We walk our talk when it comes to values and one of our key ones is to create value for our stakeholders. We see the environment as a crucial stakeholder in our business. Why? She’s our (very big) holding company. She’s too big to fail. Her demise is threatening business. Her surrogates (usually environmental NGOs) are too easily marginalized. There’s no downside - what’s the worst that can happen? Nothing that shouldn’t happen anyway. As a result, one of our five key strategic goals for 2021 is to reduce our energy consumption by 20%. Our senior management team is monitoring and measuring this monthly - we’re passionate about it!
One of the simplest ways we’ve started to reduce our carbon footprint is by slowly replacing all our desktop computers with laptops. This migration is projected to save around 57% energy consumption per unit - last month we managed to provide 21 new laptops in place of the desktops we’ve historically provided. We’re also doing little things like sending out energy-efficient LED light bulbs with every new equipment delivery - and asking our team for ideas on how we can all save energy whilst working from home.
Our Vietnam office (where everyone is actually office-based) has undertaken a great initiative to ‘green’ up the office by bringing in as many small trees and plants as they can. It’s improving the quality of their air; mitigating the negative effects of being around equipment all day and providing a peaceful and creative sanctuary that enables the team to do their best work. Our Vietnam Country Manager is big on small actions from each individual making a powerful impact - she’s encouraging our team there to bring nature indoors, reduce energy consumption and generally live in a more holistic and environmentally-friendly way.
If and when we return to the office in the Philippines, we’ll certainly be considering the energy efficiency criteria of office space we look at - including the option of using solar power. Our Philippines Country Manager is particularly passionate about the environment and encourages the Operations Team to segregate waste, choose to buy biodegradable products or biodegradable packaging and grow their own vegetables at home with mini hydroponics projects.
One of our biggest dreams is to work with green tech and cleantech companies that are actively solving the environmental challenges the world faces with technology. Being a social impact company (we’re looking at becoming a BCorp member soon) we’re excited by the prospect of working with businesses whose values align with ours. We love the cool and important work they’re doing - and can help them solve critical global challenges with super-smart STEM talent. We’re targeting around 300 environmental businesses - Dendra Systems being almost at the top of this list! They are building powerful tools (using AI and drone technology) to speed up and scale up land rehabilitation and ecosystem restoration - truly ground-breaking and inspirational work.
As we said at the start of this article, it all comes down to values. Protecting and rehabilitating the environment is a core value and a stretch goal of ours - one we’re super excited about sinking our teeth into in 2021! If you’re passionate about the environment too - and are looking to grow and scale your climate business, download our eBook How To Grow And Scale Your Climate Company. We hope it’ll provide some helpful insight.