Since becoming a B Corp, Artfinder has put our community and the environment at the forefront of our decision making. And while we've really just begun our journey, we've made some big changes to how we work and what we believe is the right thing to do moving forward as a business. So this year, coinciding with COP26 and Green Friday, we have officially renamed November as Grow-vember!
We kicked off Grow-vember by planting an extra 1,000 trees in the Artfinder forest. This now tips us over 100,000 trees planted to date and we are well on our way toward our goal of planting 100,000 trees in 2021 alone.
But what does this all really mean? The company helping us on our net-zero journey is Ecologi. We caught-up with them to help explain to our community who they are, what they do and what positive climate action Artfinder has taken so far:
Who are Ecologi?
Ecologi is an online platform designed to allow individuals, families and businesses to contribute towards effective climate action. Our mission is to reduce and mitigate 50% of current emissions by 2040, and we aim to achieve this through rounding up the world’s pocket change and directing it to solutions like forest restoration and carbon reduction projects, such as renewable energy. We believe that with a little bit of money from a lot of people, we can support and restore nature and accelerate the decarbonisation of global industries to reverse climate change.
What are some notable carbon reduction projects Ecologi has supported?
We love all of our carbon projects equally and work closely with our Climate Committee every month to carefully select the projects we support. We maintain strict internal policies, procedures and standards to ensure that we support the best in climate action. Examples include restrictions on what kinds of projects we are happy to fund (for example, we don’t fund large hydro projects), what kind of reforestation work we support (we don’t support monocultures), or what kinds of carbon standards we will support (we only currently work with Gold Standard and VCS).
What kind of impact has Artfinder had so far?
So far Artfinder has planted over 100,000 trees and offset almost 300t of CO2.
What does our impact actually mean in real terms?
Artfinder is set-up as a Climate Positive Workforce which offsets the carbon footprint of every employee’s life, as well as offsetting any business travel. This in total is 244T CO2e to be offset over the course of a year. To calculate this footprint, we combine data from the World Bank which reports CO2 and other greenhouse emissions that occur in your country of residence - for Artfinder it's the United Kingdom.
What are some first steps the Artfinder community can take to reduce their carbon footprint?
We believe that a little action from a lot of people can help tackle climate change. So little things like changing your energy provider, prioritising low-carbon transport and eating less meat can all make a difference.
Tree image credit: Ecologi
