Sizing Up Our Carbon Footprint to Know How to Shrink It

Smartly.io is devoted to carrying our responsibility to combat the global climate crisis and taking action to monitor, reduce and compensate for the environmental impacts of our operations. Since 2020, we have been committed to being a carbon neutral company and offering a carbon neutral product and service for our customers.

Our first step on the path to environmental sustainability was to understand where our emissions come from. Only then could we know which actions will be the most impactful in reducing the size of our carbon footprint.

After two years of annual carbon footprint calculations, we have developed a deeper understanding of our emissions and their sources. Our next step is to set targets for reducing the negative environmental impact of our operations.

Where our emissions originate

Business travel produced 45% of all our emissions in 2021. While these emissions decreased by almost 60% in the past year, they continue to represent the largest portion of our carbon footprint. Other notable sources of emissions were heating and cooling for offices, capital goods that include IT equipment, and purchased goods and services that include office supplies, as well as food and beverages.

We have already fully offset the emissions caused by our operations in 2021 through forest conservation and reforestation projects, as well as carbon capture projects using soil carbon and biochar.

Actions taken to reduce our carbon footprint

While offsetting and compensation plays an important part in maintaining Smartly.io’s carbon neutrality, we also intend to reduce our emissions. Making more sustainable choices throughout our operations isn’t only better for the environment, but often smarter financially, too.

During 2021, our total greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 30%. While we did take certain actions to reduce Smartly.io’s carbon footprint, like adopting a stricter travel policy and e-waste recycling, the drop in emissions was largely due to reduced business travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of our most impactful environmental choices so far has been to run Smartly.io servers on renewable energy. Our carbon footprint for 2021 would have been almost 50% larger if they didn’t run on renewable energy.

Set the bar higher

Now that we have a good understanding of where our emissions come from, it’s time to take a more systematic approach to proactively reduce them. Smartly.io is committed to continuing to calculate, offset and compensate Smartly.io’s emissions and improving the accuracy of our emissions tracking.

Our key environmental sustainability goal for this year is to explore and identify the most effective ways to reduce the size of our carbon footprint, then set reduction targets and devise an action plan on how we reach them. In addition, we aim to establish a sustainable purchasing policy to increase sustainability in our supply chain.

In the spirit of being Humble Hungry Hunters, we know we are at the very beginning of our journey, and all the time strive to do better. We continue to take responsibility in the global climate crisis and take action to monitor, reduce and compensate the environmental impacts of our operations.

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