Safeguarding the environment has always been an integral part of Innovation Visual, and a core element of our vision is making positive contributions to protecting the natural environment. We are committed to monitoring and negating our carbon footprint as much as possible, and this report will outline our environmental impact in the first half of 2021, and the steps we’ve taken to reduce this as much as possible.
Our mission is to be the leading digital marketing consultancy (by client results) that provides strategy to tactical implementation services in an on-going partnership approach and is a joy to work with and for.
Our vision is to be the digital marketing agency that people use as the best practice example in balancing the delivery of all of the following: client results, team wellbeing, growth, profitability, while also making a positive contribution to the natural environment.
We have measured the number of work-related journeys each month, for all of our employees, including commuting and travelling to meetings and events by various means.
As a result of our working from home and the cancellation of annual events, our commuting has been at a minimum. We occasionally go into the office if it is safe to do so, but this is still uncommon, and the travel data clearly reflects this. Work from home has also meant that some employees have been able to relocate further away from the office. There are a couple of instances of these employees commuting in from places like York, which explains the higher overall travel in the months of March, April, and June. We were also very fortunate to be able to substantially grow our team throughout the year and have welcomed several new members into our ranks. This growth in our team is also reflected in our travel figures, with these new members occasionally coming into the office.
The data further reflects the easing of lockdown restrictions, with more of our team members now choosing to occasionally travel to the office to work collaboratively. Although restrictions on social distancing have now been lifted, we are still limiting how many people we have in the office at one time in order to stay safe and keep our overall carbon dioxide output as low as possible.
We have been measuring our waste output and recycling. To better evaluate our output, we have been splitting this into recyclable and non-recyclable. The figures tell an interesting story:
Throughout the 6 months we have produced the following:
Total kg of waste: 32.12kg, of which 20.75 kg was recycled and 11.41 kg went to landfill.
The above demonstrates that roughly two thirds of the waste we produced was recycled. We feel encouraged by this figure but believe there is still more room for improvement over the next six months, and we hope to continue increasing our percentage of recycled waste.
At Innovation Visual we are passionate about protecting wildlife. As part of our commitment to the preservation of the natural world, Innovation Visual joined 1% for the Planet in 2012 and volunteer to donate a minimum of 1% of our annual turnover to environmental causes every year. These donations are taken from the company profits, so that our clients are not impacted by increased prices.
The Innovation Visual Directors have been donating to David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) on a personal basis for many years, so it was no surprise that this was the first charity we chose to support through our 1% for the Plant membership donations.
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation funds projects in Asia and Africa which work to protect endangered wild mammals through, conservation programmes, education initiatives and through fighting against wildlife crime. Their fundraising goes directly to support anti-poaching and conservation projects which are directly involved in the survival of these vulnerable animals, including tigers, rhinos, painted dogs and snow leopards.
In addition to regular donations, in early 2020 Innovation Visual donated time 100% free of charge to rebuild the DSWF website to support their fundraising efforts. This labour of love was a massive success as more than £12,000 was raised in the first afternoon after launch!
A little closer to home, Innovation Visual are proud corporate sponsors of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust (ARC Trust). This UK-based charity works nationally and internationally to protect and conserve native species of reptiles and amphibians, through education and conservation, to protect our natural world.
Previously it was common practice and indeed considered best practice, to travel to the workplace of new clients to meet them face to face and to carry out the on-boarding meeting. Since lockdown, we have learned how to conduct incredibly successful meetings remotely, with both new and existing clients, partners and suppliers!
We will continue to conduct meetings and calls virtually over the internet whenever possible. This move has been welcomed by our clients, who have given highly positive feedback and embraced this way of communicating as the new norm. The Innovation Visual team has thrown themselves into remote working and found that productivity and efficiency have actually increased since they have been working from home!
We will continue our efforts to reduce our waste output so that we can offset what we cannot mitigate in other ways.
As our team continues to work from home for the majority of their time, waste production should continue to decrease at the office. For unavoidable purchases we will make a concerted effort to be more conscientious about where we are buying from and the environmental impact of not only the items purchased, but the packaging and method of delivery.
