Nutbourne has taken significant steps to gaining carbon-neutral status, following a major drive to reduce its environmental footprint. Over the last 12 months, the organisation has reduced its environmental impact through a number of operational steps and offsets and is aiming to become carbon negative in the future.
“We’re very proud of the steps we’ve taken to reduce and offset our carbon footprint,” says Managing Director Marcus Evans. “With the rise in remote working, we took an opportunity to downsize our office and in turn reduce the amount of energy used and travel required of our technicians.
“Around 90% of the hours we work as a company are now done so remotely. And though it’s not a requirement of carbon neutral accreditation, we’ve factored in the carbon impact of our contractors in South Africa and the UK, making sure that we’ve accounted for the entire impact we make as an organisation.”
Marcus added that the calculations take into account the company’s significant data use, which he says was overestimated by a factor of 10 to ensure that it accounted for any short-term increases. It means that any offset currently paid could eventually lead to the company being carbon negative in the future.
“It’s something that we’re doing consciously and something we’ll continue to monitor. As a business, we are able to do that, and we think it’s important to make as much of a contribution as we can.”
He also confirmed that the company was now in the process of changing the way it sources and delivers devices and hardware, reducing emissions through its supply chain.
“We don’t order kits to our office anymore,” he said. “We order it directly to the client site, as opposed to ordering it to our site, working on it, and shipping it on again. We’ve cut a part of the logistics chain that we don’t need.
“And although that’s not a requirement of us at the moment, we feel it’s the right and responsible thing to do. Moreover, and on a general level, we feel it’s incumbent upon us to lead by example, and so we’ll continue to find ways to make a positive contribution to carbon reduction and sustainable business practice.”