We pride ourselves on being a humble team and not making much noise about many of the worthy endeavours undertaken by our colleagues. However, when Exeter City Council declared a climate emergency in 2019, we felt it was not only our duty to act but to break a conscious habit. We set about investigating how to make our workplace more sustainable, and we’re proud to say that we’ve made some significant changes.
It’s been a long time coming but as of April this year, Cobalt is now a certified carbon neutral company. Working closely with Exeter based firm Blue Marble Environmental Partnerships, we have made sure that our business processes and practices have no negative impact on the environment. We believe that this is not only the right thing to do, but it also makes good business sense – after all, who wouldn’t want to work with a business that doesn’t damage the planet?
It’s no secret that climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity today. Every day, we experience the impacts of a warming world: rising sea levels, extreme weather events, shrinking glaciers and dwindling water supplies. And it seems that these effects are only growing stronger over time.
So, what can we do about climate change? In order to truly mitigate its effects, we need to make major changes across a variety of sectors: reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, improving energy efficiency measures in buildings and industry, protecting critical habitats, and promoting sustainable land use practices across all industries. With concerted action on these fronts, we may just be able to turn this crisis around before it’s too late and we have taken a positive step towards this.
As a communications and IT company, it is only natural that we use a significant amount of energy. Our work is both highly dependent on technology and geographically dispersed, requiring us to travel frequently to visit our clients’ offices. Thus, we rely heavily on the grid to support our operations, from simple day-to-day tasks like checking email to complex projects such as hosting cloud services. But while this may seem like a drain on resources and an obstacle to being environmentally conscious, we have managed to offset our carbon output without compromising our service.
This is how we have achieved carbon neutrality
• We have purchased electric vehicles and have introduced a policy to use these in preference to personal cars.
• Our servers have been relocated from on-site systems to cloud based services and we have selected low-carbon operators with proven credentials.
• We are relocating to a new modern office in Exeter Skypark, which offers far greater insulation than our current premises.
• We are installing solar chargers at the new office.
• We are actively supporting the Pacajai Forestation project* to offset our footprint.
Speaking of the certification, Cobalt Sales Director Jim Taylor said “we are delighted to have achieved carbon neutrality in such a short space of time, and the internationally recognised standard is a testament to the ‘can-do’ attitude of our team and the great help provided by Blue Marble”
We hope this has inspired you to take a closer look at your carbon footprint and what more you can do in your business to reduce it.
Further reading
*https://www.blue-marble.co.uk/_app/co2-removal/612f2f84dbbfec0454762453/