Identifying The Issues That Matter
In this journey it was important to ground ourselves as to why we want to do this, why is sustainability important to us as a business and why are we bothering to invest in this? Our policy identifies the issues that matter and our reasoning for embarking on this journey.
No Planet B: Exponential growth cannot exist on a finite plant.
Climate Change: Last 5 years have been the hottest in record. 3.5 trillion tonnes of ice mass lost in Greenland since 2011. Two billion hectares of land on Earth are degraded, affecting some 3.2 billion people and driving climate change.
Biodiversity Breakdown: Globally we are facing a 6th mass extinction event. The biodiversity problem is a social, moral, economic, environmental risk.
Medical Emergency: Climate change is also a medical emergency – diseases & mosquitos & species migrating and moving due to change in climate – this means diseases are spreading out further.
Solutions Exist: We have a lot of the solutions; wind energy is performing better than expected. Solar energy is also delivering higher values than had been forecast 20 years ago. Higher rates and reduced cost of installation.
Our Sustainability Priorities
We know that sustainability needs to be applied everywhere and we know that carbon emissions need to be considered at every turn – the reality is overwhelming. We wanted to be sure that our policy would be motivating, we wanted to avoid the paralysis that can come with fear and develop a policy that was realistic, achievable and relevant to a small design agency in Ireland’s mid-west.
The top priorities that we identified for Piquant as a business are:
● Healthy Team
● Reduce Carbon Emissions
● Encourage active travel
● Consider full life cycle of all objects
● Increase biodiversity
UN Sustainable Development Goals Alignment
The Sustainable Development Goals* (SDGs) are a set of universal goals and targets adopted by 193 UN member states in 2015 that outline a vision for the future for people and the planet. There are 17 SDGs, and Piquant’s policy sets out clear objectives and targets that align with 5 of the UNSDGs.
Objective 1: Healthy Team
Aligned SDGs: Good Health & Wellbeing and Responsible Consumption and Production
Target: Provide healthy, locally sourced food for lunch
Result: Achieved. Healthy lunch is provided for everyone working in the office. We have made a supplier switch, and now buy our food from the Urban Coop instead of Tescos. The Urban Coop is a non-profit food store that sources organic food from local producers.
Target: Provide health insurance to the Piquant team.
Result: Achieved. Piquant employees are now offered health insurance funded by Piquant for themselves and their children.
Objective 2: Reduce Carbon Emissions
Aligned SDGs: Affordable & Clean Energy
Target: Reduce carbon emissions by 10% from baseline of 2019
To achieve this target the first step was to undertake an Ashrae Level 1 energy audit of the business premises(costly but necessary). Through the audit we learned that data storage was responsible for the largest percentage (37%) of our annual carbon emissions. Data storage can be considered a hidden polluter. The energy required to keep the servers cool, along with the toxic cooling agents and high battery usage is increasingly becoming an environmental concern worldwide. And for a business like Piquant, that captures and edits large photographic and video files, it is a significant cause of carbon emissions. To achieve our 10% carbon emissions reduction target we are now developing a data storage practice that investigates steps and processes we can take to reduce the amount of data we store. Other actions that we are taking include measures such as ‘switching off’ where everyone in the company is responsible for switching off lights and technology when not in use, ‘Supplier switching’ where we switch to greener suppliers for example from Bord Gáis Community Power, and implementing a company-wide waste reduction policy.
● Identifying sustainable / green pension options
Like data storage, pensions are a hidden contributor to carbon emissions. We pay money every month into our pensions but most of us don’t consider where that money goes – is it supporting wind farms, or is going to oil and mines industries? We are now working with our financial advisor to find ‘green’ pension options that are in line with our Sustainable Operations Policy.
Objective 3: Encourage active travel
Aligned SDG: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Target: In-company commitment to active travel
Result: Following initiatives have been implemented.
● Bike to work scheme is available to everyone in the company
● Carpool when travelling to shoots
● Take public transport to meetings where available
● Flexible remote working is available to reduce commuting
Objective 4: Consider the full life cycle of all objects
Aligned SDG: Responsible Consumption and Production
Target: Implement effective reduce and reuse policies company-wide
Result: Following initiatives are being implemented.
● Implement a best practice policy for equipment, including reduce and reuse policy and sourcing sustainable equipment options from suppliers.
Objective 5: Increase biodiversity
Aligned SDG: Responsible Consumption and Production
Target: Purchase land and plant trees
Following initiatives being researched.
● Identify land for sale
● Identify optimum approach for increasing biodiversity and reducing carbon
● Purchase land
● Plant trees
In Conclusion
With the UN report on climate change being released just this month there can be no doubt that human activity is causing climate change; our carbon emissions are having an irreversible destructive impact on our climate and biodiversity. And while a small Irish media and design agency is not the biggest contributor of carbon emissions, we are all part of the problem and we all need to make changes in how we live and how we work to try and slow down climate change. Piquant is committed to reviewing our Sustainable Operations Policy and our carbon reduction targets every year. We are open to suggestions and recommendations on other actions and processes that we can take to improve and enhance our Sustainable Operations Policy and ultimately reduce our carbon footprint.
Blog written by company director & producer Róisín Buckley
