Is your business climate positive? Perhaps you think you can’t make a difference?
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead.
It’s February 2022 and crazy, windy storms are passing through Yorkshire. The garden fence is putting up an almighty battle to stay vertical, but I’m not hopeful it will come through unscathed. Storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin aren’t actually thought to have been caused by climate change, but we’ve only got to watch David Attenborough’s The Green Planet to feel fearful of the havoc global warming is set to wreak on our planet.
If no action is taken to behave in a more environmentally friendly way, we and our children can look forward to more and more extreme weather; higher temperatures, droughts, excessive rainfall, storms and flooding.
What can small business do to become more green?
A couple of years ago, the team at Cree Digital got to thinking about climate change and the small differences that we could make. It’s all too easy to believe that as individuals or small businesses, we can’t reverse or slow down climate change, but nothing could be further from the truth. Which is why Cree Digital partnered with Ecologi early in 2021. We can easily track the progress of our bid to become a climate positive business and it’s a good feeling.
Is Cree Digital a carbon neutral business?
Yes. It’s beautifully simple. Our monthly contribution to Ecologi supports tree planting, which offsets the business’s carbon footprint. In less than a year, 375 trees have been planted on our behalf, which is great. Much as we’d love to throw our wellies on and get outside to plant 375 trees ourselves, it just wouldn’t happen.
About Ecologi
“Ecologi was initially founded by a group of environmentalists in Bristol, UK. They were frustrated that many of us are not able to contribute enough to the colossal climate problem.
It started in early 2019, when Elliot was on his morning commute to work. He was buying a coffee just as he had done thousands of times before, and asked himself: How much climate action could I fund with the money for a coffee?
The answer led to a revelation – that the pocket change that billions of us have would not only be a significant upgrade to our own personal contributions to the crisis, but could also one day account for reducing half of the world’s emissions.” – ecologi.com
Signing up was a no-brainer for us. Hopefully spreading the word will encourage more and more businesses to consider doing the same. Find out more and sign up to Ecologi here
How big is your environmental footprint?
You can actually work out your carbon footprint with this handy tool from the World Wildlife Fund:
Pretty scary, isn’t it?
4 easy ways to be more sustainable in the workplace
We are all thinking more about how to live more sustainable, ‘green’ lives at home but we can extend this thinking to the workplace in so many ways. Being more eco-conscious can also save your business money. Win win!
- Energy saving measures – The government is keen to promote green energy and you may even be eligible for a grant. Check out Ofgem to see what help is available.
Make sure all lightbulbs are LED rather than halogen. LEDs last ten times longer than halogen bulbs and use up to 85% less energy. Go further, encourage your team to turn lights off in unused rooms and open windows rather than crank up the air conditioning. - Save trees and go paperless – Paper is an expensive, inefficient way to store information. Where possible, digitalise all documentation.
- Switch to online meetings and events – Since the pandemic, we’ve all become more accustomed to communicating online. Zoom is one of the most popular video conferencing software apps. You’ll soon get used to it!
- Use climate positive (eco-friendly) products – Fair trade coffee, eco-friendly cleaning products, recycled office furniture… every little helps.
It’s now been a couple of days since I started this article. The winds have died down and the sun is shining again but we are determined to do our bit and remain a sustainable business. Don’t forget to check out Ecologi to see how you can contribute to carbon reduction. The figures are impressive:
“Ecologi member impact
with 30,776 members in 987 days
33.7 million trees planted
1,384,666 tonnes of CO2 reduced” – ecologi.com