What is the news?
Through Technology has taken the next step in our environmental responsibility journey having now achieved Carbon Neutral Plus certification as a carbon negative business.
So what does this mean for you?..... As Through Technology customers, you have formal independent assurance that our service to you exceeds the carbon neutrality standard PAS2060 and is therefore contributing significantly above and beyond the UK Government targets for Net Zero.
As Through Technology employees or associates, it demonstrates that you are working with a business with recognised environmental credentials and that double the carbon footprint of your work with us (including homeworking) is being offset.
Where did we start?
Through Technology was incorporated in 2017 with a business model leveraging cloud services and hybrid working. This led to a highly efficient business, both in terms of value for money for customers and carbon emissions, as we do not manufacture or operate buildings and vehicles. Coupled with some simple policies around public transport and cloud first, this meant when we looked into carbon reduction we were already in a very good place.
How do we manage environmental impact?
In 2021, in the lead-up to COP26, we made the decision as a team for Through Technology to become carbon negative, removing more CO2 from the atmosphere than our business creates, and to improve this position year on year. We did this with a simple three-step annual process.....
This model has two huge benefits:
It scales with our business, ensuring we are forever more carbon negative.
Because trees live for longer than a year, planting for double our footprint annually means that our positive impact on the environment grows exponentially year on year.
In our first year with this policy we have already offset the entire carbon footprint of our business since we started.
What are we doing now?
In 2022, as we're competing with and alongside larger organisations for business, we have taken the next step and had our process and calculations formally assessed by the expert team at Carbonfootprint.com. Leading to Through Technology achieving the widely recognised Carbon Neutral Plus certification.
(We actually exceed even the Carbon Neutral Plus standard, which only requires organisations to offset 150% of their residual footprint, and we offset 200%).
We are also updating our Carbon Reduction Plan and Carbon Reduction Commitment which will be published on the Through Technology Website next week for all to see.
What about Greenwashing?
With carbon credentials moving up the agenda for government and businesses alike, there is real concern about "greenwashing", where companies invest in offsetting schemes which purely exist on paper and don't actually deliver benefit.
We believe we have avoided this trap by:
Working with a highly reputable partner in carbonfootprint.com, whose offsetting schemes are PAS2060 and QAS compliant, plant appropriate and diverse ranges of trees and have been used by HM Government to offset ministerial travel.
Ensuring that our offsetting results in tree-planting in the UK, specifically in areas of higher social deprivation where the investment will do the most good*.
Minimising our carbon emissions as far as possible before offsetting the residual.
Formal recognition of our process does not help the environment, but with every IT company now having to provide carbon reduction plans for procurements and with greenwashing remaining an issue, we felt it important to our internal process formally assessed and certified.
What happens next?
Our process is annual, so our next step will be to review the process (to reflect on whether it can be improved) and recalculate and optimise our carbon consumption again in 12 months time.... resulting in further planting and an even greater positive impact.
In the meantime, another pledge in our Carbon Reduction Plan is to share our work on this openly with anyone who asks, helping others to address this challenge. So please get in touch if you would like to know more..... socialvalue@throughtechnology.uk .
* Another of our policies for corporate social value is to hire and spend money whenever we can in regions of the UK identified by the Ministry for Levelling Up, Communities and Environment as having higher social deprivation. Meaning that the money spent on our services circulates back into the UK economy where it is needed the most.