Since the end of 2018 we have been assessing and adjusting many elements of how we operate as a business to be more environmentally conscious. We made significant efforts to measure and reduce our printing, we began to individually offset our business flights and implemented a flexible working policy. All of these things have contributed towards lowering our operating emissions, and whilst we took time to assess the longer term impacts of COVID, it became clearer that some elements just aren’t avoidable, such as office electricity and water supplies, so at the end of last year we accelerated our plan to accurately quantify and offset to become carbon neutral.
Following much research we chose to work with ClimatePartner. It was very important to us that we worked with a company who understood and shared our firm’s values and were able to assist us to complete the calculation in compliance with internationally recognised standards and offset via an international certified carbon offset project.
The last year has clearly operationally looked quite different to previous years due to COVID-19. There has been no business travel and minimal employee commuting however we undertook a calculation of our emissions for the last financial year which included employees remote working as well as the office. We then chose a certified offset project to offset these emissions.
The project we chose to support this year is Plastic Bank, a leading social enterprise who contribute towards 14 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals with their work enabling locals in Haiti, Indonesia, Brazil and the Philippines, some of the areas most affected by ocean plastic and its consequences to collect plastic waste and hand it in at local collection points in exchange for money, food, drinking water or school fees. Plastic Bank then recycle the collected plastic and turn it in to raw material for products such as packaging. Because these activities alone do not generate verified emission reductions the offset is done via a wind farm which is a Gold Standard, VER carbon offset project.
Our offset for this year will equate to 71kgs of plastic being stopped from entering the ocean which is equivalent to approximately 3,550 plastic bottles.
Going forward we will endeavour to continue minimising our emissions. Naturally as life begins to return to normal there will be more in-person meetings and office working again, but companies who were lucky enough to be able to continue working undisrupted must not forget how well they functioned with the mass uptake of virtual meetings, no international business travel and no printing throughout the pandemic.
