We’ve been thinking about our impact on the environment and how we can do more to make a difference. Below you’ll find the details of our sustainability pledge and the steps we’re taking to reduce our impact on the planet.
We are interested in reducing our negative impact on the environment, looking at the waste we produce, the processes we use, the technology we use and the carbon emissions we produce, among other factors.
Our goal is to make incremental improvements each year and to be able to look back in five or ten years and see the impact of our efforts. Our objective is to improve from where we are now to become a fully sustainable business with as little impact on the environment as possible.
In preparation for a more sustainable future, we have made a number of big changes, taking into account the commercial impact, and innovating to navigate these challenges. rough wo officially a carbon negative comany
Over the last 40 years, we have spent tens of thousands of pounds on print products, flyers, newspapers, guides, magazines and have produced millions of printed pages.
The way that people consume information now has drastically changed. We don’t believe that people used our print products as they once did and we have taken time to learn about the impact of deforestation and the compounds and heavy metals in printer ink that can lead to soil and water pollution when left in landfill sites.
In addition, the paper that we used often travelled large distances to get to the printers and then travelled further from the printers to our target destinations across the country.
We took the decision to drop our commercial print products including magazines and directories, conference guides and supplements and instead offered our readers and clients a range of new digital solutions that are more accountable, have a much wider reach and, of course, have a much smaller impact on the environment.
We also ended the contract for our office printer & fax machine, and handed that back to the supplier. Paper contracts were also replaced by a new digital booking system reducing the need to send post.
When hosting in person events, we no longer publish paper delegate lists, instead using a custom build app. We also felt that we needed to give free gifts to attendees and often we would use generic branded merchandise. We often bought items based on cost, rather than considering the source of these materials, what they were made from, or what was being kept or discarded by attendees as soon as they arrived home. We have reduced the number of free gifts we give, and now only offer those products from a sustainable or recycled background.
When we started to look into the environmental impact of the business. Pre Covid, our sales and editorial attended hundreds of clients meetings per year, , had merchandise and exhibition stands sent across the length of the country for conferences, fairs and exhibitions and all our employees commuted to the office.
During 2021 over 95% of all client meetings were virtual and we did not attend any physical events. As of May 2020, we became a fully hybrid team so the impact of the daily commute of our employees has been dramatically reduced down to 10 full days per year.
We no longer require many of the services usually found in an office which has reduced the number of delivery journeys required. We have cancelled everything from the coffee machine, stationary orders, water coolers and paper shredding collection. In addition, we have turned off our fridge and freezers. Furthermore, all computer screens are turned off with employees dialling into their PC via LAN. The lights remain off except for one day a week and the AC is set at a minimum. This has had a dramatic effect on our carbon footprint.
Our current lease expires in January 2024, and subsequently we will be moving to substantially smaller premises. There are challenges we are going to have to overcome, but there are also going to be big changes to the impact we have as a business on the environment.
Throughout 2021, no members of staff worked full time at the office and only two member of staff spent more than five days there across the entire year.
Our supply chain runs far and wide and, over the next twelve months, we hope to put more commitments and checks from our suppliers in place to see if we can make the world a more sustainable place together.
We are in the process of attempting our first carbon footprint calculation this year We have tried to take into account that most of our team spend almost all of their working time at home and, therefore, we have tried to factor in their home heating, lighting and internet use.
Our carbon output is surprisingly lean. We intend to focus around three key metrics to begin:
Carbon Produced Kg
Once we have been able to quantify the impact of our commercial activities we will actively seek ways to offset it.
United Kingdom