Our everlasting focus on the planet and our own eco-footprint meant that COP26 had us on the edge of our seats towards the end of last year. We want to make cool and creative stuff, but we want to do so with some thought for how we’re affecting the planet. But the problem is that this isn’t everyone’s main focus. Lots of companies and the general public need guidance from those with the most influence on best practices or even a little brute force in the form of legislation to make sure the push in the right direction is moving fast enough. And this is where COP26 was needed.
Although there may not have been the tight and snappy changes we wanted, we still have a few takeaways from the agreements made.
Emissions
As always, greenhouse gas emissions were at the top of the list to tackle, which is no surprise considering they hit an all-time high in 2019. More and more people are looking towards a net-zero future as countries submitted pledges to reduce emissions enough to keep the global temperature warming below that all critical 1.5˚C mark.
At Imageco, our emissions and energy usage have been a strong focus for a while now. In fact, we have already invested in the installation of 84 solar panels which when combined with the installation of our voltage optimiser has saved 43,010kg of carbon from entering the atmosphere, whilst creating enough green energy to power 18 homes for a year! This has reduced our carbon output by 30 tonnes of CO2 per year, 760 tonnes on the 25-year lifetime. And we will continue to strive towards aiding and promoting the production of green energy.
Save the trees!
One thing we were really happy to hear is that leaders from more than 100 countries (who are home to around 85% of our planets forests) pledged to stop deforestation by 2030. This is hugely important because trees are the ultimate carbon capture and storage devices. And therefore, they play a massive role in reducing our greenhouse gas impact. You can read more about the importance of trees in our blog A Tree a Day Keeps Global Warming Away.
This is another point we plan to work hard on through 2022 and beyond, which can be achieve through our partnership with Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust. The idea is to plant one tree per 10m2 sold of our recycled bottle eco canvas. Just doing our bit to keep the forests growing! And we can’t wait to get involved in the tree planting ourselves (keep your eyes peeled).
CleanTech
CleanTech has been a big focus recently and was definitely a point to be brought up at the summit. From the highlight of the importance of clean technologies, to our future lives, to financial organisations in control of $130tn agreeing to back and invest in more CleanTech instead of fossil fuel-burning industries. We’re buzzing to see this be brought to the forefront of people’s minds.,
Working in print means we’re always looking into the latest tech to up our game. And one of the best ways we’ve been able to up our CleanTech game is our continued work with HP printers. Their water-based solutions and printers allow us to significantly reduce the impact print is having on the environment. Read our blog with HP on The Future of Sustainable Print to find out more!
ImagEco
Sustainability runs through to our core at Imageco and we have some exciting things coming in the year ahead. We are soon to have our environmental audit to receive our ISO 14001 certification, keep your eyes peeled for an announcement coming soon!
There was a hell of a lot to take away from the COP26 summit, whether it be positive or negative. At Imageco, we will continue to do our bit to form best practices and influence others within our industry to follow suit. After all, we only have one planet.
If you’re interested in working with a company who cares for your next project, don’t hesitate to get in contact.
