Since joining Nimbletank I’ve been wanting to make a difference. Not just to our clients but also to our business. The way we do business, the way we work and the non-commercial impacts we have.
If I’m honest, it’s taken longer than I thought it would. These things take time and, like everyone, we’re always short of that. Also, it’s easy to prioritise other demands, put things off and procrastinate a little as we convince ourselves that certain ideas and initiatives are ‘not mission critical’ or can be filed under ‘nice to haves’.
But being sustainable shouldn’t be divorced from the day to day of running a business, it should be integral to it. As a team, we’ve become more conscious of our consumer habits and the impacts they have so it’s a logical progression to reflect these values in our business.
A little help from our friends
We’ve been working with BIMA for the past couple of months as part of their Carbon Negative initiative, attending their step by step course and tapping into their assessment and impact tools, to plot our base carbon footprint for 2019 and again for 2020.
Already starting from a low base, due largely to short commute times, the use of public transport and a limited number of overseas clients, our impact was then artificially lowered further as the team switched to remote working last year ahead of the first lockdown.
This saw our footprint drop to 3.1kgs per person, per day.
To put these numbers in context, in a service business like Nimbletank, carbon emissions per person, per day of 6-10kg are considered 'very low'. So, while we're doing pretty well, we’re not there yet. We’re continuing to work with BIMA to shift the business to become carbon negative. This will be achieved via a number of additional initiatives to change behaviours and introduce carbon reduction strategies to further lower our footprint, and by offsetting via a tree-planting programme with Ecologi.
It is our aim to hit the goal of being fully carbon negative in time for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) being held in the UK in November.
If you’re a member of BIMA I wholeheartedly recommend looking into this initiative and if you’re not, then Carbon Trust is a good place to start. Best of luck and don’t put this one off.