24Slides is all about creating a positive impact in the world and empowering people in emerging markets. But aside from the human component, we can’t forget about the planet itself. After all, it’s where all of us live – and it’s worth going the extra mile and putting our grain of sand to make sure we’re contributing to making a better, greener world for all of us.
For a long time, we’ve been contemplating how we can take responsibility as a company and make less of a negative impact on the planet. While our focus is the UN Sustainable Goals of reducing poverty and inequality, especially through decent work opportunities, quality education, and good health, the environment is still an issue that’s very close to our hearts.
Many of our colleagues have expressed their interest in environmental topics, and we’re proud of initiatives like inviting green NGOs for waste management and upcycling to our Charity Thrift Market. However, we believe that 24Slides as a company has both the potential and responsibility to do more and go beyond individual initiatives.
That’s why last year we began the long journey to become Net Zero by neutralizing our carbon dioxide footprint as a company. We know this is no easy task, and that’s precisely why we applied for the SMV:Grøn grant, an EU-financed program to support small and medium-sized Danish enterprises transitioning to a greener business model.
Through this grant, we managed to acquire financial support from a third-party advisor, Better Green, to work on our very first climate report. This would allow us to collect data from the company and understand where we stood, and define our first steps into becoming a net zero company.
Throughout the first quarter of 2023, 24Slides’ Social Responsibility team has worked hand-in-hand with Better Green to collect information from all five offices concerning our carbon footprint and the different ways we impact the environment.
By getting this information we’ll not only be able to understand better where our emissions are coming from, but also be able to track our progress towards reducing them.
From the Better Green report, we identified three aspects that we’ll focus on in order to reduce our carbon emissions and become a more environmentally sustainable company:
- Employee commute
- Electricity consumption in the offices
- General awareness
These first steps might seem small, but we’re excited to begin this journey into environmental responsibility. We’re aware that becoming net zero is a very ambitious project and that it’s a long-term commitment, but we heartily believe in ourselves and our goal to create a better, more sustainable way of living.
Our goal is to be able to reduce our carbon emissions by 10% by the end of 2023. We have no doubt that all our colleagues will rise to the occasion and that we’ll be able to keep working on new and better solutions each time.
This is only the beginning of a long journey, but we’re excited to think that next year we’ll be able to look back at this moment and see how far we’ve gone in our way to create a positive impact in the world.