hub.brussels × Tapio Coaching Formula: how to make your organisation “Climate-Fit” again

As part of its decarbonisation coaching program, hub.brussels decided to join forces with Tapio to offer this service to companies willing to be part of the change. The objective: empowering companies with the tools to make well-informed decisions and initiate change at their own level.

Starting point

The number of motivated businesses that applied for the selection was both encouraging for the climate and diverse in industry. Startups made up the vast majority of interested parties, followed by agricultural firms also eager to reduce their carbon footprint.

Two criteria were used to select the participants: motivation to implement a sustainability strategy, and the relevance of Tapio’s tool to their activities. This resulted in a panel of six companies. With the exception of Manufacture Belge de Chocolat, the vast majority of the panel was start-ups.

• The Crowd Cooks — home delivery of meals
• Urbike — bicycle logistics service
• Kaly Ora — swimwear and sportswear made from recycled plastic waste
• Wosh — sustainable on-demand local laundry and dry cleaning
• Fruit Collect — harvests uneaten fruit from home gardens to produce juice
• Manufacture Belge de Chocolat — high quality Belgian chocolates

The coaching process

The organisation of this coaching was overseen by June Van Veer, sustainable business model advisor at hub.brussels. She was responsible for setting up the project, being the link between the Tapio experts and managing the progress towards a sustainable action plan for each of the selected companies.

Each company had its own designated representative in charge of the sustainability strategy to attend each workshop. These representatives were accompanied by June and three Tapio experts (Colin, Mathéo and Zoé) who were present at each workshop.

The coaching consisted of three workshops with all companies and a two-hour individual meeting between the company, a Tapio representative and June:

• Workshop 1 (1.5 hours) — Introduction to Tapio, presentation of the methodology and information needed for data collection.
• Workshop 2 (3h) — Carbon footprint analysis under Tapio’s supervision, providing support in encoding data, developing assumptions, and choosing which data to include or exclude.
• Workshop 3 (1.5 hours) — Brainstorm on reduction targets and scenarios with Tapio support for each client.
• Individual meeting — Presentation of the carbon report, reduction targets & scenarios, and low-carbon solutions proposed by Tapio.

Once the coaching was over, some companies did not hesitate to continue the adventure by contacting Tapio directly and continued to work on the execution of their action plan with June.

”Don’t aim for perfection, but rather for small impactful actions”

For June Van Veer, Tapio has distinguished itself by its ability to provide collective and personalised support rather than “classic” individual meetings. According to her, the real strength of the platform lies in its ability to define scenarios and action plans to guide companies. This capacity translates into a quantified assessment, which is a considerable advantage compared to a less quantifiable traditional CSR strategy.

“Acting on transition does not mean aiming for perfection by tackling all actions at once, but rather targeting the most impactful but feasible actions first while ensuring economic value.”

— June Van Veer, Sustainable Business Model Advisor at hub.brussels

A quantified carbon report is, according to June, a great compass for the development of any action plan. Why? Because visualising the most impactful actions allows the company to know precisely where to concentrate its efforts to reduce its emissions.

But the platform does not stop there: it also provides actions and solutions that the company has not previously thought of. This prioritisation has another advantage: it allows the company to save money by avoiding investing in actions that may cost more and are not necessarily the most impactful.

Becoming a “champion” takes time

hub.brussels and Tapio’s collaboration proves one thing: customised coaching in group settings works. Not only because of efficiency synergies, but also because sharing solutions provides shared motivation and inspiration. Climate transition is not a race, but rather a journey that your organisation should begin step by step.