Environmental sustainability policy

Introduction

The natural environment that we currently enjoy is not something we can take for granted any longer.

Climate change caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions, over-consumption of natural resources, environmental degradation, plastic and chemical pollution and species loss, all pose serious and imminent threats.

Our children face existential challenges unless we take urgent, systemic and collective action now.

This is an emergency.

Time to wake up!

Cogapp is committed to playing its part and encouraging others to do the same. Our aim is to reduce our environmental impact (including Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions) as fast as we possibly can.

In order to do this as effectively as possible we have joined Business Declares and the fast-growing network of businesses that acknowledge the Climate and Ecological Emergency. We actively support their work and encourage like-minded organisations and people to consider similar moves so that we can co-ordinate and thereby amplify our individual voices.

Please feel free to adapt this policy for your own situation and, if you do, please let us know how you get on so we can compare notes.

Our policy

Our policy is to do what we can, as fast as we can, to reduce and, if possible, reverse the effects of, excess CO2 emissions, over-consumption of resources and related threats to our environment and encourage others to do the same.

• We will put this policy into effect using an OODA loop: Observe; Orient; Decide; Act.
• We will observe and measure our environmental impact and our progress with this programme.
• We will orient through research; investigating ways to reduce, re-use, recycle and offset our own footprint.
• We will take practical steps to follow through on what we learn.
• We will also try to have a wider impact by supporting third-party initiatives and encouraging our clients and associates to adopt similar aims and policies.
• We will meet regularly to maintain progress and to keep moving round the loop.

Progress to date

Governance

We have established a Sustainability Working Group which includes two of our directors. This group reports to our board and has the devolved authority and resources to develop and run this programme.

The group meets regularly and has a backlog of tasks managed in Pivotal Tracker.

Measurement

We have measured our energy usage and resource consumption.

Our initial calculations were made using calculators provided by carbonfootprint.com and our utility bills. Since then we have built our own sustainability tracking spreadsheet which uses data from our various energy meters and our travel records combined with standard conversion factors from reliable authorities to calculate approximate CO2e values.

Note: the values we are getting from our own calculations are different from the values we had from the online calculators. But the differences are not so great as to make any difference to the actions we are taking.

We have researched ways to reduce our energy usage, to improve our sources of supply and to offset what we cannot eliminate.

Actions to date

Based on our observations and research we have taken the following actions:

• Improved passive climate control in our studio: insulation to reduce winter heating costs and solar-film to reduce cooling costs.
• Moved our electricity and gas supply to a green energy supplier. In our case we have moved to Ecotricity.
• Continued to encourage sustainable travel particularly via take-up of our cycle-to-work scheme and use of public transport for all regular travel to meetings.
• Reviewed our international travel plans to minimize air travel. Colleagues have made trips to conferences in Europe by rail that would have previously been undertaken by air. We will maximise the use of online meetings and where we need to meet in person will strongly encourage less carbon-intensive methods of travel.
• We are wary of carbon offsetting schemes. Our ambition is for real zero carbon emissions, not some mythical net zero. Nevertheless, we do contribute to schemes that will have a positive effect on emissions including Solar Aid and Rewilding Britain. Both are excellent organisations.
• We have opened an account with Triodos Bank, a leader in sustainable finance. We are using this to ensure that our working capital and reserves work as hard as possible for a sustainable future.
  • Every action, no matter how small, sets something in motion. What you do with your money every day makes a difference.
• We have taken steps to ensure that vegetarian and vegan options are available whenever we cater for an event.
• We are working to reduce plastic usage including ways to reduce plastic associated with take-away food orders for our catered events.
• We have conducted an extensive programme of research into aspects of sustainability and reported our findings to colleagues at one our regular ‘Tech Tuesday’ briefing events.
  • There are hundreds of books and websites. From our research a good place to start is Mike Berners-Lee’s book ‘There is No Planet B’.
• We have continued to recycle as much as possible using an established local supplier. In our case we use Brighton Paper Round.
• We have checked that our website is hosted using renewable energy using the Green Web Check service. 

Next steps

Review the ways that our web work is hosted for our clients to make sure that as much as possible is powered by renewable energy.

Investigate sources of advice for colleagues to help them to move their pension funds to organisations that are making a positive impact on the environment.

Continue to adapt our practices to reduce air travel.

Raise consciousness with clients and associates and encourage them to join us. In particular, make an environmental review part of new projects and ongoing client work.

Support other initiatives that are working towards ensuring a sustainable future.

Continue our regular sequence of meetings to keep moving round the OODA loop.

Comments and suggestions

If you have any comments or suggestions please let us know using the form on our Contact us page. We would love to hear from you.

Designers Accord

In formulating our policy we are grateful for the inspiration and example of others including, notably, Designers Accord.

Led by Valerie Casey, Designers Accord was created in 2007 as a five-year project to mainstream sustainability in the global creative community.

• Designers Accord proposed five principles for participating organizations to adopt:
  • Publicly declare participation in the Designers Accord.
  • Initiate a dialogue about environmental and social impact and sustainable alternatives with each and every client. Rework client contracts to favor environmentally and socially responsible design and work processes. Provide strategic and material alternatives for sustainable design.
  • Undertake a program to educate our teams about sustainability and sustainable design.
  • Consider our ethical footprint. Understand the impact of our organizations – from operations to output – and work to measure and manage it on an ongoing basis.
  • Advance the understanding of environmental and social issues from a design perspective by actively contributing to the communal knowledge base for sustainable design.

Our policy has been inspired by these principles.