As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting the natural world, Innovation Visual has pledged to measure our carbon production, wherever we can, and offset our carbon footprint by 100% as a minimum. To do that we will remove the carbon production that we can control, and offset what we cannot.
We are committed to releasing these figures every 6 months so as to be as transparent as possible in our efforts for our team and stakeholders.
Our mission is to actively work towards reducing our carbon dioxide production, both as a company and as individuals. We will contribute to both local and international initiatives in supporting the conservation and protection of the natural world in meaningful ways as well as through charitable donations.
In the 2022 our commuting, business travelling and paper consumption, has resulted in the following carbon footprint:
|
Activity |
CO2 Kg 2022 |
CO2 Kg 2021 |
CO2 Kg 2020 |
|
Travel |
20877.82 |
3277.17 |
6200.19 |
|
Paper |
199.86 |
675.27 |
752.46 |
|
TOTAL |
21077.68 |
3956.05 |
6952.65 |
Our staff numbers and business activities have increased dramatically this year and, whilst being great for our stability and future growth, regrettably this does mean that our CO2 production has increased.
Due to the global pandemic, 2022 represents the first year of ‘normal’ business activities, as regards travel in particular, since we began measuring our carbon dioxide output in 2020. As such, we have reached some record highs for kilometres travelled, and therefore also CO2 production as these two metrics are intrinsically linked.
CO2Kg output 2022
CO2Kg output by Year
We aim to ensure each journey taken is necessary and defensible, as an increased number of team members means that when we do travel it is likely to have a significant impact on our total kilometres and Carbon footprint.
Total Kilometres travelled by Year
Our team works largely from home, and the continued impact of this on our Carbon footprint is demonstrated in the reduced need to commute to and from the office. As the restrictions on travel have been widely withdrawn within the UK and internationally, and it is now much more acceptable to travel to meetings, this has had the negative effect of meaning that any face to face meeting comes with an additional carbon cost.
During 2022 we have produced 42.7 domestic bin loads of waste, which can be broken down into the following:
|
Waste |
2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
|
Landfill |
10.4 |
17.3 |
8.3 |
|
Recycled |
32.3 |
29 |
14.6 |
|
TOTAL |
42.7 |
46.3 |
22.9 |
These figures are largely in line with the previous year’s production, however the proportion of landfill waste has significantly reduced from 37% to 24% and we have continued to keep soft plastic waste from contributing to this figure, by finding alternative recycling locations for this harder to recycle waste type.
Waste Production by Year
Waste Production 2022, Domestic bin loads
Paper purchases have been recorded by weight.
Producing 100,000 sheets of A4 paper (499kg) from new sources requires over 8 trees and has a ‘life-cycle carbon footprint’ of 6 tonnes of CO2. This includes the process of creating the paper and disposing of it 8 times (as on average paper can be recycled about 7 times)
The small number of paper purchases in 2022 have demonstrated our continuing trend in using online documents wherever possible; we have also been able to use some of our remaining small stock of paper supplies from previous years. Purchases made include printing paper and greetings cards.
During 2022 we produced just shy of 200kg of CO2 as a result of our paper purchases, which is less than a third of the total produced in 2021 (675.27kg) and includes our increased paper purchases, such as wrapping paper and postage boxes, around Christmas
This figure doesn’t include any paper was acquired by other means, such as through direct mail. Any paper items which were disposed of have been included in the recycling waste calculations.
We continue to use secure online software for the vast majority of our internal meetings and many of our external calls. This helps to reduce the need to travel.
Hard copy printing is kept to a minimum and only done when absolutely necessary. Our secure eSignature software means that even sensitive documents can be signed, without the need for printing or postage. This action has been strongly evidenced in our CO2 figures.
We will continue to purchase the most environmentally sensitive products wherever possible.
Our waste production volume has remained consistent and comparable with the previous reporting period and landfill waste has reduced in proportion.
The Innovation Visual team organised a litter picking day to help clean up a local beauty spot and. This was a wonderful experience and a great team building day and we collected 12 big bags of litter from the towpaths, parks, footpaths and roadsides.
We will continue to encourage our team to be conscious in their decisions when printing, purchasing items and recycling so that we can continue to reduce what we throw away. We will also look to influence those who view us and set an example both through our actions and transparency.
Several of the IV team pledged to take part in the Canal and River Trust #PlasticsChallenge. They have promised to pick up one piece of plastic during every visit to a river or canal to help remove all plastic waste from our waterways.
We will offset our carbon production by donating to a charitable organisation who can use the funds to help those in need around the globe through climate change initiatives.
We acknowledge that our efforts to measure are not perfect and may not account for all of our CO2 productions. Therefore, in an effort to remedy this, we shall double our donation to cover 43 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide, which should more than cover any discrepancy in our calculations.
Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty, or COTAP tackles climate change and global poverty by using money from personal and business offsetting.
COTAP is a certified environmental partner of 1% for the Planet, uses reputable third-party certification organisations, and is fully transparent with how donations are allocated amongst their initiatives.
Our donation will help the following projects:
Taking Root’s Limay Community Carbon Project, Ecotrust’s Trees for Global Benefits , KSKHAW-UMWS’s Khasi Hills Community REDD+ Carbon Project in India, The Nakau Programme’s Drawa Rainforest Conservation Project in Fiji, KKI Warsi’s Bujang Raba Community PES Project in Indonesia, Cooperativa AMBIO’s Scolel té Reforestation Project in Mexico,
We are proud to support the wider global community through our offsetting
Innovation Visual is committed to supporting the natural world and contributes to various charitable organisations.
As part of our commitment to the preservation of the natural world, Innovation Visual is dedicated to donating a minimum of 1% of our annual turnover to environmental charities through the 1% for the Planet initiative, of which we have been a member since 2012.
Hobbs Nature Reserve Trust’s mission is to promote for the benefit of the public the conservation protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment by promoting biological diversity. To promote for the benefit of the public and geological and scientific research, the conservation, protection and improvement of the geological outcrops at the site.
Having had a personal commitment to the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) for many years, it made sense that DSWF would be the first charity to be supported by Innovation Visual through our 1% for the Plant donations. Throughout 2022 we have continued to donate our team’s time and expertise to this wonderful charity
Closer to home – the team at Innovation Visual are proud to be corporate sponsors of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) Trust. This UK charity works nationally and internationally to conserve and protect reptiles, amphibians and the natural world, through education and conservation initiatives.
