What I learnt from calculating my carbon emissions
This month I’ve been working with carbon footprinting startup Etrify to understand carbon emissions, the GHG Protocol and to calculate the footprint of my business.
I’ve mentored Jason and Ross for the last six months while they launch their business, and I’m grateful they offered me the opportunity to take part in one of their Carbon Sprint workshops.
Here are some things I’ve learnt from the process:
My 2021 baseline emissions were 3.5 tCO2e
That’s roughly the same as:
35% of the average UK carbon footprint per person (10T per person)
12,000 miles in a medium-sized petrol car (the entire length of the United Kingdom 14 times)
141 trees to remove these emissions (25kg per tree)
All of my business emissions fall under Scope 3 and are mostly upstream emissions. These are emissions from purchased goods and services, investments, capital goods and business travel. Everything that contributes towards delivering marketing services, essentially.
Everything you do, store and upload has an impact on the environment. This includes everything from the amount of emails you send and store, to the size of assets you upload in marketing campaigns. The key is to first understand those impacts, then minimise the most harmful ones where you can.
Passive activities can have more impact than active ones. The environmental impact of finance (banking and pensions) can be more than things like business travel. Make Money Matters says that by choosing a greener pension provider you can cut carbon up to 21 times more than giving up flying or going veggie.
Achieving a good balance between running a business, minimising environmental impact and maintaining wellbeing is not easy. The world is opening up following the lockdowns of the last two years and there are lots of in-person events, networking opportunities and chances to meet new people. I thrive creatively when I meet people, experience new things and vary my work environment. The problem is that more travel equals more carbon emissions (although they are low). I don’t know if there is a conclusion to this, but it’ll be interesting to see how 2022 compares to 2021 and see what balance I can strike.
Figuring out how to grow a business without growing carbon emissions is hard. Lots of clever people are working on this challenge at the moment. Linking carbon emissions to positive impact is a possible route and an idea I’m keen to learn more about over the coming months.
I don’t know enough about carbon offsetting. To date I’ve already offset 3.5 tonnes of carbon through Ecologi. I want to do more research into the impact of this and see what other options are out there, such as Pachama.
I’ve only scratched the service. This is a learning curve that I think we all need to go through. Knowledge is power, after all.
What I’ll be doing next
In 2022, I plan to:
Review and delete old emails, images, files and documents
Change hosting and redesign my website to reduce its carbon footprint
Add the Website Carbon badge to my website
Move all old employer pensions into ESG investments
Certify Soleil Marketing as a B Corp - demonstrating a commitment to running a business that prioritises planet, people as well as profit
Keep learning and help educate others where I can
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