we’re a carbon neutral marketing agency

 

reducing our environmental impact

At Visarc, we believe that taking action today will lead to a better world tomorrow, as a business we have already made some significant steps towards reducing our environmental impact.

• 2 EV charge points available for staff to use since 2017
• Contract with a renewable electricity supplier since 2017
• Environmentally friendly and low impact products purchased where options are available
• A paperless office with an effective reuse / recycling policy

There is always room for improvement though, as part of our long-range business planning we have evaluated our environmental impact and embarked on a process to significantly improve what we do as a business.

In 2022 our Finance Director obtained the necessary certification to be able to accurately measure our carbon footprint. This requires an extensive review of the business, including, energy use, staff commuter journeys, and products ordered by Visarc on behalf of our clients to name but a few things.

The analysis revealed that our position was better than we expected. The steps already taken, combined with being a digital agency and having low commuter miles since we introduced hybrid working all worked in our favour.  A thorough analysis of our carbon footprint has helped us to quantify our annual carbon contribution and identify the key areas to focus on in order to improve.

Our first step was to target becoming Carbon Neutral. This is achieved by offsetting our carbon footprint by planting trees and investing in positive impact projects. Not to be confused with Net Zero which should be everyone’s longer term goal and involves radically reducing their carbon footprint to as close to zero as possible.

In 2021, we subscribed to the Ecologi scheme so we can offset our carbon footprint to a verified Gold Standard. Our investment continues every year as we plan our journey to net zero.

So today, we can very happily say that Visarc is carbon neutral and always looking at ways to reduce our carbon consumption!

 

 

 

our path to net zero

This year we are striving to reduce commuter miles by introducing a cycle to work scheme and partnering with Octopus EV which allows staff members to use salary sacrifice to cover the cost of the lease of an EV.

Our next important step is collaboration with our suppliers, understanding their carbon footprint and therefore their contributions to Visarc’s. We will explore how we can opt for lower impact solutions and create better options for us and our clients. 

We are committed to working towards the governments net zero targets, but would like to get there sooner. The first milestone is to halve greenhouse gas emissions before 2030. We have already achieved a 34% reduction and hope to make 50% as soon as we can.

But net zero feels a long way off. This is an area that is now in desperate need of regulation and government legislation to prevent companies neglecting to consider and improve their impact. It would be great to be spoiled for choice when looking for suppliers with good green credentials! Until then our Scope 3 reductions feel difficult to achieve and rather out of our control. New data every year will help us identify where we can make further improvements.

Meanwhile, we have taken some positive steps and can say we are committed to carbon neutral as our absolute minimum position and with support from our staff, clients and suppliers we will continue with our mission to reduce our carbon footprint each year.

Net zero can only be achieved by collaboration so we encourage anyone who would like to partner with us as a low impact supplier or client to get in touch.