Planet-loving business achieves ‘net zero’ goal

A Lichfield business is delighted to have achieved its ‘net zero’ goal ahead of target – and is now helping its clients do the same.

Cocoonfxmedia is now officially carbon neutral, having undertaken a range of activities such as carbon offsetting, for example through the planting of more than 1,000 trees, giving up company cars, switching to permanent home working, going paperless – and much more.

The digital design agency wanted to be completely carbon neutral by 2022 – and that mission has now been accomplished ahead of schedule.

This has been achieved through a variety of ‘green’ methods. Cocoonfxmedia started by working with eco-friendly hardware providers in 2017. 

Then it teamed up with Ecologi.com to offset its carbon footprint. This has resulted in the planting of more than 1,000 trees in the Cocoonfxmedia plantation, with 23 tonnes of carbon offset – equivalent to 18,000 short haul flights or 57,000 miles driven in a car, and the equivalent of 69 square metres of ice saved.

Other activities have included giving up its central Lichfield office for a virtual office in Birmingham, saving on commuting and emissions, and going 100% paperless.

More generally, Cocoonfxmedia has developed a carbon calculator which is helping logistics companies to work out the CO2 emissions of their air/sea/road freight and there are plans to extend the capabilities of the web-based tool even further.

The company is now offering to help others become carbon neutral, including an offer to donate more trees to the cause.

Cocoonfxmedia Managing Partner, James Blackman, said: “Obviously net zero is high on the agenda at the moment, particularly with the COP 26 Climate Change Conference coming up in November. In the West Midlands, the Combined Authority is encouraging all businesses to make a pledge to reduce emissions, with a view to the region becoming a net zero economy by 2041.

“We really wanted to put our money where our mouth is on this, with real action that directly helps the environment.

“Our web hosting is 100% carbon neutral as we only use an eco-friendly provider. This means all our clients who use us for web hosting have also had their carbon offset.

“We then needed a way to offset the rest of our online usage, which is where Ecologi comes in. This enables us to support the planting of new trees and help fund other sustainability projects around the world. We’ve planted more than 1000 trees so far, and are still planting a minimum of 36 new trees every month.

“We’re now encouraging all our clients to do the same. If they use our plantation, we will match their contribution. If they set up their own plantation using Ecologi, we will donate 30 trees.

“The other activities just made sense, in terms of permanent remote working and becoming fully paperless.

“We feel it’s so important to take this seriously and not just view it as something that we still have 20 years to achieve. We need to take action now and while big businesses have a huge part to play, there’s also a lot of power in the collective action of all of us, whether an individual or small business. Through Ecologi, we can easily harness this and make a real difference, right now.”