What do we mean by "Mindful Footprint"?
“Greening your operations”
As businesses, we all have an inevitable impact. How large and damaging this impact ends up being is down to the actions we take. This pillar helps you measure and mitigate the footprint that your operations leave on our planet.
It means going beyond simply looking at the carbon footprint of your physical entities - the way that you operate in the digital space, and the choices you make online (the way you use your website and data) also have a big impact!
Including the following topics:
Company Footprint
Branding Design
Employees
Website Data
Innovation
Transparency
The quick wins in this pillar will make an instant impact. When it comes to reducing our operational footprint, it can feel like there's a real mountain to climb. But the good news is, it's easy to start chipping away almost instantly! We've identified a whole host of smart quick wins that can make a difference.
Little changes really do add up here, so take your time to work through the following suggestions, to see if there are any improvements you could action right away - you'll be surprised!
The big wins in this pillar will bring significant results to your ecommerce business.
So you've started chipping away at your operational footprint, and now, you want more! It's definitely a mildly addictive feeling – like unravelling a ball of wool. Once you start reducing your business' footprint, you'll start to see more and more ways that you could improve. And that's where the big wins come in.
Quick Wins
1. Could you encourage sustainable business travel?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: COMPANY FOOTPRINT
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Surely no explanation needed! We all know the impact that traveling less by air and road make a huge difference on the world's air quality.
We all have our part to play. Look at your business's attitude towards travel. What are you encouraging and promoting?
WANT TO GET STARTED?
This blog shares 7 simple ways to set this up in your business. However, it’s important to remember that this works on a micro and macro scale – it's all very well installing bike storage, but if your CEO is regularly jetting off for gratuitous drinks in Manhattan under the guise of networking, maybe we need to be considering the bigger picture. Lead by example and pull together on this one!
2. Do your offices or other buildings run on renewable energy?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: COMPANY FOOTPRINT
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
This is one of the easiest things you can do to significantly cut your carbon footprint without needing to change your behaviours.
Even if you rent your property, it's still worth approaching the owner to see if they'll consider a switch in providers.
You might even find it saves you money as many of the new green energy providers are highly competitive.
NEXT STEP:
If you own your premises it's quick and easy to switch to renewable energy today! If you rent, then can you speak to your landlord?
3. Have you provided guidance to your team about how to reduce their carbon impact when WFH?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: COMPANY FOOTPRINT
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? As more people are working from home, companies will have seen emissions in the workplace fall.
But these emissions haven’t disappeared. They’re just being created somewhere else. It's the employer's responsibility to help their employees cut back on work related CO2.
RESOURCE 1: "How to measure the carbon impact of working from home”
This is a helpful blog which tells you how to calculate the carbon impact of your home workforce.
RESOURCE 2: “We now use 100% renewable energy at the office, and at home!”
Wholegrain Digital have written an article on how they are encouraging employees working from home to be more mindful of their carbon footprint, online.
4. Could you offer extra paid days to employees who travel on holiday by train, coach or boat instead of by plane?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: COMPANY FOOTPRINT
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Globally, flying is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases - yet only 5% of the world’s population have ever flown.
Could you incentivise your employees to travel slower and compensate them with extra paid days to account for the extra travel time?
PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP YOU: CLIMATE PERKS
Join Climate Perks to learn how to offer paid ‘journey days’ to empower staff to live their values and choose low-carbon holiday travel.
We think this is genius!
5. Could you offset more carbon emissions than you generate?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: COMPANY FOOTPRINT
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? It's a simple idea, take out more carbon than you put in. Can you do it? More and more businesses are planting more trees than they need to offset their emissions. Soon, (hopefully!) becoming carbon neutral will be the baseline. Businesses rewarded for going above and beyond will be those actively reducing carbon and becoming carbon positive.
PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP YOU: CARBONCLICK There are many businesses and apps to help with this. Take CarbonClick, for example! We love their unique “blended basket” approach to carbon offsets, which aims to ensure that (wherever possible) some of the good you do is felt locally. Depending on where you’re from, your carbon offset will automatically be sourced from projects close to you.
6. Are you sure that the offset or tree planting platform you are using is actually good for the planet?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: COMPANY FOOTPRINT
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Planting trees CAN help fight climate change but planting trees can also be BAD for biodiversity depending on which trees are being planted, how they are being planted and where. It's important to partner with the right tree planting scheme and to do your due diligence before making the decision on who you work alongside as a business.
RESOURCES: ETHICAL HOUR’S GUIDE & ECOCART’S ARTICLE
To make sure your tree planting scheme is good for people and the planet, you need to ask a series of questions before you sign up.
Ethical Hour have broken down the key considerations and have given a series of questions for you to ask before signing up with a tree planting scheme or app in this handy guide.
EcoCart have also provided a very handy article discussing the reasons why protecting existing trees can often be better than planting new ones. 👉 It takes 20-30 years for a tree to become an effective carbon store, but not every scheme comes with long-term protection for the trees you purchase. 👉 Tree planting schemes can lead to exploitation in local communities.
7. Could you design your brand in a more environmentally friendly way?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: BRANDING & DESIGN
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Graphics and design help to express your brand's story. But with too many shiny graphics, big imagery and colours, your branding can carry a large carbon footprint - in print and online. Simplicity and mindfulness when it comes to your branding can dramatically cut your environmental, digital footprint.
CASE STUDY & RESOURCE: SPARK & BLOOM
Spark & Bloom specialise in eco-friendly branding and design for ecommerce Businesses. Check out Jeanne's article on how to make your brand more eco-friendly - both in print & on the web.
8. Are you aware of your website’s carbon footprint?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: WEBSITE & DATA
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Few people have considered the digital carbon footprint of their website.
Words like 'the cloud' make us think it's not an actual, physical thing. But your website is hosted in energy-hungry data centres and can be incredibly damaging to our planet.
CASE STUDY: ORGANIC BASICS
Organic Basics have built a low impact website, it's beautiful AND kind.
Could you follow in their footsteps?
RESOURCES & PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP YOU:
Aline’s Website carbon calculator Digital Beacon works out your website's carbon footprint in a matter of seconds AND offers tips on how to improve it.
Wholegrain Digital have released a digital declutter toolkit
Tom Greenwood wrote a book on sustainable web design, too!
9. Is your website / technology infrastructure hosted on renewable energy?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: WEBSITE & DATA
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Your website is powered/hosted by energy hungry data centres. Are those running on clean or dirty energy? Making the switch to a clean energy website host can be a quick, easy win!
RESOURCE: MINDFULCOMMERCE ARTICLE
MindfulCommerce has written a handy article - explaining the digital environmental footprint of online stores with actionable steps to improve it.
10. Have you considered how you use data?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: WEBSITE & DATA
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Needlessly using too much data is damaging to the environment. The more data you collect, the more energy you take from the Earth to store it.
Do you collect customer data for the sake of it? Or do you use it effectively e.g. to personalise product recommendations and to reduce irrelevant targeted ads.
Taking data from individuals when you don't need it is unethical and it isn’t kind to the planet.
WANT TO GET STARTED... Collect data mindfully
Could your company lead by example when it comes to this ethical practice? Promote the fact that you don’t store unnecessary data and you'll be rewarded. The tide is very much turning against companies leveraging deeply personal data for their own financial gain.
11. Could you cut the amount of data that you collect and store?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: WEBSITE & DATA
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Up to 90% of digital data is not used.
We collect. We store (in data centres). We create and then, most of the time... we don’t use it.
Words, music, images, films, videos, software. It all ends up as data. Most data is like single use throwaway plastic! What sort of society accepts 90% waste?
Could you use less video, collect less customer data, send fewer emails...?
Try to be mindful - always asking yourself: "do I really need this?"
RESOURCE 1: BOOK
Read Gerry McGovern's World Wide Waste to get an idea of the problem - & how to fix it.
RESOURCE 2: MINDFULCOMMERCE PODCAST
Listen to Gerry McGovern featured on the MindfulCommerce Podcast episode #003 for more!
12. Could you use features like click to play and lazy loading to reduce the carbon impact of each visit to your website?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: WEBSITE & DATA
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Auto play videos are a real needless energy suck. Users will barely notice the difference but this can seriously cut the carbon impact of each visit to your site.
If you need to use video, choose to use a "click to play" option so that videos don't automatically play.
PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP YOU: MINDFULCOMMERCE
MindfulCommerce have experience working with tech stacks and use lazy loading to reduce the impact of websites - give us a shout!
13. Could you reduce the number of high res images and videos on your website?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: WEBSITE & DATA
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Few people are aware of the digital footprint of websites but it's HUGE. Image-heavy and video heavy ecommerce sites can dramatically increase your carbon footprint.
Ecommerce sites, as you'd expect, are some of the biggest culprits here. Ask your developers to build your store mindfully.
CASE STUDY: ORGANIC BASICS You can build online stores like Organic Basics, who made a low impact version of their website (with no photos/video).
BIG WINS
14. Have you measured the carbon footprint of your whole value chain?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: COMPANY FOOTPRINT WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? You can't manage what you don't measure. Getting clear on where your main carbon impacts lie is essential if you are going to develop a plan to do better.
PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP YOU: GREENSTORY
As ever, help is out there! You don't have to do this on your own. GreenStory works hard to trace your brand's environmental footprint from seed to shelf.
Using the global standard of the “Life Cycle Analysis” methodology with data sourced from accredited partners around the world, GreenStory brings the highest possible accuracy and transparency. 👉 Carbon Analytics and Compare Your Footprint are useful tools for smaller businesses who want to do it themselves. Both of these tools can help you get started measuring your carbon footprint. 👉 Bigger companies might want to find a consultancy partner like Cfree!
15. Have you considered setting science-based carbon reduction targets in line with global efforts to tackle climate change?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: COMPANY FOOTPRINT
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
This is the gold standard for climate action - making sure that your CO2 reduction goals are in line with the latest climate science.
👉 Here's what you need to know. Increasingly (we hope!) this will become the industry norm before too long, so if you can, get ahead of the curve now.
EXAMPLES:
A growing number of brands like Pukka Herbs and Edgar & Cooper are working towards Science Based Targets.
16. Are your factories or production sites powered with renewable energy?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: COMPANY FOOTPRINT
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
If the answer to this is 'no', or 'I don't know', it's a great opportunity to start a conversation with your suppliers. Depending on the location, switching to green energy may be relatively simple for them. Start the discussion – you never know what you can achieve, it just takes a little gumption to get the ball rolling.
CASE STUDY: RAPANUUI
Rapanui's products are made from natural materials, using renewable energy in external factories.
They have built a platform so that anyone in the world has access to their supply chain and tech. It's called Teemill, and it's free!
17. Have you considered product carbon labelling?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: COMPANY FOOTPRINT
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Counting carbon like calories is the future! Major brands like Unilever plan to do it for their whole range. Could your customers benefit from knowing more about the impact of your products?
We firmly believe that this will soon become standard practice, so we would encourage some careful consideration about getting ahead of the pack here.
PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP YOU:
CFREE
CFree is an expert consultancy that can help you measure and label your product carbon footprint.
GREENSTORY
GreenStory can help you to measure and label your products according to their impact and carbon footprint.
EXAMPLE:
AllBirds are leading the way on carbon labeling their products.
18. Are you working to reduce your scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: COMPANY FOOTPRINT
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
If you don't know what Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions are then it's time you did!
Check out this blog for an explainer. Essentially, these are categories created by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol in order to better understand the source of emissions and better track them.
19. Are your products made using best practice techniques for sustainability in your industry?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: INNOVATION
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Are you aware of what 'good' looks like in your industry? Are you making a plan for how to get there? It's time to dive deep into your vertical and see what others in the space are already doing.
We're all driving at the same common goals here, so the scene is most definitely set for respectful collaboration when it comes to sharing and caring!
PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP YOU: TWELVE
Sustainability Consultants like Jessica and Ellie at Twelve can help you conduct the research and help you to make improvements if required!
CASE STUDY: FINISTERRE
Finisterre spent 8 years eradicating chemicals from their waterproof clothing.
After years of testing and development they are now 100% fluorocarbon-free. If you’re in the clothing industry, could you try to do the same, or better?
20. Do you have full visibility of where your products are made and by whom?
MINDFUL FOOTPRINT: TRANSPARENCY
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Do you know the full extent of how your product sourcing works?
Supply chain transparency is an important aspect of sustainable business. If you don't know the basics, you won't be able to improve and you leave yourself open to criticism.
PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP YOU: PROVENANCE
Provenance provides tools based on blockchain and AI to help brands trace and communicate the origin and impact of their products.
Resource: Mindful Masterclass #4
When you start to consider all the aspects of business that have an impact on your overall environmental footprint, it's easy to see why particular focus and care is needed here. We completely appreciate that at times tackling your brand’s footprint can feel overwhelming, with so much to measure, track and improve upon.
With this in mind, we wanted to use one of our Mindful Masterclass articles to focus in on a brand who’s taken a comprehensive approach to their operational footprint for decades – Ecover. Never content to accept the status quo, when Ecover found gaps in their industry that kept them from lowering their impact (i.e. unsustainably constructed and operated factory buildings) they went back to brass tacks and created their own, eco version from scratch. Dive into the article itself to learn more about the specifics of their approach…
Learn more about how Ecover stack up here.
Ready to make some real changes and fully embrace Mindful Footprint?
In order to start making improvements to our businesses, this pillar is really key. There's so much scope for improvement - both immediate and more systemic. Fixes can be challenging but immensely rewarding, and as mentioned earlier, that feeling of slowly reducing the harm your business does is addictive.
There's plenty of help to assist and guide you, as outlined throughout the chapter, so you don't need to undertake this journey alone by any means. Keep holding yourself accountable, stay humble, ask for assistance when required and never stop putting one foot in front of the other as you head further along your journey towards minimal impact.