zkipster is officially Climate Neutral Certified, for the fourth year running.
We’re excited to report on our continued progress and commitment to climate action today, Earth Day 2024. As a business that prioritizes sustainability, it’s crucial that we are accountable for our carbon emissions. Over the past few years being Climate Neutral Certified has become intrinsic to our brand identity, and the annual Certification process has become an opportunity to reflect on our sustainability journey.
Every year since 2021 we've met Change Climate’s rigorous Standard by taking stock - measuring and compensating for the previous year’s emissions - and by looking ahead and embracing new ways to reduce our future emissions.
1 Measure
This year we’re pleased to report a slight reduction in emissions, despite our growth as a company. We measured our 2024 carbon footprint at 254 tonnes by reviewing all of the greenhouse gas emissions linked to our operations, including employee commuting, goods and services we purchased, and remote working.
2 Reduce
We have created strategic, time-bound Reduction Action Plans in areas where we identified the potential to reduce our emissions.
Building on the travel guidelines we issued last year, we will create additional guidelines for internal travel, with the goal of minimizing emissions and avoiding unnecessary journeys for staff training, team meetings etc.
Last year we issued new business travel guidelines that are rooted in sustainability. This year we'll build on these guidelines and create an additional policy for internal travel. zkipster has six global hubs across four continents, and as our team grows and our operations expand we will advise our staff on how to avoid unnecessary travel, minimizing emissions and maximizing efficiency.
We will replace all single-use swag with reusable or regenerative alternatives.
Our second Reduction Action Plan is already underway. At our recent global team summit we were conscious about choosing high quality, fully reusable merch for our staff, purchased from reputable suppliers.
3 Compensate
Each year we compensate for our annual emissions by investing in verified, vetted carbon credits; last year’s focus was forest conservation and tree planting. As a SaaS business operating within the events industry, we aim to empower our clients through technology and look for ways to make their busy working lives easier with our powerful tools.
Our offsetting strategy this year followed a similar theme; we’ve invested in a diverse portfolio of projects providing clean cookstoves and water purifiers; devices that reduce emissions and improve lives in communities across South America, Asia and Africa. Our credits were purchased from Patch, a platform fighting climate change in scalable, tangible ways, including via the sale of high integrity carbon credits.
Patch states that the cooking sector accounts for 2% of annual global carbon emissions estimates. Clean cookstoves significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetimes, as well as reducing deforestation, reducing the work burden on rural families, and presenting alternative opportunities for economic development. Meanwhile low greenhouse gas-emitting purifiers provide clean, safe drinking water.
We’re proud to be part of the Change Climate community, as one of more than 300 organizations collectively dedicating thousands of hours to climate action; and proud to be doing our bit and creating a positive impact in our industry. Our efforts are part of a broader commitment to drive transparency and, most importantly, substantially reduce carbon.
Find out more by visiting our Sustainability page and our Change Climate brand profile page.
Header image by the New York Public Library via Unsplash.
