With COP26 beginning today, we wanted to take a look at how Green Self-Assessment Scotland is.
Technology
If we start with our website, it is hosted by a fantastic company called Krystal, who offer 100% Green Hosting. Every package comes with: 100% Green energy from Ecotricty; Green datacentres, which use 100% renewable energy and a Power Usage Effectiveness of at least 1.2 and they’ve joined forces with Trees for Life and plant a tree for each of the clients – currently he have 10 trees in our name.
The next stage in our process is the computers and staff of Self-Assessment Scotland, all of whom use 100% renewable electricity to power their home computers. Communication with clients is completed electronically and only very rarely do we need to print any material.
Carbon Footprint
To better understand our impact on the environment, we found carbonfootprint.com which offered a calculator and asked us for our energy and travel usage in a number of areas. The website asked us about our travel and energy usage. Structured the way we are, we don’t travel. The team use MS Teams to discuss client work and share information electronically. The only CO2 we produce as an organisation is through our use of electricity. At the same time all of the team are on green energy tariffs which include 100% renewable electricity.
Home working
At Self-Assessment Scotland, we’ve never had a traditional brick and mortar office, we’ve always embraced a virtual setup, which over the past 18-months seems to have gained traction with more and more people working from home. However, this setup we’ve always used of working from home is the primary reason our carbon footprint is 0.3 tonnes of CO2e or 0.1 tonne per employee.
Comparing our performance to a traditional office based company, we’re significantly greener. The website allows us to offset our emissions something which we’ve done.
