Drastic reduction of the carbon intensity of Badsender in 2022!

41% reduction of thecarbon intensity of Badsender agency between 2021 and 2022. That's well ahead of the 20% target. What about 2023? How can we continue to reduce this intensity? We share with you all the conclusions drawn from our 2022 carbon footprint.

This is our second year! And of course, having a reference point changes everything. It changes everything, because it allows us to compare. To understand which actions were successful and which did not work. Since the methodology has not changed radically, if you want to have some context on the carbon footprints carried out by sami.ecoto read the beginning of the article about the Badsender's 2021 carbon footprint.

What does kgCO2e or tCO2e mean?
Throughout this article, you will come across tCO2e or kgCO2e. In a carbon footprint, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are mainly expressed in "mass of carbon dioxide equivalent". This makes it possible to include other greenhouse gases (methane, for example) in the balance sheet, but to relate them to their equivalent in carbon dioxide (CO2) in order to simplify the reading. 2 tCO2e therefore means "greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to two tons of carbon dioxide".

39% reduction in our carbon emissions

In 2021, our absolute carbon footprint was 42 tons CO2e. In 2022 we have reduced this footprint to 25 tons CO2e, i.e. a 39% reduction in our emissions absolute.

A point of attention before starting the presentation, there has been a change on the Sami side on the Grouping of the "Services Purchasing" and "Digital" categories. Many positions have moved from the former to the latter. This makes some points of comparison more complicated (it's not death either!). So this year, to compare, we grouped these categories together.

As in 2021, it is the purchase of services and digital that bring together the largest share of carbon emissions by Badsender. If we put them together, these two categories account for over 74% of our emissions. Next is then the emissions related to catering and accommodationt, then telecommuting.

Here is the breakdown of our carbon emissions by item:

1. Digital: 62.5%
2. Food and lodging: 17, 9%
3. Purchases of services: 11.9%
4. Telecommuting: 4.7%
5. Purchases of small supplies: 1.4%
6. Travel: 1.4%
7. Equipment: 0.3%

41% reduction in our economic carbon intensity

What is carbon intensity
Economic carbon intensity (or economic intensity) is a measure of the environmental impact of a company or economic activity. It represents the amount of greenhouse gases emitted per unit of economic outputThis is usually expressed in kg of CO2e per euro of sales. The higher the carbon intensity, the greater the environmental impact.

In 2021, our economic intensity was 55 kg of CO2e per 1000 euros of turnover, in 2022 we have reduced this intensity to 33 kg of CO2e, which means a 41% reduction in carbon intensity.

The reason that absolute carbon emissions decline and intensity decline are not similar is simply because we have not not achieve exactly the same sales in 2021 and 2022. This is precisely the point of distinguishing these two indicators. This allows us to keep a reliable point of comparisonThis is the case even when a company is growing or shrinking.

What are the items on which the decline is significant?

The most dramatic decline, transportation

Following the 2021 carbon assessment, we have decided to take two simple and very effective measures on transportation and employee travel: prohibit the use of airplanes (with some exceptions, which did not happen in 2022) and ban customer trips in the event that the travel time is more than two hours for less than half a days intervention area.

The travel item is therefore from 2 tons CO2e to 0.3 tCO2e. Efficient!

It is always interesting to see that the ratio of kilometers traveled/emissions is very different between modes of transportation (and again, there are no more planes in 2022) :

The most important reduction, purchases of services (digital or not)

As explained above, there has been a change in the categorization of service and digital purchases. As a result, for this presentation, we will merge the two.

In 2021, these two categories together represented 31 tons of CO2e. In 2022, we are down to 18.8 tCO2e, a reduction of more than 12 tons... nearly 50% of our absolute reductions over one year.

This major reduction is due to three main actions:

1. The most important is the recruitment of employees which was previously counted in service providers since they were freelancers (without increasing the absolute emissions of telecommuting and catering at work, see below with the employee intensity)
2. The reduction of the use of one of our providers of computer development.
3. Systematic contact with our service providers in order to obtain their ask for their carbon intensity. SAMI's calculation is based on the market average, and asking for the carbon intensity of our subcontractors allows us to see whether or not they are below this average. This approach also allowed us to see which of our service providers were involved in an ecological transition trajectory... and those who were not at all.

We clearly see that the purchasing policy has a significant impact on a company's emissions efforts. To caricature (but not so much), we could say that outsourcing human resources has a negative impact on the climate. When we say that responsibility must be both social AND environmental, it is not for nothing.

Employee-related emissions

This part has a special flavor for us! By being a fully telecommuting companyOne of the main sources of emissions from employees is almost non-existent: the commute to work. So what can be done to reduce this item?

Before answering the question, let's first look at what is this famous collaborator intensity composed of.

We find there :

• The restoration including lunches taken at home during working hours
• L'hosting : in our case hotel nights and team building
• The telecommuting : mainly the energy consumption of employees' homes
• The travel : travel to see clients, to go to a teambuilding...

It is important to note that the employee carbon intensity includes both employees and freelancers. The data collection necessary to perform this calculation is based on economic data (our supplier invoices) but also on forms that were submitted to employees and freelancers.

Between 2021 and 2022, we have reduced our carbon intensity per employee from 1.7 tCO2e to 1.2 tCO2e.

In the variations, there are two major decreases: travel (goodbye to the plane) and catering/accommodation.

What's interesting is that the internalization of skills has reduced the footprint on service purchases without increasing the overall employee footprint.

Finally, if you're wondering, overall, the catering and accommodation item represents 5 tCO2e, in which restoration is responsible for 65.9% programs and beverages and snacks 25%.

In which areas can we still do better?

The biggest ones, of course 😉 That's the whole point of this exercise: to have orders of magnitude in mind so that we can focus on the items that will have a major impact.

So here are the top 5 emission items that remain the most important in 2022:

1. Outsourcing IT development: 5.7 tCO2e
2. Catering at home: 3.25 tCO2e
3. Solution of deliverability monitoring 1.9 tCO2e
4. Solution ofmarketing automation 1.5 tCO2e
5. Hosting of theemail builder ThePatron : about 1 tCO2e

For the record, we have estimated the emissions generated by thesending our newsletter and other invitations to our lives. Result: 5.33 kg CO2e. Nothing to get excited about. It is much more efficient tosupport CRM teams in the ecological transition in order to act on a larger scale.

Have we met our 2022 targets?

After achieving a carbon intensity of 55 grams of CO2e per euro in 2021, our goal was a reduction of of at least 20% in 2022This means that we have reached 48 grams. Insofar as we finally have a carbon intensity of 33 grams, the objective of reduction is "pulverized"! And that makes us totally happy!

Now let's look at the goals we had set for 2022 and what has been achieved:

• Ask for the carbon footprints of our partners : ACHIEVED! Yes, we asked, no, we didn't always get an answer. But at least it allowed us to validate who was involved in a transition process and who was not.
• Favour theinternalization of skills : ACHIEVED! Even if we could clearly do better on this subject, it is a process that is moving forward and will continue to do so.
• Migrating our infrastructure of hosting : BOF! To be honest, it hasn't changed much in 2022. We'll be migrating our marketing automation platform (for internal Badsender uses). But the Boss infrastructure is not on the agenda for this year. Maybe in 2024.
• Zero air travel : ACHIEVED! There was no pro travel by air in 2022. We will continue on this path.
• Minimization of travel : ACHIEVED! With a very good acceptance of the stakes by our customers on this subject.
• Promotion of a less meaty diet TO BE CONTINUED! We raised awareness, and it paid off as vegetarian meals increased from 29% in 2021 to 43% in 2022. To achieve this we... discussed it after the first carbon footprint, and set up a vegetarian recipe book in our internal knowledge base.
• Presentation of the carbon ambitions in our commercial presentations: TO BE CONTINUED! We have indeed implemented a "commitments" part in our commercial presentations, but new reflections should come soon. I won't tell you more, it will be the subject of a dedicated article.
• Purchase of reconditioned equipment : ACHIEVED! Little hardware renewal in 2022. The only laptop purchased was indeed refurbished.
• Organization of a digital mural RATTLE! This one we didn't do!
• Addition of thecarbon footprint on our bills : ACHIEVED ! Very little feedback on this subject from our customers, but for the past year there has indeed been the carbon footprint of our services on all our quotes and invoices. This calculation is based on the economic carbon intensity (and we hope that Sellsyour invoicing platform, will soon be able to natively integrate this type of functionality 😉 ).
• Creation of the Sobriety and Marketing podcast In October 2022, we launched a podcast to reflect on the responsibility of marketing to the climate emergency. This point was not really planned during our 2021 review. But it has emerged as a good way to reflect on how to evolve our services. At the time of writing, we have interviewed 10 marketing managers d'positive-impact companies.
• Implementation of services related to theeco-design emailing TO BE CONTINUED! In 2022 we have indeed made progress on the systematization of the eco-design of emails delivered to our customers, we have published a guide ... but for the moment customers do not yet come specifically on these issues. We must therefore continue to raise awareness.

Our goals for 2023

So, what do we do now to keep moving in the right direction?

• Keep up the momentum We are not starting a new year to forget the good resolutions of the previous year. So we are staying the course but adding several tools and objectives to go even further.
• Addition of our reason for being in our statutes: In June, we will add Badsender's raison d'être in the company's statutes. It is a reflection that we initiated at the end of 2022 and that will allow us to guide our decision making concerning the climate emergency (but not only). We will soon make an article dedicated to this approach.
• Change of provider IT development: This is an important position and unfortunately our partner does not seem to want to enlighten us on its positioning at this level. We will therefore progressively internalize these tasks.
• Continue to pay our freelancers : At least those who want to and have enough activity with Badsender.
• Continue the effort to transformation of our services : After systematizing eco-design in our production, we recently included a mission to calculate the emailing carbon footprint in our offer (see the Mediapart case study). Other modifications of our offer are in progress to integrate the ecological dimension. This dimension does not only concern direct emissions (as in the case of eco-design), but also the discourse relayed in emails. drafting of emailings.
• Realization of theworkshop 2tonnes With all employees: After the climate mural created in 2021, this workshop will allow each Badsender employee to imagine the world we will have to forge in order to meet the climate challenges. It is a workshop that can be used in the private life of employees, but which can also be used to educate our customers and to propose marketing strategies compatible with the ecological emergency.
• B-corp Audit and Ecovadis update: In order to identify our areas of improvement on ecological but also social issues, we are currently deepening our Ecovadis audit (creation of charters, creation of indicators, ...) in order to perform a first B-corp audit to see where we stand in relation to their certification.
• Draft strategy for addressing theclimatic shade With two years of carbon assessments on scopes 1, 2 and 3, we now have a very good vision of the emissions of our activity. But what is the indirect impact of our activity on the emergence or not of a low-carbon society model? In 2023, we will probably not have time to go very far. But initiating an inventory would probably be a good start.
• Evolution of our customers : It's part of the work on the climate shadow that we've already sketched out with our reflecting on our raison d'être. We'll be back with you in a few months' time to present our strategy and objectives.
• Limit our economic growth It's a discussion that still needs to be formalized internally, but we have a real objective of stabilization so that we can calmly reflect on our actions and our project rather than chasing growth.

For 2023, we set our ambition to Reducing our economic carbon intensity to 15%. This is again very ambitious, again higher than the SBT objectives which are at 7% on economic intensity. See you in a year.

Nothing has been hidden, we have only anonymized the names of our subcontractors and removed the 3 named graphics.

Can we continue to reduce our carbon intensity indefinitely?

To conclude this article, a very small reflection on our trajectory. By reducing our carbon intensity by 41% over one year, we have made a significant leap. By 2023, we will certainly not be able to achieve a similar reduction, but there are still many areas of optimization. It seems obvious to us, however, that we cannot continue with decreases of more than 10% each year.

We might think that at some point we will reach a threshold. A glass ceiling of carbon emissions. This is probably true if the society around us does not evolve in the same direction. Because in the end, if you think about it, if all our suppliers move forward in this direction, if the public transport offer develops, if short circuits become the rule... then we could continue to lower our emissions in an even more radical way.

Clearly, we dream of this situation. That's why we share with you the details of our actions: to inspire, to be copied, to advance good practices, to show that it's possible.

So if you want to help us continue to lower our GHG emissions, take charge of your own affairs. Take action, and don't hesitate to walk against the wind.

We will be happy to share our experience with you and answer your questions. Do not hesitate to contact us.

And finally, a huge thank you to all theBadsender team for its involvement!