How to reduce the carbon footprint of your marketing
Are you looking for ways to make your marketing efforts more eco-friendly? What a crazy coincidence, you’d almost think we created a clickbaity title!! Well you’re in the right place. We’ve been trying to learn what we can do with our own company, and thought we’d share some steps that might also be useful for you!
Create a carbon footprint assessment.
Step one. You gotta have a gameplan. So starting off with identifying the areas where your business is emitting the most carbon and tracking your progress over time. It's like having your own personal trainer, but for the environment! This will allow you to make informed decisions about how to reduce your environmental impact.
Don’t know where to start? Coolbeans, here’s a few quick ones that helped us get going!
Look at how much energy the company uses for its operations and products.
Think about the impact of the materials and products the company gets from its suppliers and whether the supplier is producing in a sustainable way.
As a marketing company, it’s also important to consider what practises you uses in the work you do for clients.
AND don't forget to look at the emissions from the company's transportation and logistics, such as shipping and employee commutes.
Once you have a clear understanding of your carbon footprint, you can start to identify opportunities for reducing it. From investing in renewable energy to implementing more efficient business practices (some suggestions later in this here post)
Optimizing your cloud storage and websites by compressing!
Reducing cloud usage can significantly reduce a company's carbon footprint by decreasing the amount of energy required to power and cool the servers that store and process data.
Until we did our Carbon Review, the cloud was actually by far our biggest polluter as we let out roughly 90tonns of C02 per year from cloud storage alone. Some of the simplest steps (within some degree of your control) is to use up to date codexes, and compressing final deliverables as much as possible. As well as reducing the amount of (in our case raw video files) you keep stored in the cloud. AS the cloud is incredibly energy hungry.
The same goes for your website, the faster it loads, with more compressed images, the better it actually is for the environment as less energy is being used on loading it.
Go digital!!
Shocker, I know. But ditching print materials like brochures, flyers, and posters, opting for digital marketing methods whenever possible (and suitable), can really help a pretty little place called planet earth. (FUN FACT: the scientific name for Earth is Terra. Which is also why in The Marvel universe us humans are known as Terrans. But I digress)
Producing print materials requires a lot paper, plastics, ink and, paint… And the transportation, shipping and distribution of these are pretty heavy on emissions as well as general litter.
This is especially relevant if your company is currently not looking into sustainable options and suppliers (see next point) but rather focusing on price point.
It's worth noting that digital marketing methods do have an environmental impact too, e.g. the whole thing above about the energy consumption of cloud storage. However, these emissions are generally lower than those associated with producing and distributing print materials unless you (drumroll)...
Use recycled materials!
Sometimes you will need physical marketing materials like posters, in these cases consider using recycled paper and eco-friendly materials.. Not only is it better for the environment, but it also sends a clear message to your customers that your company is committed to sustainability. You can even use eco-friendly inks such as soy-based inks, and for those sweet company t-shirts try using sustainable options like bamboo, hemp, and Tencel, which are all natural and biodegradable.
Partner with suppliers who share your commitment to protecting the environment.
By working with like-minded companies, you'll be able to create a sustainable supply chain that reduces your business's environmental footprint.
For example let’s say, oh I don’t know… You needed a video. Then working with a sustainable video production company (wink wink, nudge nudge) who cares about the environment would ensure that the production process will follow the best practices to minimize your carbon footprint.
Like this guy. Aka. Me.
So, if you're looking to take your sustainability efforts to the next level, start by building relationships with partners and suppliers who share your passion for protecting the planet. Creating an eco friendly ecosystem around your company, so we can all be one happy eco friendly family. Did I say eco too much, I guess I’m just being ECOnomical with my vocabulary. Wow. That’s- I have no words. Let’s keep it , editing is overrated!
Push sustainable messaging and ideas in your marketing campaigns
Both for yourself or (if you’re agency side) your clients campaigns.
This is a great way to not only educate your audience about the importance of protecting the planet but also to show them that your business cares about more than just making a profit. By highlighting your sustainable practices or promoting eco-friendly products, you're not only sending a message to your audience that you're socially responsible but also that you're a business that's in tune with the times and the concerns of your customers.
Encourage work from home.
Working from home can greatly reduce the number of cars on the road and decrease emissions. It can also improve employee satisfaction and productivity by allowing them more flexibility and saving them time and money on commuting. Transport is of course a massive polluter so pushing work from home and commuting via public transport can do a LOT to cut your carbon footprint.
This could be your home. Fair warning though the kitchen is fairly “cozy”
Move events online or go local!
Hosting virtual events and webinars is a great way to reduce emissions associated with in-person events and "zoom" (pun so very very much intended!) in on a wider audience. Not only is it more environmentally friendly, but it’ll let you reach more people across the world
According to a study by the Carbon Trust, transportation is responsible for approximately 14% of global carbon emissions, with air transport being the worst offender! A single round-trip flight from New York to London, for example, generates roughly 1.7 metric ton of CO2 per person. This means that even a small event with a few attendees traveling by air can generate a significant amount of emissions.
Emissions from ground transportation such as cars and buses also contribute. For example, a single car generates about 4.6 metric tons of CO2 per year. And taking public transportation is not always the best alternative, as it also generates emissions depending on the type of transportation used.
Of course events do have their place, and it's about balancing the need for in-person interactions with the environmental impact. Minimizing events and thinking about smaller, more local ones, where you can reduce travel is a good way to strike that balance and still achieve your goals while being more sustainable.
Using green energy sources for the office.
We shouldn’t try to stop using energy, but rather transition to sustainable ways of generating that power, like wind and solar. This can of course be quite tricky, especially for smaller agencies. Don't worry, there are still plenty of ways to make your office more energy-efficient.
If you get philips Hue you can also program a disco!
One simple option is to switch to LED light bulbs which use significantly less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs and last much longer, which means you'll also save money in the long run.
There are also some providers starting to pop up providing green energy to small businesses, and even households like our client. Ripple Energy. You can check them out here.
Implementing a recycling program in the office
This is a great way to reduce waste and encourage an awareness for the environment within your company's culture. To make it easy and convenient you can provide clearly labeled recycling bins and place them in easily accessible areas throughout the office.
You can encourage participation with friendly competitions among teams or departments to see who can recycle the most. Perhaps through a recycling day, where whoever recycles the MOST get rewarded with a price of ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Or a small trophy made from recycled ocean bottles. Up to you and your budget really.
For employees who are working from home, you can still involve them in the recycling program by providing information and resources on how to recycle properly and encouraging them to recycle at home.
Offset responsbily.
Controversial, yes, can be dodgy, for sure! But carbon offset projects can help you "offset" the remissions you can’t reduce by investing in renewable energy or reforestation projects. Although this should be used as a last resort, finding better ways of doing things, changing our behavior and practices are better then paying to “offset” it.
You do have to be careful with the provider you choose. As was recently revealed in this Guardian expose, More than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by the biggest provider are worthless . Yikes! https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed-forest-carbon-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe
