Latest / The 3Bz Podcast - Building Better Business / EP127 - The Carbon Footprint of Bookkeeping with Kathryn Frimond

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EP127 - The Carbon Footprint of Bookkeeping with Kathryn Frimond · The 3Bz Podcast - Building Better Business

• 0:01
  Hi there business owner, and welcome to the Three BS Podcast,
• 0:04
  the place where we go beyond the numbers and dive into strategies
• 0:07
  to help you build a Better Business one step at a time.
• 0:11
  I'm your host Stephanie, a multi awarding entrepreneur with over
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  a decade of experience in the bookkeeping and currency world.
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  If you're a business owner looking to streamline, grow, and
• 0:19
  get back the time that you deserve, you're in the right
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  place tackling real world problems, answering tough
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  questions, and digging deep into business building secrets in
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  just 15 minutes each week. So, Are you ready to build a
• 0:31
  Better Business with confidence and clarity?
• 0:33
  Then let's go. Hello and welcome back to
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  another episode of the Three B's podcast, your go to place for 15
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  minutes of CPD certified motivation, education and
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  inspiration to help you build a Better Business.
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  Each week. As always, I'm your host,
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  Stephanie. Hi.
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  If you're new here, don't forget to like, rate and review
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  whatever you're listening to or watching this podcast and
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  subscribe on YouTube and hit that notification bell so you
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  don't miss another episode. We haven't guessed with us again
• 1:01
  this week because I had to have her back.
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  She's so valuable. Catherine, would you like to
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  yourself? Hi.
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  Yeah, I'm Catherine Fremand. I run a bookkeeping practice
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  called Your Local Bookkeeper. Say It Right, Your Local
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  Bookkeeper. And we focus on sustainable
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  businesses, but also on training accountants and bookkeepers to
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  be more sustainable. I love it.
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  I love the fact that the first time you came on, I got my intro
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  messed up, and this time you, you stumble Jaws, we're equal.
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  So we had you on a few episodes ago.
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  We were talking about how you can be more sustainable as a
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  business owner and what sustainability is and getting a
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  bit more clearer on the understanding.
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  But I want to talk about bookkeepers.
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  We're both bookkeeping practice owners.
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  We're both bookkeepers by trade. You know, while I've got an
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  expert in both bookkeeping and sustainability with me, I'm
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  going to tap into all that knowledge for myself as well as
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  the audience. What can bookkeepers do within
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  their own practices to operate more sustainably both digitally
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  and operationally? Yeah.
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  So the first thing and you probably heard me say it on
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  there a couple of episodes ago, but the first thing I would do
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  is measure your carbon footprint, especially if you are
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  using zero. You can plug 0 into someday and
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  it creates a carbon footprint for free.
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  And that for me will give you kind of maybe five key areas
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  that you can look at that you are most carbon intensive.
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  And so that would be like my starting point, but also just
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  being conscious of your choices. So the biggest thing for
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  bookkeepers is always when you go to an event and you are just
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  inundated with swag, but there is only so many pens and
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  notepads that you need. So I think, you know, like we
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  all go to account X and I got this year a luggage tag from Oh
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  my goodness, I can't even remember who it was from.
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  That's a bit like, I really, really wanted that.
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  But that was the one thing that I took home.
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  I did not need to take home 100 stress balls or things like
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  that. So it's just being more
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  conscious of your decisions. But start with the carbon
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  footprint, definitely. And obviously as we move into
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  making tax digital and Mt DS coming into force for income tax
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  next year, we more than ever we keep things digitally, we keep
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  receipts digitally. Is there a way to be more
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  sustainable with that? Do we use the apps like DEX and
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  Apron to put our receipts on or should we just be keeping the
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  paper ones? OK, so my biggest bug per bear
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  with the accounting industry is when people say to me I'm
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  paperless so I must be sustainable.
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  And no, there's so much more that we can do.
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  But also digital footprints are massive.
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  And if I just explain because not everyone knows this at all.
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  So when you upload an image to say next, that is saved on a
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  giant computer somewhere, I think they use Amazon servers.
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  So it's called a server, massive computer in a server room that
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  gets so hot and is constantly on and it's saved and it gets so
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  hot. They're constantly needing to be
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  air conditioned. A lot of energy is going into
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  keeping that image cold basically on this giant
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  computer. So if you think like on a hot,
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  it's billion degrees today whilst we're recording this and
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  I've got 2 fans on the air conditioning's on in the other
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  room. And that's what that energy that
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  is using all the time to keep that document.
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  So when you're doing MTD, I would say it's definitely still
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  better to put it on digitally, but maybe just think about how
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  many places that item is saved. So again, I know that we will do
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  this because I do it, but I will save on Dex and then that feeds
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  through to zero. And then that is also I better
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  just save that on my OneDrive just in case.
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  And then my clients got it saved on his Google.
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  And then that's like 5 places. And actually then it might be on
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  your emails. You can delete it from your
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  e-mail if you've saved it in five other places.
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  We can definitely delete that document from our e-mail.
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  And it doesn't do much. I wish I had the book on my
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  desk. It doesn't.
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  That tells me how much that is. It doesn't create much.
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  But if you think you've got 100 emails and everyone then deletes
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  those 100 emails, it does start to compound and make a
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  difference. And it basically means that
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  going back to those server rooms, they'll have one less
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  computer to keep cool, which is then energy saving for the
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  planet. Incredible when you think about
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  it. I never thought about that way
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  because I'm, I'm the same. I'm a we use apron capture in
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  the practice. So we put it on apron.
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  That might have been WhatsApp to apron.
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  So it's on WhatsApp, then it's on apron, then we push it
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  through to zero. Yeah, thank you.
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  Then keep copying OneDrive just to be sure.
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  Yeah, just keep it there just just in case.
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  And we all do it and I do it and I think I better just keep that
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  just in case. But it and especially because
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  it's drummed into us that we have to keep documents for a
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  certain amount of time and that's fine.
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  But they're all on zero. And then to be honest, the
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  likelihood of 0 going down and not being able to do recover
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  those is pretty slim. And so yeah, that that's for me
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  with the digital is just making sure that you're not saving it
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  in bajillion places. Yeah, it's like emails.
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  I think about it because I changed domain, so I moved from
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  a.co.uk toa.com domainandthe.co.uk domain.
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  I moved to a lower plan because we're booked in accountants.
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  We don't like to spend money unless we have to.
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  And it hit 5 gig now that e-mail I've have to four years.
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  So in four years there's 5 gig of emails in there.
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  And do you know what, 90% of them are probably people just
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  replying back saying yeah, OK or yeah, we can do it in time.
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  Can you meet at this time? Like how important actually are
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  those emails? If I lost them all tomorrow,
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  realistically how many of them would I be upset about?
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  Yeah, and things like reminder emails and I just don't need
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  them or and a good one and obviously no one would want to
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  unsubscribe from our mailing lists, but unsubscribe from the
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  mailing list that you don't because it costs money to it
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  costs carbon money to send that e-mail.
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  So if you're not even reading it and you're just deleting it,
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  then unsubscribe and. It saves you time from the
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  future emails that are coming through as well.
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  Yeah, absolutely. And just you mentioned about
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  that you changed domain names. So again, websites are all held
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  on servers and the domain and everything's held on a server.
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  You can have your domain with a green provider.
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  And I can't give you an example at the top of my head because I
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  can't think of one, but there are providers that use like 100%
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  renewable energy. And there are, even if you want
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  to be really pedantic about it, there are even ways to use
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  different colours on your website and use like less text,
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  optimise images, things like that which will bring the carbon
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  footprint of your website down. Pedantic bookkeepers never find
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  that pedantic is like our job description.
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  Attention to detail sounds nicer, but pedantic is
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  definitely one of them. So is there any financial
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  incentives or grants that bookkeepers can help their
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  clients look for when they adopt the same practices or things
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  that they can look at themselves?
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  And gosh, that is a difficult question.
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  And yes and no, I think a lot of, as with any grants, a lot of
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  things are based on where you live.
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  So I know that there are some really good innovation grants in
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  Scotland because I've got a client that is in Glasgow.
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  So I know there's a lot of grants there.
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  I think it is very dependent on where the business is based.
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  And the other question I would ask on the grants is just from
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  experiences, is it worth having that grant for the amount of
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  admin that you're going to do to get it?
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  So in this office, for example, we had all LED lights put in and
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  it was so not worth our time and money to get the grant because
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  we had to provide so much information.
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  So for a small business, probably shouldn't be saying
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  this but it just wasn't worth the time because we would have
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  changed the lights to LED anyway.
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  So I work in a shared office so it was a split cost but we would
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  have changed those anyway. And however there are like
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  financial incentives at the moment to for example change
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  your car to an electric car. Now I wouldn't change it if
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  you're not planning on getting a car anyway, but if you are at
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  the moment you still don't pay Rd. tax, although that's
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  changing. It's a lower benefit in kind if
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  you're buying through the business and you probably end up
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  paying. We've had electric cars for a
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  long time so I can't remember what it's like not to have an
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  electric car and what it might cost, but they're not that much
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  more expensive now. There's a lot more choice and
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  actually the amount you will save on fuel is significant.
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  You can also still get a grant to get the charging point put
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  in, especially if you own your office or even at home, you can
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  get the grant to put the charging point in.
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  And things like solar panels, there's still grants for solar
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  panels, there's grants for heat pumps.
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  We're just putting a heat pump in at our home.
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  So I think we've got something like foreground towards it and
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  foreground towards a 10 grand heat pump is significant.
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  Maybe not through the business, we probably couldn't put that
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  through the business because it's a home.
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  But you know, if you're owning an office, if you're a large
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  practice and you own, you own an office, that's worth doing.
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  And again with solar panels worth doing.
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  And even at home, again, you're not going to be able to put this
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  through the business. It's not tax deductible, but you
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  can club together with your neighbors and there are schemes
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  where if the whole street wants solar panels then you get them
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  cheaper. I mean, then I have a client who
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  is the three directors of a limited company and they were
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  getting new cars through the company and he wanted this
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  hybrid Volvo I think it was. And I was like, honestly, look
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  at what you know. I know all my clients are such
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  an in depth base. I knew that they already had a
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  petrol car. I said, look, you're not going
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  to need something petrol. Realistically, have you looked
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  at electric? In the end he went with electric
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  and his benefit in kind was four and a half 1000 lbs less than
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  his Co director who took out the hybrid car because he thought he
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  was doing the right thing. And actually the hybrid car
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  benefit in kind that they had to pay was more than what the
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  petrol car was. Yeah.
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  And just from a yeah, from a sustainability point of view and
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  a planet point of view, hybrid, it's pretty pointless.
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  And a question that we, so we have two electric cars in our
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  household, so fully electric. And a question we get asked all
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  the time is where do you charge? Doesn't it take ages to, you
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  know, do you have to plan your journeys?
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  Yeah, we plan our journeys. A couple of weeks ago we went
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  from Surrey to Hull. That's a 5 hour journey.
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  We stopped twice. Once we stopped because I, I've
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  had children and I needed the toilet.
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  And the second time we stopped to charge, it took us the amount
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  of time that it took us to eat our lunch to charge and then
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  we're on our way again. So we have no kind of range
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  anxiety and we have like affordable cars, we've had Kias,
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  so they're not like ridiculously expensive cars.
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  But yeah, fully electric, we have no problems.
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  There's a really good charging infrastructure kind of on
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  motorways and things like that, whereas the hybrid, most people
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  are still using the petrol. So yeah, it's definitely works.
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  As a petrol head it kills me, but I completely understand the
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  sentiment. It is, yeah.
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  It's electrical petrol. I don't see the benefit of
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  hybrid anywhere, not with the range you can get now of
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  electric. But finally, as bookkeepers, how
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  can we help clients track a report on their sustainability
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  efforts in a meaningful and credible way?
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  You were talking about plugging in some data.
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  Zero. Can we do that on a client's
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  behalf or do they need to do it? Or is there something we can
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  offer to help clients clients be more sustainable?
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  Yep. So they absolutely so someday
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  have a platform that you can plug your clients into.
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  So they have like that overarching view of all your
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  clients, so you can plug it into that.
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  There's other providers that apart from someday, but you
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  know, they're free with 0. So it makes sense.
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  And I would actually, we're really lucky that we get to see
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  every single transaction that goes through their accounts.
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  And I've got to a point now with my clients that if they are
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  buying something that I don't agree with, I'm just telling
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  them saying, you know, do you know that actually you could do
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  that more sustainably? And people think sustainability
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  is more expensive, but as we've just demonstrated with the
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  electric cars, actually isn't. And if you can make that
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  alternative and make the switch, why wouldn't you?
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  You've got nothing to lose. And then we spoke on the other
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  episode about bank accounts, just making clients aware that
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  maybe their bank account isn't the best for the planet, be it
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  through your social media or whatever it is.
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  But there's this real opportunity for bookkeepers and
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  accountants to take those transactions, do the carbon
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  reporting, and their client can then market themselves as more
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  sustainable. And you've earned money from
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  doing that carbon reporting. And it's quite an easy system to
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  follow. So yeah, there's huge
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  opportunity for us to talk to our clients about it.
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  Amazing. And as you help bookkeepers and
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  accountants, where can we come and find you if you could, you
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  do the training for us right if we need that support?
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  Yeah, yeah. So teamed with a team called
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  Sustainability Suite, we do carbon electricity training that
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  is tailored to accountants and bookkeepers.
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  If you come and follow me on LinkedIn, I'm banging on about
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  it all the time. So you can come over to
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  LinkedIn. It is, I don't know, LinkedIn,
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  Catherine Frimond. We'll pop the links in the show
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  notes. As always, thank you so much for
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  coming back to join me again. It means the world.
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  It's opened my eyes up to all the different possibilities, and
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  it turns out I'm actually doing OK to start with.
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  But now we just improve that little bit and keep going and
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  keep going. So that brings us to the end of
• 16:31
  another episode. Thank you so much for joining
• 16:33
  in. If you found this episode
• 16:34
  useful, like create a review wherever you're listening to it
• 16:37
  so I can help more business owners build better businesses.
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  And I'll see you next week for the next episode.
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  Bye. And that brings us to the end of
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  another episode of the Three Bees podcast.
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  I hope you found it useful and that you're walking away with
• 16:49
  some motivation, inspiration or education to help you build a
• 16:53
  Better Business. Don't forget to subscribe, leave
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  a review and of course, connect with us on social media for more
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  insights, tips and behind the scenes content.
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  Your next step in building a Better Business is just a click
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  away. I can't wait to connect with you
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  and I'll see you on the next episode.
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  Bye.