Earth Day 2022: How Envato’s Sustainability Committee is Working Towards the Greener Good
Happy Earth Day 2022! Here's how Envato’s Sustainability Committee is increasing Envato's positive impact and working towards the greener good.
In recent years, many businesses, brands, and individuals around the globe have increased their commitment to reducing their environmental impact – and Envato is no exception. From becoming certified as a B-Corp in 2020, to co-signing an open letter to the Australian Government pledging climate action in 2021, Envato is constantly striving to lead by example, and take positive steps towards a brighter, cleaner future.
In a bid to increase the business’ positive environmental impact, Envato has formed the Greener Good Sustainability Committee. The employee-led committee’s purpose is to advocate for and highlight important sustainability initiatives, encouraging wider participation by the company and, in the long term, having a positive impact on the world around us.
To learn more, we spoke to Michelle Drake – Envato’s Growth, Tech & People Coordinator, and one of the founders of this keen green fighting machine
Hey Michelle! What is The Greener Good Sustainability Committee?
The Greener Good Sustainability Committee is a group of Envato employees who are passionate about the environment and positively impacting the planet in as many ways as possible. Our committee discusses and collaborates on a range of projects, events, and methods of advocacy – all of which hinge on the goal to maximize our positive impact on the environment.
While the committee began before Envato received B-Corp certification officially named a B Corp, the certification means we’re now even better equipped to create a significant impact, both at Envato and beyond.
What’s The Greener Good’s mission?
The goal of The Greener Good is to minimize the negative impact that our business has on the planet by constantly improving our habits and reducing our impact, wherever our team is located.
We have an incredible chance to directly impact and help restore this planet that we share. While it’s easy to feel helpless in the face of such a large, and often charged issue, we remain optimistic and continue taking action toward sustainable solutions. We also hope to inspire other companies to take action and recognize the incredible impact they can have.
Some of The Greener Good Sustainability Committee’s goals include:
- Identifying and acting upon opportunities to reduce Envato’s environmental impact.
- Educating on environmental issues through our events and initiatives to raise awareness and encourage action.
- Empowering teams and individuals to make sustainable and responsible choices.
What work has The Greener Good Committee done so far?
We’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved as a group and a business. To date this has included:
- Sponsoring Beehives in partnership with the Backyard Honey Pollinator Partner Program.
- Ensuring our office is as sustainable as possible – from the responsible disposal and recycling of E-waste to sustainable merchandising, all the way through to working with organizations such as Simply Cups to recycle single-use coffee cups.
- Empowering staff to opt-out of material gifting and plant trees to reduce their carbon footprint.
- Running regular events to educate Envatians to be kinder to the planet.
Perhaps one of the most impressive initiatives led by The Greener Good Sustainability Committee is Envato’s commitment to reduce our emissions and go carbon neutral. Through partnering with Trace – a Sydney-based climate tech company helping individuals and businesses offset their emissions – Envato has now managed to offset our carbon footprint, and go entirely carbon neutral! In less than 12 months, we’ve planted over 23,000 trees and offset over 2,700 tonnes of CO2, which is enough to fill 46,000 shipping containers.
This partnership with Trace offers us an incredible opportunity to be the change we want to see in the world and encourage other businesses to do the same.
What work went into Envato going Carbon Neutral?
A lot of work went into gathering the data that allowed us to calculate our emissions, and then the team at Trace was able to take it and run with it. We were presented with our calculated CO2 emissions, and Trace helped us get to a position of ‘Carbon Positive’ by selecting meaningful projects that deliver carbon credits as well as planting trees.
One of the things we looked at before engaging Trace was the impact of cloud computing services. We used a tool created by the cloud carbon foundation to get a reasonably accurate understanding of the impact we were having, then we set about finding providers and companies that could help us offset that impact. We ended up using several of them and offset eight times our estimated emissions.
Working with Trace to manage our carbon offsetting has enabled us to focus on reducing our impact, rather than just offsetting it. For example, we’re now using power consumption as a key criteria in the selection of resources, and have begun migrating away from regions that cause high carbon emissions and toward those that use renewable energy. We have since made a 10% reduction in our emissions, and hope to achieve a further 5-10% reduction.
What else is The Greener Good hoping to achieve?
There is so much to be done! We have a tonne of projects we’re working on and issues we want to tackle – including planetary health and climate change. Overall, we simply want to positively impact as many areas of the environment as we can, as best we can.
Personally, I hope The Greener Good shows people what’s possible and inspires other companies to also act. We have such an amazing chance to shift the needle in the right direction and it’s so exciting to be able to play a part.
How do you foster employee engagement with The Greener Good?
Our committee includes individuals from across the business and works closely with our People Team to drive employee action. We also have a Slack channel where we share other inspirational businesses, and examples of better approaches to being sustainable and provide a place where Envato teams from across the business can have important conversations and suggest ideas.
We have many more exciting initiatives and events in the pipeline and are always around to help our people make better decisions and ensure we’re being as sustainable as possible. We know there’s a better future on the horizon, and Envato is honored to play even a small part in it.
To find out more about how Envato is having an impact, check out all our Inside Envato updates. Or, to spread the environmental love this Earth Day, check out these top Earth Day templates.