Carbon reduction plan 09/23-08/24
Emission reduction target
dxw’s target is based on emissions per person rather than dxw as a whole. Over the last few years we’ve grown in size and therefore so have our emissions. We wanted to set an achievable target for reduction. We’re trialing and measuring new approaches to achieve a reduction this year and future years. Our reduction target this year is 5% (our stretch goal is 10%).
What we’ve done so far
We’ve:
- continued to calculate and off-set the company’s carbon emissions
- engaged with the tech industry, finding out about sustainability work in other organisations
- running a dxw Earth Group, continually improving how we work and the impact we have
- introducing company wide earth challenges, to encourage sustainable practices
View/download dxw’s carbon emissions calculation 2022-2023
What we plan to do
Changes to make now
Travel and mileage
Refine our company travel policy, by asking staff to use greener ways to travel for work purposes.
Utilities (gas, electricity, water)
When selecting a new communal office space in Leeds we’ll prioritise finding a space that is actively reducing their own emissions by using renewable energy sources.
Expenses and purchases
Regularly review what we buy and how we buy it, identify how we can reduce what we buy, and buy the things we need differently (i.e. sustainable companies and second hand).
Digital
Regularly review what tools we use and how we use them, identify how we can use less tools, or use the tool we have less. We will explore embedding low tech practices within our development team. We’ll make sure we resell and/ or recycle our devices when we’ve finished with them.
Employees (tools, commuting, work from home)
Identify a group of volunteers to participate in a trial to reduce their emissions and measure the impact. We’ll ask these volunteers to:
- use their camera for online meetings 20% less
- uses a lower carbon/greener way to travel 20% more
- increase working in a communal space by 20%
- take steps to reduce emissions when working from home
We will evaluate the results of this trial with a view to implementing similar changes across the organisation.
Changes to make next
Web hosting
Changes planned by AWS in 2025 are expected to reduce dxw emissions significantly.
Changes to make later
There is less control over emissions related to:
- transmission and distribution
- well-to-tank
- waste
By changing what we do have control over we may see a fall in these emissions too.