Sustainability
As our business evolves, we have been taking a long look at our values and how they support positive outcomes. One of the key areas of consideration has been “sustainablility”. For us this should not just be in the context of short-term market opportunities and financial stability but consider our impact more broadly and what part it plays in the wider environment.
Over the coming months we will be sharing what we are doing from a “Sustainability” perspective both from an ecological and business viewpoint. In our mind, everything is connected and making a positive difference in one area “can” often support positive outcomes elsewhere. We will share what we are trying to do, why and what we learn as we go.
In a recent article, Lombard Odier, the Private Bank, recognise the existing climate crisis and use the following to describe the current global economy.
Wasteful; Idel; Lopsided; Dirty [W.I.L.D] and that to address the environmental crisis we need to become Circular; Lean; Inclusive; Clean [C.L.I.C]. As a business we recognise this. Economies, organisations and businesses have over exploited resources and taken advantage of environments for short-term gain. We are now seeing the effects on the planet and to the way we live, the pandemic being an example.
We will be considering sustainability in context of:
how we deliver our services to clients;
the ecological impact of running our business;
designing models, processes and systems
the financial implications
our people, partners and communities in terms of workload, work balance and future skills
Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash
Going Carbon Negative
Number 1 on our sustainability agenda for 2021 is to be a Carbon Negative business.
So what does that mean?
Carbon emmissions are the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which can include things like energy usage (travel; heating; light etc); manufacturing/mining processes and large scale agriculture.
Going negative for us will mean
a. We understand what our business contributes to carbon emmissions including our sub-contractors and partners
b. We look at practical policies to reduce down those emissions e.g. only travel if you have to; use public transport etc.
c. We offset what we do produce in a year through a Carbon Offsetting Scheme e.g. Tree Planting
How are we going about it?
We have been accepted on to the BIMA Sustainability Programme that supports businesses small or large, with their partner MMT Digital, to go Carbon Negative. They are providing calculators, methods and support to enable us to become a Carbon Negative business.
What are the benefits?
We see the two main benefits to us as:
Making a positive environmental impact
Making people aware of the problem and how they can make a positive difference
So what next?
We hope by the start of Q2 we will have
calculated and forecasted our emissions
identified and made policy changes in the organisation
signed-up and contributed to a carbon offsetting scheme
created our carbon dashboard similar to the example below
We will be publishing more articles on our sustainability agenda over the coming months as well as project updates. Sustainability is linked to enterprise agility, to have an effective, agile enterprise you need to be sustainable. We will be connecting those dots.
Written by Charlie Symonds CEO of Alirity 15/02/2021