Creating a low-carbon workforce starts at home
With an all-remote team and a Net Zero 2030 commitment, Quiip has been tackling their largest emission source by exploring how to measure and reduce the carbon emissions of employees working from home. Quiip has taken the innovative step of sponsoring Residential Efficiency Scorecards to support their employees and drive true reduction in emissions whilst improving employees’ home and energy bills.
Quiip collaborates with Australia’s leading organisations to achieve social media and online community success. The company specialises in 24/7 online community building, social media management, high-risk content moderation, and crisis management.
As a B Corp, Quiip is dedicated to adhering to a high benchmark of social and environmental sustainability. In the process of learning how to become responsible for their impact on the planet they were inspired to overcome one challenge they faced – carbon emissions.
Quiip operates as an entirely remote team. Having worked this way for over 13 years now, the work-from-home model is nothing new for them. With a team of 24 employees, Quiip has never utilised traditional office space. Whilst this means zero commuting, it has created its own challenges when it comes to calculating the business’ carbon footprint. This has led to them finding innovative strategies to reduce emissions.
Whilst the business achieved ‘carbon neutrality’ in 2020 by estimating and offsetting its emissions most calculators provide estimates of work-from-home emissions. For a country as large as Australia with varying climates and home energy efficiency, Quiip wanted to gain more granular insights into work from home emissions. This would help find strategies to support and encourage team members to reduce their emissions.
While emissions staff generate whilst working from home are considered ‘Scope 3’ emissions, these are not always included in greenhouse gas assessments for a business. Scope 3 emissions are defined by the Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard for Organisations, as “all indirect emissions that occur as a result of the activities of the organisation but occur from sources outside the organisation’s control boundary.”
To gain more granular – and actionable – insights Quiip partnered with Sebastian Crangle. Crangle is a sustainability consultant specialising in home energy-efficiency and energy management. He is an accredited assessor with the Residential Efficiency Scorecard program.
Recently, Quiip sponsored Residential Efficiency Scorecards for its Australian-based employees, with an energy assessor undertaking staff visits and home assessments across four Australian states.
An energy assessment is the first step to understanding your home’s energy consumption, and thermal performance. During the assessment, an energy advisor inputs all aspects of the home’s construction materials, fittings and appliances into sophisticated energy modelling software, identifying opportunities to improve the home’s energy demands, and thermal comfort.
Resulting from these assessments is a carbon footprint calculation for each home – modelled by the Scorecard tool – and a rating out of 10. Most importantly the assessment comes with a range of practical recommendations. The latter will inform a database of actions that team members can take to improve their homes and carbon footprint, with support from their employer.
The first stages of this innovative project are nearing completion. The next crucial steps will be to identify carbon-cutting actions for each of Quiip’s employees. This will include considering whether they own or rent their homes, and how the team member can best be supported to take action.
“As a certified B Corporation with a commitment to genuine emissions reduction, we are keen to lead the charge for companies with staff working from home – and for businesses of all sizes. We wanted a triple win of finding ways to make our employees’ homes more comfortable in all weather, more affordable for the team as energy prices rise, and to reduce our collective carbon footprint. This approach solves all three.” said Quiip CEO, Alison Michalk.
It’s a brilliant example of a small Australian business going above and beyond in acknowledging its environmental impact – and doing something meaningful about it. Stay tuned as we track their progress towards Net Zero!
About Sebastian Crangle:
Sebastian Crangle is a sustainability consultant specialising in home energy-efficiency and energy management. He is an accredited assessor with the Residential Efficiency Scorecard program. Learn more at: homeenergyadvisor.com.au