At Nivo, we recently became aware of the scale of the internet’s carbon impact – and frankly, it shocked us. Prompted by the eerie stats, projecting an ever-growing carbon emission fuelled by the ever-growing digital data we produce and collect, the decision was quickly made: it is time to go greener as a digital marketing agency.
Articles followed articles, books after books, we began to dig and research. We learnt about Nivo’s own digital carbon footprint, and also found that we are doing plenty of good too – but most importantly, that we do have the opportunity to change our ways and reduce our carbon usage.
So we put our heads together, all eager and motivated to do our bit of good to the climate. Recently equipped with our sustainability specialists, it was not long before we started our low-carbon journey to become a greener digital marketing agency. At the beginning of it all we wrote up our list of to-dos, and we are now putting it into a promise, into our sustainability.
Our pledge
To be a greener digital marketing agency, we pledge to operate sustainably and to offer sustainable website design services to our clients.
For us, this means being carbon-negative and ethical, while promoting the same to our clients.
What does our pledge mean to us?
Here at Nivo, we define sustainability by the “Triple Bottom Line” and we are committed to focusing as much on our environmental and social impact as we do on our business development.
This means that we pledge to make changes in 5 areas:
- We challenge ourselves to run a less polluting business.
- We change our services to be better for the environment.
- We continue to be ethical and moral with our internal practices.
- We make a commitment that everything we produce will continue to be ethical and moral.
- Finally, we aim to shake up our business development practices and become certified BCorp.
How are we planning to become a greener digital marketing agency?
Our website and physical operations both contribute to CO2 emissions. To address this, we began calculating our website’s carbon footprint using tools like the Website Carbon Calculator and Ecograder. Preliminary results suggest our emissions exceed the internet average of 1.76g CO2 per page visit.
To reduce this, we’ve redesigned our website, cutting unnecessary, energy-intensive content and optimising its architecture. This has lowered energy usage and improved page load speed for users. We’re also switching to a green host, selected using strict criteria to ensure renewable energy sourcing, reliability, speed, and technologies like caching and static pages.
We realised that huge carbon savings can be achieved just by running our website on renewable energy, i.e. opting for a green host. The Green Web Foundation was a good place to start, but this selection had to be refined. Being aware that not all renewable energy claims are equal, we developed stringent criteria to shortlist the most sustainable hosts. Knowing that green hosting doesn’t just stop at sourcing renewables, our criteria required the host company to be reliable, speedy, local to us and the majority of our customers and to offer technologies such as caching, static pages and content delivery networks, to minimise our data load.
To understand the carbon footprint of our physical operations, we will be using specialist carbon calculator tools. There are numerous tools available on the market, and we wouldn’t like to settle with one that we don’t 100% believe in. We aim to find the most accurate, reliable tool which is suited to the circumstances of our company. We are currently in conversations with a number of teams of newly developed tools, and still to see which is best to work with.
Once we are clear on our carbon footprint, we will develop an action plan on how to monitor and minimise our impact. We will base this on the Green Impact Scheme, which will record activities, KPIs and improvements.
Finally, once we know our overall carbon footprint, we will have the opportunity to choose a scheme to offset our carbon. Initially, we will offset all our carbon emissions. Once we have reduced our digital and operational carbon footprint, we will continue to offset our remaining carbon to become carbon-negative.
We came across hundreds of carbon offsetting schemes, which prompted us to find more details on which choice would be best for our planet. We now see that there is a huge difference between a great, and a good scheme, and how effectively they can support habitats, communities, and the climate. Our selected scheme will be Gold Standard Certified; this is our way to assure that our good deed goes as far as possible.
After all our research, the question arose: can we also make changes in our fellow website holders’ digital carbon footprint?
To ensure that we stand up for what we preach, we commit to encouraging both of our new and existing customers to aim for being carbon-negative on the web. We will do this by starting to offer and actively promote low-carbon website design and the option for choosing a green host, as part of our main services. We have already created and continue to create informative blogs on websites’ carbon footprint, backed by facts, to raise awareness of the global climate crisis, and what businesses can do to limit their digital carbon footprint. This will contribute to us being an even greener digital marketing agency.
We then reviewed our ethics.
We are already running an ethical, moral and fair business, and will continue to do so by applying the below measures. These refer to both our own working environment (operation) and our production.
- Data Privacy & Compliance: GDPR-compliant and committed to permission-based marketing and data privacy, with region-specific policies like CCPA (US), CASL (Canada), and APP (Australia). We aim to respond to customer data queries within 48 hours.
- Consumer Protection: We safeguard customer data, adhere to Google’s webmaster guidelines, and reject third-party media placements that conflict with our values or promote misinformation.
- Transparent Marketing: Our product representation, pricing, and purpose remain accurate and truthful, both in our business and client services.
- Ethical SEO Practices: We focus on genuine relationships, avoiding unethical practices like link purchasing, as per Google’s guidelines.
- Accessible Design: We ensure websites are inclusive, user-friendly, and accessible to all.
- Diversity and Equality: We treat everyone equally, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, or other personal factors, ensuring respect and fairness in all our work.
- Honest Marketing: We avoid unethical tactics like unsolicited direct marketing, “bait and switch” approaches, and anti-competitive practices.
- Work-Life Balance: We foster a supportive environment through flexible working hours, remote work options, apprenticeship programs, and initiatives like a 4-day work week trial.
Our principles will be set in our Ethics Policy, which we will make available to, and requested to be signed by, all team members.
Finally, we made the decision to pursue B-Corp certification.
This milestone aligns with our commitment to continuous improvement and reflects our excitement about embracing new green challenges. We see this as the perfect opportunity to drive meaningful change.
By becoming a certified B-Corp, we pledge to enhance transparency, prioritise the well-being of our team, contribute positively to our community, and actively protect the environment. This step represents our dedication to creating a better future for all.
If you want to find out more about how we are working to cut down our company’s digital carbon footprint, and how you can do the same, let us know.