Sustainability
Addressing climate change head-on by going carbon negative.
We have always been committed to creating meaningful change in our community and beyond. One of the greatest challenges we all face today is climate change, and it is clear that meaningful change has to happen now to make an impact on the future of our planet.
John Chuang, our CEO, has made the bold commitment for our company to go carbon negative—the first major firm in our industry to do so. After we hit the milestone of becoming carbon neutral, we will work to erase Aquent's entire carbon footprint of 35 years. This lofty goal requires firm, definitive changes to how we work as an organization today and in the future.
Where we are today.
Since we do not manufacture any goods, our carbon footprint was largely driven by office utilities, employee commuting, business travel, and technology systems.
Taking these factors into account and using the EPA guidelines for calculating carbon generation, we have calculated our company's global carbon footprint (including internal staff and talent) for the past few years:
2019
Benchmark
We generated almost 12,000 tons of carbon. A substantial portion of this number is due to our staff and talent commuting to offices.
2021
59% Carbon Reduction
Since 2019In a pivotal year where we let go of many of our offices and adopted a virtual-first work environment for all our staff and most of our talent, we generated just over 4,800 tons of carbon.
2022
80% Carbon Reduction
Since 2019The first of many solar projects came online this year. Combined with our other sustainability initiatives, our carbon footprint was reduced to approximately 2,500 tons.
COVID created many changes. In this case, they were positive changes. Moving our staff and talent to work remotely, we saw the impact that can have on our carbon footprint as well as our clients. This sparked the drive to make even more lasting changes to how we work.
Real change starts with real action.
Just talking the talk has never been our thing. In order to reach our goal to go carbon negative and erase our 35-year carbon footprint, we have taken decisive actions and started key projects to make that happen:
Building solar arrays
While we considered buying carbon credits, we decided that creating a renewable energy source was more in line with our values. At the start of 2021, we began working with several partners to build two solar arrays in Indiana and Ohio. These arrays will offset two times the amount of CO2 that our staff and talent generate annually worldwide.
Moving data storage
Our proprietary recruiting software has been hosted at a data center in Virginia, a state on the higher end of carbon generated per kilowatt-hour. We migrated to a facility in Oregon powered by renewable hydroelectric energy. This saves approximately two tons of carbon emissions annually.
More efficient equipment
We've started providing our staff with more efficient Apple M1 computers, which draw significantly fewer kilowatts per hour.