Giki Sustainability

We calculate Giki’s Carbon Footprint by calculating Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. 

Giki is a Net Zero company covering Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. For Scope 3 emissions we include calculations on purchased goods and services (in particular cloud service providers but also the food and drink we consume at business meetings), business travel, and use of products (an estimate of the power used by users of our digital products). Since 2020 we have also included a portion of employee home footprints to reflect home working
as we are a fully remote team. 

Footprint calculations are conducted annually and we then assess how our footprint can be reduced in the coming year by cutting out carbon emissions or switching to lower carbon alternatives. 

In 2021, our Scope 1 and 2 emissions were zero. However, as we hired more staff and travel restrictions eased, our Scope 3 emissions rose to just over 4 tonnes predominantly due to home working. As home working is the largest component of our Scope 3 emissions, we investigated ways to help our colleagues save more energy at home.

Despite the low absolute number we continue to look for ways to reduce our footprint. We included financed emissions from our bank account in our Scope 3 calculations (this goes beyond GHG Protocol recommendations which cover investments and lending which we don’t do). In 2023 we’ll look to move to a bank which has a clear Paris aligned goal. We’ll also continue to run our internal Giki Zero Pro programme to help staff reduce their own carbon footprints. Although this does not directly affect Giki’s operational carbon footprint it is does help reduce overall carbon emissions. Over the year Giki employees completed over 200 climate actions. 

We also measure how much carbon we’re emitting compared to how much carbon we are saving as people use Giki Zero. Currently for every tonne of carbon that we emit to build and run Giki Zero we help people save more than 389 tonnes of carbon with the use of our programme. 

In 2022, we decided to move from tree planting to purchasing verified woodland carbon credits for the nature based on solutions part of the equation to get to Net Zero. We purchased Woodland Carbon Units (WCUs) where each unit is a tonne of CO2e that has been sequestered in a WCC-verified woodland. Then WCUs independently verified are guaranteed to be there, and is a UK government supported scheme that can be used by companies to report against UK-based emissions. 

As a result these units are expensive at £75 each. This still seems low for a “real” price of carbon but at least more realistic than the low prices sometimes offered for tree planting. 

At the same time we purchased 5 tonnes of offsets from The Gold Standard supporting projects around the world. These are far less tangible than WCUs but we believe that supporting sustainable causes, especially those with a strong community element, is worthwhile even though there is uncertainty about the actual amount of carbon removed.

We also have a number of policies which we believe make it easier for our colleagues to reduce their personal environmental impact including: paid leave for climate action days, additional holidays where travel by train takes longer then plane, regular Giki Zero team sessions and a live channel for carbon cutting ideas, paid leave for green “admin” and incentives to join renewable energy providers. Giki also has a no fly policy for all staff and only buys vegetarian and vegan food.