – they’re just trying to make a living, meet their personal and business objectives, and to pass that business onto the next generation.

Q. What bottlenecks are you seeing with regard to moving companies from Scope 1 and 2 to 3?

Moving towards calculating scope 3 emissions can be very daunting and can seem like a monumental task. What’s useful is that within the 15 scope 3 categories, most companies will have between one to three that will be significant. This is good news because it means that companies can focus on those main areas and therefore really concentrate their reduction efforts where it will make a big difference.

No scope 3 footprint is perfect, no scope 3 footprint uses 100 per cent primary data and they likely never will. What’s important is that they are good enough for business to make good decisions, identify where they may be exposed to risk and how they might go about mitigating or addressing those. Scope 3 really is about knowing where you need to use your magnifying glass to look a little deeper so as to make the most of often limited sustainability budgets.

Q. How has the industry changed over the past few years, looking at progress on UN SDGs?

We see a lot of doom and gloom on the news… but the industry has really come leaps and bounds over the last five or so years. There are more and more business disclosing footprints, climate risk exposure, many low carbon farming trials going on across the UK, and regenerative farming schemes which have taken off. I think the industry needs to better utilise some of the third party product assurance schemes out there to really talk about their achievements, and to bring awareness to consumers through their products and marketing campaigns. 

Q. What do you consider your greatest achievement/challenge?

Having helped literally hundreds of businesses across the globe to advance on their sustainability journeys is really I would say is my biggest achievement. I am particularly proud of the work I have done with the dairy and livestock sector players across the UK and Ireland, namely with Tirlán, Glanbia, Dawn Meats, Kepak, Kerry and many more. The livestock and dairy sectors are not seen as easy to decarbonise, but our team has been able to change the conversations about it and help to shift the dial.

Q. What does a typical day look like for you?

Every day is different but I particularly like days where I get challenging and interesting client queries, or where I get to be a part of workshops where we tell of the results of particular analysis we have done and advise them on next steps, by looking at strategy and implementation. Of course, I love days where I get to go to events and meet my clients in person and build new relationships. It’s really the human and relationship sides of my work that I love the most. I have some very longstanding and trusted relationships where I see clients as part of my team and where we can really push boundaries and make a real difference.

Q. Outside of work, what are your hobbies/interests?

I am a big open water swimmer – I did the Thames swimming marathon last year and I have other swims planned in Devon next year. I do all my training in the South London Tooting Lido, which is unheated. I would highly recommend a 1st January swim to kick-off your new year right!