Sustainability has always been at the forefront of our brand’s values, as our passion for looking after the planet extends deeply into our day-to-day lives, as well as into the work we produce for our clients.
In the past, we have tackled our carbon footprint through methods such as carbon offsetting through Climate Care, switching to a sustainable virtual private server to host our new websites, investing in quality insulation for our offices, and we are lucky that the majority of our employees commute to work through environmentally conscious means. Whilst we have been successful in reducing our footprint with 1.9 t CO2e saved through powering our offices with green energy and 8.5 t CO2 saved by hosting 205 websites with green energy, we continue to educate ourselves about sustainability and what more we can do to tackle climate change.
In 2022, we learnt that carbon offsetting alone is simply not enough to combat climate change, and we no longer want to sit in the same boat as businesses that use carbon offsetting as their only means of carbon reduction. Carbon Offsetting has become too popular over the years as an easy way to cut carbon emissions when in fact, it doesn’t actually solve the issue of carbon emissions being emitted in the first place.
We realise that we still have a long way to go in achieving our green ambitions, but this is why we’ve partnered with local carbon consultants, Balanced Energy, who have produced a tailored carbon plan to help us reach our sustainability goals in a way that’s achievable for our business and genuinely has a positive impact on our environment. We are also in the process of applying to become a certified B-Corporation to ensure that we balance profit and purpose through the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
With the help of Balanced Energy, we have pinpointed the three most carbon-heavy areas of our business which include, digital emissions, office waste and our office energy.
Our carbon reduction is an absolute priority for us (and the planet!), and that’s why we are actively trying to make a difference with regular carbon audits so that we can hold ourselves accountable. Thanks to Balanced Energy, we have managed to set ourselves a clear carbon reduction plan with three key goals that we need to achieve by 2030:
-Move to 100% renewable energy to power our offices which would result in a carbon saving of 1.93 t C02e
-Switch over to a ‘zero to landfill’ waste contract which would result in a carbon saving of 0.14 t CO2e
-Reduce the carbon footprint of our websites which would result in a whopping carbon saving of 10 t CO2e
We aim to achieve these three goals with the intention of installing solar panels onto our office roof, we have already signed up for our local ‘zero to landfill’ scheme, and as a team, we are discussing and implementing the most effective ways to reduce the emissions coming from our websites. Whilst we understand that web design will never truly be green, our developers are actively trying to minimize source code, whilst our designers are optimising fonts, perfecting site navigation and optimising content. We also deliver a strong warning label on carbon-heavy features such as animations and AI within our consultations so that our clients realise the consequences before proceeding with them.
All in all, completing all of these goals by 2030 would make a total saving of 12.07 t CO2e which is equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions from 14,051 pounds of coal burned! So here is our green statement: we pledge to continue incorporating sustainability into our business practices; striving to bridge the gap between web beautification and sustainability, one website at a time!