Judith Tracey
2020 has been a challenging year for businesses, but as we all social distance and spend more time at home, the environment is benefiting. And despite all that is going on, Webnames is happy to report that the Covid-19 pandemic didn’t preclude the completion of our 2019 greenhouse gas inventory under the Climate Smart program.
Since our baseline year of 2016, our emissions have decreased by 15%. As a mainly digital business, we were fortunate to have a smaller carbon footprint to begin with, so this decrease is mainly attributable to reductions in staff commuting and waste to landfill.
As a digital business, we don’t use a lot of paper to begin with, but to cut down on CO2 emissions, we made a conscious decision to choose lower impact paper products. For the last couple of years, Webnames has been using Sugar Sheet paper made from sugar cane waste. We love this product! You really cannot tell the difference between Sugar Sheet and regular paper made from tree pulp, and it has an even lower Greenhouse Gas Emission footprint than 100% recycled paper. The price is competitive and we’ve never looked back.
Another area where we’ve been able to cut back on emissions is travel. All our staff are set up to work from home and even before the pandemic, many did so at least a couple of days a week. This has reduced our carbon emissions from commuting which has always been our largest source of CO2 output and it made for a seamless transition when offices everywhere closed due to the pandemic.
We’ll likely see a significant drop in carbon emissions for 2020 as a result of all staff eliminating their commute entirely during the pandemic and the cancellation of air travel to conferences and trade shows. That effect, while temporary, is welcome and we continue to implement other strategies to reduce waste wherever possible. This includes working with suppliers who also pursue reductions in GHG emissions, reducing electricity consumption and paper usage and always considering the impact on GHG emissions when making business decisions.
Our team has learned so much about lowering our environmental impact since we first achieved our Climate Smart certification 3-years ago, and it’s carried through to our personal lives and homes. Whether you have 10 employees or 1000, we highly recommend enrolling with Climate Smart. Whether you’re just starting on sustainability, or adding carbon management to your existing strategy, their knowledgable team will help you measure and reduce your carbon footprint while cutting costs. It’s a worthwhile journey, and we hope your business will join us and this amazing community businesses committed to reducing their carbon output for a better environment.