Our ever-growing community of climate-conscious partners are leading the way by joining us in our fight against carbon.
We like to share profiles of what they do in general but also what they are doing to help fight climate change, as it might also inspire you.
So please meet Harbour Collective and Jackie Bicknell a leading Marketing Agency.
What is your job title and what do you do within Harbour?
I’m Jackie Bicknell and I am the People & Culture Partner at Harbour.
My role is heavily focused on HR, operations and general admin. I manage everything people-related (e.g. recruitment, inductions, appraisals, L&D, benefits package, team events and socials, DEI, and of course wellbeing and mental and physical health initiatives).
I’m also involved with a lot of operational stuff (e.g. office management, sustainability, procurement, health & safety, policies and practices, and liaising with suppliers and 3rd parties such as IT, web developers, insurers and lawyers).
Who is Harbour?
Harbour is a strategic and creative hub that sits at the heart of a collective of independent and specialist marketing agencies. We offer clients the best big branding thinking and, if required, expert execution by channel — all integrated and coordinated by us. Our structure and offer deliver efficiency and flexibility but without compromising on the best available thinking and creativity — all with the integration of thought and execution. Our core output for clients is a Brand World; channel-neutral strategic and creative platforms evidenced by example messages and behaviours.
How do you work with SKOOT?
SKOOT makes it possible for Harbour to achieve carbon zero status. We use SKOOT’s carbon calculator to identify Harbour’s carbon emission levels, then after reducing as much of our carbon footprint as we possibly can, we offset any remaining carbon emissions by planting the equivalent number of trees it would take to compensate.
We also use SKOOT to help keep the team aligned and engaged with Harbour’s mission to be as sustainable as we possibly can be - both in terms of how we operate and the work we produce. For instance, SKOOT has created a very effective way of helping the team visualise how much carbon we’ve offset by comparing the number of trees we’ve planted to the square footage of sea ice and a certain amount of long-haul flights and commutes.
What else do you do around sustainability?
Harbour is also a member of Ad Net Zero, an initiative headed by the Advertising Association. Members of ANZ share a collective, industry-wide goal: to reduce the carbon impact of developing, producing and running advertising to real net zero by the end of 2030.
The Harbour team attends ANZ working groups to learn about measuring our carbon, and then ways to reduce it by modifying the way we work (e.g. through production processes, media, events and awards, the messages we choose to put out in ads and comms work for our clients, etc.). The entire team also attends ANZ’s annual global summit, to learn and spread awareness about the global climate crisis.
“ordering vegan and vegetarian meals for work events”,
We’re about to move into a new office as well, so we’re seeing this as the perfect time to really strengthen our commitment to ANZ by making even more practical changes to the way we run our business for the better of the planet. Once moved in, we will start incorporating more sustainable working practices such as less printing, using reusable to-go mugs every time we do a coffee run, reducing business travel by promoting more remote meetings, reducing commuter emissions by working in the office fewer days per week, ordering vegan and vegetarian meals for work events, making sure all of our office/kitchen supplies are more ethical and sustainable than they perhaps used to be, furnishing our office with pre-loved furniture, and more!
What do you love about SKOOT?
I love how simple SKOOT’s carbon calculator is compared or other carbon calculators I’ve seen or used. I also like how simple and easy it is to plant trees through SKOOT – adding more as and when you need/want to. It’s also nice knowing where the trees are being planted and even the species of trees being planted - makes you feel more attached to the project and good that you’re doing. The option to offset more than 100% is also great, would be keen to look into this in the future when we have a bit more budget.
Overall, SKOOT is a great first step for companies who are keen to get going with their sustainability initiatives. There is so much reading material and loads of expensive consultancies out there, which can make it very overwhelming to get started. For those who can’t afford the time or money to do extensive research and weigh out all the options before making a decision,
“SKOOT is the perfect place to start as it’s quick and easy to get set up and it’s a great motivator for your company and team to want to do more straight after signing up.
Obviously, companies need to do more than just offset – we can’t just carry on the way things currently stand and then plant trees to cover up our tracks/make us feel better about the pollution we’re creating. But the way we see it, we’re offsetting what we previously left unbalanced, which is a huge step in the right direction. And the number of trees we’re planting this year will act as our own company’s benchmark; it will be used as a starting point where we can continuously improve year after year.
There will always be carbon emissions we can’t fully eliminate either. Thus I don’t see a day where we no longer use SKOOT because offsetting is the only way we could ever achieve net-zero or even carbon negative no matter how much we try to reduce our waste!”
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