Introduction
As part of our BCorp commitment to ensure our work impacts people and the planet as well as profit, we have explored what we mean by social and environmental impact and have created our Social and Environmental Commitments, as implemented in our Environmental Impact Strategy. This is reviewed yearly and adapted to meet the latest advancements in this space as we do what we can to support progress on the ongoing climate crisis.
🌿 Our Environmental Impact Strategy
- Calculate our carbon footprint - understand the emissions of our company and our services
- Commit and set reduction targets - define a roadmap to continually reduce emissions
- Take action - implement reductions to reduce our company’s emissions
- Finance climate projects - Support verified climate projects to finance global climate action
- Communicate transparently - Share our climate action efforts to maximise impact.
We have used the Climate Disclosure Framework, from the SME Climate Hub to help us set out how we Measure, Commit and take Action on our Environmental Impact.
1. 👣 Calculate our Carbon Footprint
To start we need to understand the emissions of our company and our services. Only then can we begin to manage and reduce our negative environmental impact effectively.
We measure our carbon footprint using the Sage Earth tool. We measure impact across all 3 scopes, but as a business with no physical space, we have little to no Scope 1&2 emissions.
2. 🎯 Commit and set reduction targets
It is essential we commit to reduce our environmental impact and set targets providing direction and structure to our environmental strategy.
- We have joined the UN’s Race to Zero campaign by signing up to the SME Climate Commitment, which means we measure our carbon footprint and take actions to reduce it in line with Science-based targets.
-
We are educating ourselves around the topics of Carbon Syncing, and the challenges and complexity around carbon offsetting, tree planting and net-zero.
- We commit to calculating the upfront investment required to compensate our footprint in advance and making the investment by end of 2024. In line with carbon syncing principles.
-
We compensate all our footprint through Ecologi.
- We pre-empt our carbon footprint by funding climate projects and planting trees at the start of every new project. 1 tonne per project.
- We make monthly contributions through the Ecologi Climate Positive workforce programme.
- We pledge to give 1% of our revenue to approved non-profit organisations focussed on the environment. This money goes directly to those non-profits we have chosen as our partners. This is a promise to donate this as a minimum towards the future of our planet. This will start at the end of financial year 2023.
- 1% for the Planet
- We have joined Sage Earth, as a way to monitor our carbon footprint. We will use this platform to measure, track and report our carbon emissions and reduction targets. We are setting 2023 as our baseline year.
3. 🏃🏽Take Action
We have created our Environmental Policy which outlines our areas of focus for reducing our carbon footprint, and below are the key decarbonisation actions we are taking to start to reduce our footprint.
Energy and Travel
Where possible, our team chooses renewable energy at home, and we have no scopes 1 & 2. Unfortunately, some of our team can’t yet completely move away from gas, however, we keep looking for ways to reduce reliance on gas.
For those based in the UK, we use public transport to commute and go for client meetings, where possible. Team members outside of the UK operate in virtual format only; except for 1 in-person gathering a year.
Purchased Goods and Services
Our Rise Beyond; Impact Strategy guides our purchasing decisions - we evaluate environmental impact of products and services we purchase to select the lower option. We try to give preference to suppliers who have sustainability policies and plans in place. We try to keep our physical purchases to a minimum, so Food and Drinks come out really high as a proportion of overall impact
Digital Use
Due to the remote nature of our work, we rely on digital tools to do our work and keep connected.
We have reduced reliance on paper, shifting to digital records and tools reducing amount of notebooks and paper used. We minimised the use of emails in favour of Slack - emails consume significantly more carbon and clog up inboxes.
Next Steps: to assess our website carbon impact and reduce our website carbon emissions - using websitecarbon.com and ensure our hosting platform is using renewable energy sources. We will also focus on clearing up our inboxes and computer storage.
4. 💸 Finance climate projects
- We compensate all our footprint through Ecologi.
- We pre-empt our carbon footprint by funding climate projects and planting trees at the start of every new project. 1 tonne per project.
- We make monthly contributions through the Ecologi Climate Positive workforce programme.
- 1% for the Planet
- We pledge to give 1% of our revenue to approved non-profit organisations focussed on the environment. This money goes directly to those non-profits we have chosen as our partners. This is a promise to donate this as a minimum towards the future of our planet. This will start at the end of financial year 2023.
5. 🗣️ Communicate transparently
We want to be honest about our progress in this space and the way we communicate about our environmental impact and strategy is important to ensure we act with integrity and care.
Therefore, it’s important for us to be:
- Be Fact-driven - be factual, specific and evidence-based including data sources
- Avoid over-claiming - claims of being first and saving the planet. Every product and service has an environmental impact, never suggest that what we do actually benefits the planet. Be humble in communications vs over claims.
- Be Truthful - be truthful on our progress of what we have and haven’t achieved and what we’re still working on. Avoid positioning this work as complete, but as a stepping stone on a journey. Creating an ongoing conversation within our community and with our clients and partners.
- Be Accountable - if errors in communication should arise, take responsibility for the error, apologise and explain how it will be corrected.
- Learn - our journey to net-zero is unique, and requires a collective effort by all, so continuously learning, and sharing these learnings will help industries to accelerate to a decarbonised future.