Partnering With Ecologi To Become A Sustainable Business

Reading that the collective contribution of SMEs to the UK business’s carbon footprint is actually quite significant and that SMEs are “crucial to whether the UK meets its 2050 net zero target”, encouraged us (a small ecommerce digital agency) to take action and partner with Ecologi to become a sustainable business.

Why are small businesses leading the way?

It’s easy to assume the bigger the company, the bigger the carbon footprint. I made the same assumption, but it turns out “between 43% and 53% of UK Business emissions come from companies with less than 249 employees. This accounts for up to 36% of total UK emissions!” from Small99.

This came as a bit of a shock to be honest and made us, as a business, take a serious look at our own carbon credentials to see how we can improve.

So, you can imagine my delight when I later read “Small businesses and independent entrepreneurs are making the biggest impact in reducing the carbon footprint of business”, in a report by Changemakers. “Entrepreneurs are the solution to global warming. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are at the forefront of saving the environment.”

Well, if that isn’t motivation to do better I don’t know what is.

And it makes sense. Being a small business does actually give you a lot more flexibility when it comes to making in-house environmental changes. Like changing your energy suppliers, reducing plastic waste or walking into work. Making decisions and adapting to changes like this can be quicker and easier when there’s less of you.

Another motivating factor to becoming a more sustainable ecommerce digital agency is the fact that consumers are more conscious of who they invest in.

Customers care about sustainability

In 2019, 72% of 6,000 consumers in an Accenture survey said “they’re currently buying more environmentally friendly products than they were five years ago, and 81% said they expect to buy more over the next five years.”
Another 76% of consumers in the PWC survey agreed they would discontinue their relationship with companies that “treat the environment, employees, or the community in which they operate poorly.” – Verizon.

According to Accenture, 50% of consumers would be willing to pay more for sustainable products and another 83% value companies who create products designed for reuse or recycling.

With Millennials being one of the most socially conscious buying groups, they are increasingly driving the market and small businesses are responding and leading the way when it comes to sustainability.

Why do we want to be a sustainable business?

The future of our planet is something that we, as a whole team, at Factory Pattern care about.

So, taking the steps to becoming a more sustainable business was a no-brainer.

Being big picture thinkers is also a core value here at FP, so we needed to think bigger than just our physical output. As an ecommerce digital agency we already run a paperless operation and add nothing physical to the world.

But, every task you perform online comes with a small cost….

“a few grams of carbon dioxide are emitted due to the energy needed to run your devices and power the wireless networks you access. Less obvious, but perhaps even more energy intensive, are the data centres and vast servers needed to support the internet and store the content we access over it.”

– BBC

Which is why we select web hosts and service providers who are committed to using renewable energy. We’ve carefully selected partners who can not only provide us with fast and secure hosting, but also have UK based data centres which are powered by 100% renewable sources.

Partnering with Ecologi

As a digital agency, we realise we don’t just exist on the web. We have a physical presence, in a studio and use energy every day. And while we’re looking into ways our studio can run on 100% renewable energy, we have partnered with Ecologi.

Ecologi are an organisation who can actually help us take on the climate crisis.

Every penny we give them goes to support a broad range of projects both in the UK and across the world that are reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Including tree planting, rainforest protection and solar power generation.

Solving the global climate crisis isn’t something any of us can do on our own, so taking action with a wider community feels like the most effective way to make an impact.

And we’re making it really easy for others to join our collective mission to reverse climate change too.

As of June 2022, we’ll plant 25 trees each and every month for every client on a retainer package (e.g. Conversion Rate Optimisation, Digital Marketing, Website Maintenance, Hosting, etc).

If you’re on a retainer already, great, your trees will be planted and we’ll send you an update once a month. However, if you’d like to join us and make a positive impact on the environment (plus improve your online presence and sales) get in touch.

With every 25 trees planted, you’re helping to offset 0.5 tonnes of carbon. That’s equivalent to:

• Driving 12,500 miles in the average car (once around the world)
• 9 dairy cows in weight
• 12.5 million plastic straws

So, the longer you stay with us, the more trees we’ll plant, and together we can have a positive impact on the environment and work towards becoming a sustainable business.

See how many trees we’ve planted so far and find out the impact we’re making on our Ecologi profile.