Ash George – Dotdigital https://dotdigital.com Thu, 09 May 2024 13:28:11 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 https://mkr1en1mksitesap.blob.core.windows.net/staging/2021/11/favicon-61950c71180a3.png Ash George – Dotdigital https://dotdigital.com 32 32 Net-zero by 2030 https://dotdigital.com/blog/net-zero-by-2030/ Wed, 13 Apr 2022 09:00:27 +0000 https://dotdigital.com/?p=34036

Net-zero by 2030

net zero spelled out on scrabble tiles in front of lgreen eaves

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an authoritative group of climate experts, issued their starkest warning yet this month that we are dangerously close to running out of time to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis and ecological emergency.

Dotdigital is listening, so we have committed to becoming net-zero by 2030.


What are we doing at Dotdigital?

In December 2020, Dotdigital became the first carbon neutral, ISO 14001 certified marketing automation platform in the world.

At Dotdigital, we’re engaging with the science to make sure everything we are doing is the right thing. We understand that as a business, we have the power to help with the changes needed to address the climate crisis, and we will not be shrinking away from that responsibility.

On top of our existing actions, we have committed to being net-zero by 2030. That means we will systematically eliminate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions sources at Dotdigital so that only residual emissions – necessary to continue business operations – remain by 2030. We will make sure to offset those residual emissions with high-quality GHG removal projects.

In other words, we’re looking to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement 20 years ahead of schedule.


What does “net-zero” actually mean?

Becoming “net-zero” means going above-and-beyond our carbon neutral status. It’s sort of like “carbon neutral plus”. In meeting the requirements of net-zero, we meet and exceed the requirements of being carbon neutral.

It means we will:

  1. Reduce our absolute gross GHG emissions to only “residual” levels.
  2. Continue to measure and offset our Scope 1, 2, and 3 GHG emissions.
  3. Offset all residual emissions with GHG removal projects.

There are a few things to make explicit about the above. When we say “we’re engaging with the science”, we mean it, and we believe we’re accountable for our claims and actions. So we want to be explicit about what we’re aiming for and how we know whether we’ve succeeded.


Absolute emissions vs emissions intensity

First is that we are aiming to reduce our absolute gross GHG emissions. This means the total amount of GHG emissions to the atmosphere from our business activities will decrease to residual levels.

This is in contrast to reducing our emissions intensity, which is often measured as the GHG emissions per $1000 revenue or similar proportional metric. It’s entirely possible for absolute gross GHG emissions to go up while emissions intensity goes down, which doesn’t help towards the world’s climate goals.


GHG emissions scopes

When we count our GHG emissions, we count them in three separate categories, referred to as “scopes”.

Scope 1 includes our emissions due to heating our offices with fossil fuels. Scope 2 includes our emissions due to electricity use in our offices. Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions, which are the emissions in our supply chain and due to other business activities not included above.

To be carbon neutral, a company only needs to offset scopes 1 and 2. To be net-zero, a company also needs to include scope 3. Dotdigital already does this for major scope 3 sources, so we’re well on our way to being net-zero.


Removal vs reduction projects

The final additional requirement reflects the Oxford Offsetting Principles that we already follow to guide our offsetting decisions. This is that we must offset all residual emissions with GHG removal projects, not just GHG reduction projects.

GHG removal projects draw GHGs directly from the atmosphere and sequester them for a meaningful amount of time; preferably permanently (for all practical purposes), but for hundreds or thousands of years at a minimum.


How will Dotdigital get to net-zero?

All of the above complexity and nuances can be simplified to the table below, which shows how Dotdigital is making progress from being “carbon neutral” to being “net-zero”.

Requirement
Carbon neutral
Dotdigital now
Net-zero
Measure scope 1 and 2
check mark
check mark
check mark
Offset scope 1 and 2
check mark
check mark
check mark
Measure scope 3
multiplication sign
check mark
check mark
Offset scope 3
multiplication sign
check mark
check mark
Reduce absolute emissions to residual
multiplication sign
multiplication sign
check mark
Offset with removal projects
multiplication sign
multiplication sign
check mark
Justify residual emissions
multiplication sign
multiplication sign
check mark

 

There are lots of things that we’re considering at Dotdigital to get us to the column on the right.

We’re:

  • Switching our offices to use only renewable energy.
  • Making technical changes to our service infrastructure so it relies only on renewable energy.
  • Thinking about how we can apply some of the lessons we’ve learned during the pandemic about flexible working to reduce our GHG emissions e.g. by taking fewer business flights and using virtual collaboration tools instead.
  • Carefully choosing suppliers that share our environmental goals.
  • Starting to research which GHG removal projects we should help fund.

And we have many other ideas too.


How is being net-zero helping above being carbon neutral?

Being carbon neutral is not sufficient to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement and limit global heating to no more than 1.5C. Becoming net-zero means we should prioritize not producing GHG emissions ahead of offsetting GHG emissions. In other words, offsetting should be a last resort.

This reflects the current scientific understanding that natural systems respond differently to emitting and then removing the same amount of GHG emissions, compared to having never emitted those GHGs in the first place.


Why is net-zero important to Dotdigital?

A heavy burden rests on national governments to legislate and regulate, but corporations and other organizations can listen to the IPCC’s advice and act quickly and decisively without being made to.

We’re hoping that our actions today will mean that future generations can continue to enjoy Nature in the way that we have and live prosperous lives free of climate disaster.

By choosing Dotdigital as your customer engagement platform you’re reducing your emissions footprint. You can read more about this here.

And with us moving to net-zero, you can be confident that we’ll continue to exceed growing customer expectations when it comes to the environment.


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]]> Emails that support the planet https://dotdigital.com/blog/emails-that-support-the-planet/ Tue, 02 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://dot.tiltedchair.co/emails-that-support-the-planet/ We recognize that action on climate change is everyone’s responsibility. Not just our people’s, but ours as an organization too. That’s why we’ve decided to fast-track our efforts towards becoming a greener, more environmentally friendly business. Over the last few years, we have made significant and necessary changes to minimize our negative impact on the planet. We are now proud to be an ISO 14001 accredited and certified business.

Combating the climate crisis is an important issue for Dotdigital staff and our customers alike. As the climate crisis finds its way onto agendas around the world, we wanted to lead the way and help our customers and partners on their own journey.

What does that mean for you?

Instead of us telling you, let’s show you the numbers:

By choosing Dotdigital as your customer engagement platform you’re reducing your carbon footprint.

Here’s how:

  • Let’s say you sent 1 Million (1,000,000) emails through your account in the last 12 months.
  • That’s 215kgs of C02 equivalent emissions saved thanks to our platform being carbon neutral.*
  • This amount of emissions is equivalent to charging your smartphone 26,230 times! Assuming you charged your phone once a day, this is equal to 72 years of charging.

That’s certainly something to feel good about. So, how many emails did you send over the last 12 months?

Here is some feedback from real customers:

Mike Kay, Head of Digital Technology, Woodland Trust: ‘Working with Dotdigital has enabled us to form a cohesive email strategy across the organization, reinforcing our brand and allowing our email channels to work harder for our cause. Our opens are up 16%, we’re 26% up on unique click-throughs, have 3% less send volumes, and are 60% up on revenues attributed to email. Being an environmental charity, it is important for us to partner with businesses that share our values on protecting nature and the environment and we are pleased to see Dotdigital’s ongoing commitment.’ ‘Working with Dotdigital has been a great experience, it feels like they are an extension of our own team, they understand our organization and our aims, and are always on hand to help us push to do more.’

Julie Mathers, CEO & Founder, Flora and Fauna:  ‘I love using Dotdigital, the marketing automation programs are so easy and important to my business and I’ve seen great success especially with the loyalty programs I designed. We try to the best of our ability to align with the most sustainable suppliers out there, Dotdigital made perfect sense for us with their commitment to Project DotGreen which aligns with our own brand identity, values, and culture.’

How can you use this in your own marketing

Shout about how your emails are carbon neutral to all of your customers – we’ve already done the work, so you can celebrate and tell everyone all about it.

  • Why not include a statement on your emails, something like:

‘This message was sent with Dotdigital, a carbon-neutral company. Dotdigital offset all their measured greenhouse gas emissions, including Scope 1, Scope 2, and selected Scope 3 emissions.’

Want some further information? We have a whole article about it here.

  • Use the above baseline equation to work out how much you have saved by using Dotdigital and let your customers know.
  • Start some sustainable initiatives within your business and join us in the fight to save the planet. 

What’s next?

We are already carbon neutral and strive to reduce our emissions at source, we have done that by investing in green hosting infrastructure, changing the way we work, who we work with, and making sure our offices are using renewable energy. We have a very low amount of residual emissions and currently, we offset those with supporting gold standard GHG reduction projects. These include clean cooking projects in India and Ghana and supporting the UK’s Woodland Trust.

But we want to go further. We are pleased to announce that we are committed to being net-zero by the end of our financial year in 2030, a full 20 years ahead of the timeline set out in the Paris Agreement to limit global heating to 1.5 C.

We continue to look out for standards for net-zero that will hopefully be announced at COP26. For now, we are using information from the Science Based Targets initiative to guide our net-zero ambition.

Becoming “net zero” means reducing our emissions to a level where only truly unavoidable emissions remain. We will then look to partner with innovative partners to offset these “residual” emissions with GHG removal projects, (nb different from reduction) which remove GHG emissions directly from the atmosphere and store them for long periods of time, for example as rock or biochar.

Stats from Dotdigital**

  • There are no net greenhouse gas emissions for sending emails with Dotdigital.
  • We reduced our CO2 emissions by 40% in 2020-21 compared to 2019-20.  And we offset the remaining emissions.
  • Our offset greenhouse gas emissions from our last financial year (2020-21) is the equivalent of taking nearly 140 cars off the road.
  • By using ultra efficient data centres, Dotdigital reduced its emissions by 3800t CO2e in 2019-20 compared to the equivalent low efficiency data centres.  Equivalent to a reduction of 9m vehicle miles travelled!
  • Our support of the Woodland Trust has helped:
    • restore nearly an acre of ancient woodland
    • plant 330 trees on land bought by the Trust
    • generate over £3700 through fundraising for next year’s funds

*We utilized Microsoft Azure’s sustainability calculator to understand what our emissions would be if we were using a low-efficiency data center. Including calculating the potential emissions produced by our key cloud providers & data centers if they were not using renewables.

**In 2019-20 the emissions were 378t CO2. For 2020-21 the emissions were 230t CO2 for GHG scopes 1, 2 and 3 (which cover business travel, major cloud infrastructure providers, remote workers, data centers & hosting, transmission & distribution losses, and employee commuting).

Where possible green energy suppliers & third-party providers are used within our business activities. For unavoidable emission activities, all of our measured Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions and key Scope 3 emissions (including business travel, major cloud infrastructure providers, and data centers) have been offset with high-quality carbon reduction projects from Climate Care, following the Oxford Offsetting principles. More information can be found in our SECR section of our annual report. 

Based on data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. 

]]> Sustainable marketing for a greener future https://dotdigital.com/blog/sustainable-marketing-for-a-greener-future/ Thu, 22 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://dot.tiltedchair.co/sustainable-marketing-for-a-greener-future/ Sustainable marketing is no longer a pipedream. As marketers, we’ve heard a lot about conscious consumerism. Shoppers increasingly make purchase decisions based on the positive social, economic, and environmental impact of a brand. This shift in consumer behavior is driving marketers to look at the sustainability of their own practices. After all, we’re consumers too. We care about how our actions and the actions of our brands we trust impact the world around us. And that includes the brands we work for. As a result, marketers around the world are starting to look at their practices and shift their strategy towards sustainable marketing. At dotdigital, we’ve got green running through our veins. From day one we’ve been passionate about providing marketers with powerful alternatives to traditional direct marketing. Our own green journey has run in tandem with our commitment to deliver sustainable marketing solutions to our customers. Every step that we’ve taken to do our bit and protect the environment has resulted in us becoming the greenest automation platform on the market. That means that sustainable marketing is not a nice-to-have but truly achievable using our software.

The first steps towards a sustainable future

1999: seeing an opportunity for a greener future

Ellipsis Media was founded to drive digital transformation and become the greener alternative to traditional paper-based marketing (e.g. newsletters, brochures, door drops).

2001: aiding digital transformation with sustainable alternatives

Ellipsis Media (consisting of multiple entities including dotagency, dotseo, and dotcommerce) decided to focus its energy on growing its email provider platform: dotmailer. Through dotmailer, marketers were able to access an environmentally friendly channel to reach customers effectively and efficiently. Alongside dotmailer, Ellipsis Media launched more digital services to assist brands going through a digital transformation. This included the launch of dotsurvey which empowered marketers to digitize their data collection.

2015: empowering our people to drive organizational change

Fast forward fourteen years and dotdigital’s passionate employees officially form “dotcommunity” – a forum through which staff can promote the social, environmental, and economic change they want to see. It’s through the hard work and commitment of our people we were able to go through our own digital transformation. This included migrating the platform’s infrastructure from physical data centers to efficient cloud service providers. Our teams searched high and low to identify cloud providers with industry-leading green credentials, reinforcing our commitment to delivering sustainable solutions.

2019: setting the scene before going green

Following the acquisition of communication platforms Dynmark and Comapi, dotmailer underwent an extensive rebrand to become dotdigital. As part of this, our teams underwent another monumental digital transformation. This time we were migrating the physical elements of Dynmark and Comapi’s technology stack to our certified green cloud service providers. We also launched a large number of benefits to support our staff achieve their professional and personal goals. This included listening to feedback from the “dotcommunity” and increasing the number of paid volunteer days available for staff to use to help causes close to their hearts.

January 2020: a green collective consciousness

Various discussions about environmental sustainability taking place throughout the company serendipitously came together to form dotdigital’s collective green consciousness. With support and energy behind the movement emerging from all areas of the business, dotdigital’s leadership team looked at the UK’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) and Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS). The overall aim of these pieces of legislation is to reduce emissions and monitor companies’ energy data. This helped us build our own framework to reduce our emissions and energy usage with the ultimate goal of becoming carbon-neutral in 2021.

March 2020: committing to change

To back up our commitment to sustainable business, we decided to pursue getting ISO 14001 certified. This is designed to help control environmental aspects, reduce impact, and ensure legal compliance to an international standard. Teaming up with Blackmores Consultancy, we began a high-level review of our existing practices and documentation and compared them to the requirements of ISO 14001. Performing this gap analysis helped us understand how we could achieve our green goals and where we needed to concentrate our efforts.

April 2020: becoming agents for change

Across the business Environmental Champions volunteered to lead us as we became the change we wanted to see. The first step: to get our house in order. We needed to make sure all our environmental records were in place and organized to a high standard as we began collecting our environmental data. We looked at office energy, gas, and water usage, office waste production, utility providers, business travel, and more. This got us in a position to be ready for ISO 14001 implementation. Where necessary we revised our internal policies to align with ISO14001 and devised a new Integrated Management System (IMS) to cover our ISMS (Information Security Management System from ISO 27001) and EMS (Environmental Management System from ISO 14001). With the help of our passionate team of Environmental Champions, the stage was set for us to make organization-wide changes.

August 2020: setting a baseline

Working with external experts, we measured our Scope 1, Scope 2, and selected Scope 3 emissions. This helped us set a baseline of emissions for use to begin reducing and offsetting according to the Oxford Offsetting Principles.

October 2020: smashing our goals

In October 2020, we received the results from our SECR report outlining our global energy usage and carbon emissions. Delighted by our already low emissions, we officially partnered with Climate Care to formally offset emissions we couldn’t directly reduce. This enabled us to become a carbon-neutral business a full year ahead of schedule. But even that wasn’t enough to satisfy us on our sustainability mission. We also decided to partner with our long-time client Woodland Trust to further mitigate our environmental impact. As a brand committed to having a positive impact on the planet, we are delighted to support a charity whose mission is to protect the environment. In addition to this, consultants from Blackmores began internal audits for our ISO 14001 certification with the hopes of getting certified by 2021.

December 2020: officially ISO14001 certified

Following a two-staged audit carried out by certification experts ISOQAR, dotdigital was officially recommended for ISO 14001 certification. With excellent feedback from our auditors about our “very, very phenomenal” efforts, we were found to be highly compliant with the international standard.
Therefore, as of December 2020 dotdigital became the first carbon-neutral, ISO 14001 certified marketing automation platform in the world. And still, we’re not satisfied. As the new year approached we took a step back to decide what our next steps should be.

April 2021: eyes on the future

As the first anniversary of our green journey approached, we were thrilled to see discussions about sustainable business practices making their way onto the world stage. To reaffirm our pledge to protect the environment, we’ve signed up to the Terra Carta.
Terra Carta supporting sustainable business

Keeping our eyes on the prize

Going green is more than just a fad for us. Every step we’ve taken, the change we’ve made, and the goals we’ve set have been a direct result of the personal commitment of everyone in our business. We recognize that it’s our responsibility, both as a brand and as individuals, to do what we can to protect the environment. It’s just an added benefit that we can help our customers as they embark upon their own green missions. We’re just at the beginning of our journey, but we want to share how we got here, so you can join us as we work towards a more sustainable future.]]> World Environment Day 2020 https://dotdigital.com/blog/world-environment-day-2020/ Thu, 04 Jun 2020 23:00:00 +0000 https://dot.tiltedchair.co/world-environment-day-2020/ Prolific environmentalists Sir David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg are changing minds one speech and documentary at a time. Wildfires ravaged Brazil, the US, and Australia. Floods, cyclones, hurricanes, and droughts are being reported at an alarmingly frequent rate. Even the global pandemic we’re currently experiencing has forced us to think more about our impact on the Earth as smog-filled skies cleared and wildlife returned to the Venetian canals.

Green living

For a long time, the general message around going green and looking after the environment has been focused on our individual actions. Don’t drive, cycle. Don’t fly, take a train. Eat less meat. Reduce, reuse, and recycle before sending to the landfill. But, as traction has grown for environmental issues on a global scale, attention has started to turn towards the organizations that run our economies. What is their impact on the environment and what are they doing to change or improve it? As countries around the world declare a climate emergency, how are these businesses going to help the countries in which they operate? It’s the public demand for answers to these questions that are driving systemic change. The only way for green living to become the norm is through its adoption by businesses and governments. As consumers, employees, and voters become increasingly conscious of their personal environmental impact, they’re forcing businesses to look inwards at their own footprint on the Earth. If they want to continue to be supported by the public, they need to start making a change.
Climate change protest

What are we doing?

At dotdigital, we’ve always prided ourselves for being champions for all things online. When email marketing first took off, it was laughed at. They said it would never surmount the traditional marketing of print and direct mail. For us, one of the best things about the emergence of digital marketing has been a dramatic decrease in demand for printed advertisements. But simply facilitating brands’ online marketing efforts isn’t enough. We know that there is a lot more we could be doing. That’s why we set up the dotgreen project. Through this project, we’ll be making the essential organizational changes that’ll help drive us toward a more sustainable future. And, we hope, it’ll be a significant help to our customers and partners who are working hard to go greener.

Making a positive impact

Thankfully, getting started wasn’t all that hard for us. With so many employees concerned about the environment and customers doing their part in mitigating climate change, we’ve been on a greener path for some time now. When it comes to vendors and service suppliers, we’ve chosen some that have excellent green credentials. But that’s not where it stops. As part of the dotgreen project, we’re looking at ways we can go green, from the bottom up. This means looking into renewable energy providers and biogas suppliers. What are we recycling? What should we be recycling that we’re not? How much waste are we producing and how can we reduce it? These are just some of the first steps we’re taking on our journey.
New shoot growing new beginnings for environment on World Environment Day

Becoming agents of change

At dotdigital, we’ve been lucky to have come up against no resistance to our plans for a greener future. But we know this is not always the case. It’s important that if we want something to change, we can change it. No matter how big or small it might be, it will have an impact. If you want to bring organizational change to your company, you have to become the agent for change. No matter where you are or where you sit in the company hierarchy, there’s a rapidly growing appetite for change; you won’t be alone. One of the most important things about working towards a greener future is working together.

Join the conversation

We recently hosted an exclusive ‘In common’ webinar looking at ways we can steer our way to a greener future. From becoming an advocate of change at work to little shifts in your day-to-day life, I and a panel of inspirational speakers discuss ways we can all live a more sustainable lifestyle. Listen today and become the agents of change for tomorrow. dotdigital has also produced an insightful guide into how to introduce ethical marketing into your business practices. To discover how your company could be doing more, download today.
Ethical ecommerce ebook download
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