In advance of their webinar on the 26th of April, David Lonie, housing sector specialist at print and digital communications specialists Latcham, shares what he has learned on Latcham’s journey to net zero.

If your organisation is serious about mitigating its environmental impact, you’ll need to take it seriously. We’re on track to be carbon neutral by 2025 – here are some things we’ve learned on the way.

• Make a plan and stick to it
  

  Our journey to net zero began properly when we invited Bristol City Council to our site for advice. Through their expertise, we were able to put together a wide-reaching plan, and were made aware of many elements we may not have thought about alone. To properly reduce your environmental impact, you need a plan, and your progress must be measurable. Don’t be afraid to enlist outside help to do this.

• Don’t make assumptions
  

  As we explore further in our webinar, we made some surprising discoveries on our journey to net zero. Some things we assumed were automatically greener turned out not to be at all on closer examination.

The takeaway? If you’re serious about reducing your carbon footprint, you need to do your research and make sure your actions are evidence-based.

• Use offsetting, but it can’t be your only tool
  

  Off-setting is when a company invests in or donates to an organisation that specialises in activities that reduce the carbon in the atmosphere, for instance, by planting trees. At Latcham, we do engage in off-setting – Carbon Captured paper, for instance, involves donating a portion of what we pay for paper to the Woodland Trust, who grow trees. This has the dual benefits of replacing trees used for paper and off-setting some of the carbon our business generates.

  So what’s the problem with off-setting? Nothing, as long as it isn’t your only tool. There’s a variety of reasons that offsetting alone isn’t enough. One key reason is that it’s far better to simply not put the carbon into the atmosphere in the first place than to pay someone else to balance it out. This is why off-setting cannot be the only way your organisation deals with its environmental impact, and reduction also needs to be implemented. Our webinar will explore the reduction measures we put in place, and what you should be looking out for if you want to make sure your tenant communications are greener.

• Work with organisations that take the environment as seriously as you do
  

  If you’re doing the work to measure and reduce your carbon footprint, so should your partners and suppliers.

We’ll be discussing more ways you can reduce the impact of your tenant communications in our webinar on the 26th of April – join us then to learn more. Click here to register