As a small business wanting to do better for the environment, it’s difficult to know where to start. We know where we want to be and that’s carbon negative but the journey there is the hard part!
Just a few of the questions we banded about the office before deciding to undertake this journey:
What changes can we make that will actually make a difference to our carbon footprint?
Are the changes detrimental to the day-to-day running of the business?
How do we get clients on board with our new way of doing things?
How do we manage our approach and ensure we stick to the plans we make?
If we plant 500 trees to offset carbon, will we just be accused of greenwashing?
We know roughly how much carbon we generate as an office with a team of staff. We know that the servers we use down in London run on 100% renewable energy. And we know what an average client’s platform emissions are. So how do we formulate a plan to take us from where we are now, to a carbon-negative company? The answer lies in ISO14001.
ISO14001 is an Environmental Management system that helps us to set tailored goals with a realistic structure for achieving them. For example, if we all work at home 2 days a week, we save 40kg of carbon a week or 2.8 tonnes a year. But who is tracking this? Are we really working from home 2 days a week or will we do it for a month and then lapse back into full-time office working? ISO14001 makes us put in the legwork to track our changes, report any non-conformance and put measures in place to ensure we stay on track.
ISO is audited, which means that any pledges we make to gain the initial accreditation are followed up every six months to ensure we aren’t just talking the talk but also walking the walk. It gives the whole endeavour an official stamp, to prove we’re doing what we say we are and give reassurance to our customers and other interested parties that we’re committed to a programme of continual improvement in respect of our environmental responsibilities.
It’s going to be an interesting 12 months (and beyond) at adaptive as we move towards our goal of carbon negativity. ISO14001 will ensure we stay on track and ultimately become a company that has as little impact as possible on the environment. Stay tuned.