Happy Earth Day 2021!
April 22nd 2021 marks fifty one years of Earth Day; brought to us by the organisation of the same name which has a mission to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide.
It seems as good a day as any to share what progress our business has made in our promise to be more positive earth dwellers.
Last year, we pledged to review all aspects of the way we do business and ensure that we were being as kind to our beautiful planet as we can be. Here is our progress so far...
1.We now share our revenue
We are putting money where our mouth is! We have joined the many thousands of businesses and individuals making a commitment to the planet for future generations by joining the 1% for the Planet network. We will channel our contribution to the environment via the Non Profit organisations 1% for the Planet support, which ensures it makes the most impact. We will shortly hear from 1% for the Planet on who our Non Profit partners will be - we are so excited to get started!
2. We are striving for greater accountability
We have begun the process of becoming B Corp certified. We are not as far with this as we would like to be, simply because B Corp have been so overwhelmed with enquiries that the review process is slower than usual. Not so good news for us but brilliant to hear that so many companies are stepping up to their environmental, social and ethical responsibilities.
Our other accountability measures include joining the Living Wage Foundation to be part of the 7,000+ UK employer network who believe a hard day's work deserves a fair day's pay.
3. We have cleaned up our resources and supply chain
Since January 2021, we have switched our energy supplier, broadband supplier and mobile phone provider to sustainable and ethical providers. We are in the process of switching our bank too. We have found Ethical Consumer an invaluable source of information in selecting companies that have the best eco and ethical credentials.
4. We’ve further reduced our travel
So, to be fair, this one wasn’t tricky in the 12 months that a global pandemic confined us all to working from home...however, the point is, we’ve pledged to continue using only sustainable travel methods as much as possible and we have joined the UK’s Bike to Work Scheme to help our team achieve this goal.
5. We have become a climate positive workforce
Because, whatever our efforts, we still rely on some of the world's resources to live our daily lives, we have committed to being a climate positive workforce. In February, we partnered with Ecologi - the carbon offsetting people. So far there are 35 newly planted trees in the Balanced Impact team forest.
6. We are supporting our team to be make small changes with big impacts
We are all enjoying our BI team annual subscription to Pawprint; the app which empowers people to fight climate change by measuring your carbon footprint and providing tips and support to reduce it.
And we’re not done yet. There are still changes we would like to make to help contribute to a greener and fairer world. We’ll keep you posted on our blog page and if there is anything you would like to ask us, do get in touch.