As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting the natural world, Innovation Visual has pledged to monitor and negate our carbon footprint. To do that we will reduce and stop the carbon production that we can control and offset what we cannot.
We are committed to releasing these figures every 6 months so as to be as transparent as possible in our efforts for our team and stakeholders.
Our mission is to actively work towards reducing our carbon dioxide production, both as a company and as individuals in the team. We will contribute to both local and international initiatives in supporting the conservation and protection of the natural world in meaningful ways as well as through charitable donations.
In 2021 our commuting, business travelling and paper consumption, has resulted in the following carbon footprint:
|
Activity |
CO2 Kg 2021 |
CO2 Kg 2020 |
|
Travel |
3277.17 |
6200.19 |
|
Paper |
675.27 |
752.46 |
|
TOTAL |
3956.05 |
6952.65 |
Compared to the previous year, this shows a reduction of nearly 3 tonnes of CO2!
Innovation Visual has continued to grow and add members to our team of Brilliant Digital Marketeers. The vast majority of our team now works remotely, attending the office only when business needs require it. As such we have managed to decrease our measurable CO2 production and our waste!
In fact we have reduced our CO2 output by 43% (when compared with 2020. That is more than 2 tonnes of carbon not released into the atmosphere. This represents a per capita output of 219.83kg in 2021, down from more than half a tonne per employee in the previous year!
CO2Kg output year by year
We make sure to regularly measure the number of work-related journeys taken by the team, each month and can clearly see that these have decreased compared to the previous period.
Total Kilometres travelled by Year
Out team works largely from home and the continued impact of this on our Carbon footprint is immense. When compared directly with the previous year we have saved more than 30000 km of business travel and so kept more than 3 tonnes of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere! The number of business flights has drastically reduced this year and remained very low
During 2021 we continued to record our waste output. We produced 46.3 domestic bin loads of waste, which can be broken down into the following:
|
Waste |
2021 | 2020 |
|
Landfill |
17.3 |
8.3 |
|
Recycled |
29 |
14.6 |
|
TOTAL |
46.3 |
22.9 |
Our waste production has increased proportionately in all areas in line with the growth of the company, and considerably in comparison with the figures for 2020. This is perhaps to be expected as many of our team members returned to office working and our numbers have increased also more than 2x since we started recording our waste production. Clearly we have some way to go to make a greater positive impact on our waste production. That said, recycling accounted for 63% of all waste produced by Innovation Visual in 2021. We produced 2Kg (2 bin loads) of plastic but, due to researching alternative recycling options, all of this is now being recycled, with no plastic waste going to landfill!
Waste Production 2021
Paper purchases have been recorded by weight.
Producing 100,000 sheets of A4 paper (499kg) from new sources requires over 8 trees and has a ‘life-cycle carbon footprint’ of 6 tonnes of CO2. This includes the process of creating the paper and disposing of it 8 times (as on average paper can be recycled about 7 times)
We did not require any paper purchases in 2021, we are fully committed to using online and electronic documents whenever possible, and for any items which required us to use paper, we were able to draw on our left over stock from the previous year. We did however purchase a number of cardboard boxes, greetings cards and packaging materials which were used to post gifts to our clients. We can look to defend this action however by recognising that we deliberately purchased locally to support our community and to save on delivery carbon. We also achieved a significant reduction in our paper CO2 emissions when compared to the previous year
In 2021, our paper purchases of 56.2kg had an environmental cost of 675.27kg of CO2, compared to 752.46Kg in 2020.
This does not account for any paper that entered our offices by other means, such as via the mail. Any paper items which were disposed of have been included in the waste calculations under non-plastic recycling
Innovation Visual contributes to various charitable organisations to support the natural world.
As part of our commitment to the preservation of the natural world, Innovation Visual is dedicated to donating a minimum of 1% of our annual turnover to environmental charities through the 1% for the Planet initiative, of which we have been a member since 2012.
Having had a personal commitment to the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) for many years, it made sense that DSWF would be the first charity to be supported by Innovation Visual through our 1% for the Plant donations.
This wonderful charity support projects throughout Asia and Africa in the protection of endangered wild animals, through the use of conservation, education and fighting wildlife crime. Their fundraising goes directly to the conservation projects and anti poaching initiatives involved in the protection of these vulnerable animals, including tigers, rhinos, painted dogs and snow leopards.
In addition to a new eCommerce website, Innovation Visual also continues to support the DSWF though a discounted day rate.
Based in the UK, this charity works both nationally and internationally to conserve and protect reptiles and amphibians, through education and conservation initiatives, to protect our natural world.
Throughout 2021 we have stayed committed to our aim of using secure online software for the vast majority of both our internal and external calls. This has helped us to reduce our travel requirements and also allowed us to keep our team, clients suppliers and all of our families safer during this difficult few years. Any in person meetings have been conducted safely and with the latest guidelines in mind.
We couldn’t be prouder of our dedicated team of Digital Marketeers, and their hard work has been recognised by reaching the finals in a number of categories awards; including the European Search Awards, where we won ‘Best Use of Search – Not for Profit’ for our work supporting the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
We continue to only print when it is absolutely necessary, and our eSignature software means that even sensitive documents can be securely signed virtually, without the need for printing or posting. This action has been strongly evidenced in our paper CO2 figures.
It is likely that a purchase of paper may have to be made in 2022. When this need arises, we will be sure to find the best and most environmentally sensitive solution.
Our waste production has increased considerably, but proportionately, compared to the previous year. This is true for recycling as well as landfill and in-fact we have managed to reduce our plastic waste to landfill to zero!
We will continue to encourage our team and any visitors to be conscious in their decisions when printing, purchasing items and recycling so that we can continue to make gains. In fact it seems that more needs to be done in this area to combat the amount of waste being produced by the IV team.
Throughout 2021, The innovation Visual team took part in a companywide scheme to support the UK's native population of bees. We spent the spring and summer growing bee friendly flowers and plants to help these wonderful creatures thrive around our homes. Dr David Goulson, Professor Of Biology at the University of Sussex spared some time to speak to us about bumblebee ecology and preservation as well as the harm of commonly used pesticides on the UK bee populations. Watch his talk here! We had great fun sharing pictures of our flowers, and tips on how to attract the different species of bee an other insect pollinators.
Despite our efforts to reduce our CO2 as much as possible, we have produced some through our business activities and we have decided to offset this, with a charitable organisation who can use our donation to negate our production and also help those in need around the globe.
Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty (COTAP) tackles climate change and global poverty by using money from personal and business offsetting. We are delighted that our offset of 4 tonnes will go to such a deserving cause, however we think we can do even better. We are not yet in a position to measure all of our carbon production, so we have decided to offset 10 times our recorded production through COTAP
COTAP is certified through 1% for the Planet uses reputable third-party certification organisations, and is fully transparent full transparency with regards to where their donations are spent .
Our money has been allocated to the following projects:
Taking Root’s Limay Community Carbon Project in Nicaragua, Ecotrust’s Trees for Global Benefits (TFGB) Community Carbon Project in Uganda, KSKHAW-UMWS’s Khasi Hills Community REDD+ Carbon Project in India, the Nakau Programme’s Drawa Rainforest Conservation Project in Fiji, KKI Warsi’s Bujang Raba Community PES Project in Indonesia, Cooperativa AMBIO’s Scolel té Reforestation Project in Mexico.
We are proud to support the wider global community through our offsetting.
