How to run an eco friendly freelance business
“All those little changes, if we're all doing them, can have a really big impact…”
BFF* Melissa Hobson is a comms consultant working with sustainability & conservation organisations. She freelances in a ‘green’ way - it inspired me to invite her to join us live from COP26 to explore with the Being Freelance Community exactly how we can run our freelance businesses in a way that is great for us and the planet.
You can watch the replay in the community. But below is some of what we covered. What will you do?
Steve 🌍😍🍪
4th Nov 2021
*BFF = Being Freelance Friend
Not joined us yet? Come and meet your new BFFs!
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How do I figure out my carbon footprint?
Melissa: “There are various tools. Most recently I’ve been using an app called PawPrint. You go through a bit of a questionnaire about your dietary habits and your energy providers and all that kind of thing. And it gives you an idea of your carbon footprint. It also gives you an idea of switches that you can make that might help you bring that down a little bit.”
Should we be ‘Carbon Off-Setting’?
You hear a lot about ‘carbon off-setting’ in the media. So what is it? Should we be doing it?
Melissa explains: “Short answer is - to offset your emissions, you can pay a company to buy carbon credits, which usually are in the form of reforestation, so planting trees and that kind of thing on your behalf. There’s a big range of off-setting programs. Some are better than others. It’s quite complex but if you’d like to find out more I’d recommend you check out this post.”
So – know your carbon footprint first. Then we just off-set? Well, no…
REDUCE FIRST
Melissa: “If you’re looking into offsetting, the first thing to look at is what you can reduce to impact your carbon footprint. You could go and buy a forest and feel less guilty and think that's amazing, but actually can you turn down your thermostat a bit? Can you switch off lights? Switch to a green energy provider? Because it's really important that you're bringing down your carbon footprint as well as just paying to offset.”
Of course, you could argue your money could be better spent helping environmental charities/organisations. The thing is there are SO many. How do we know which to support?
Which charity to give to?
Melissa: “There are a huge amount of environmental charities and all of them are doing various amazing things. So I think, and this expands to the whole sustainability space, when you're thinking about what you can do, it's really important to think about your personal values and which one of them is closest to that.
So for me as a scuba diver, my thing is the ocean. So I tend to lean towards supporting Marine conservation charities. So which is closest to your values? If you're really passionate about the woodlands, maybe there's a Woodland Trust local to you. There’s no wrong answer: if you find a charity that you think is having a significant impact on a cause that you care about, then brilliant.”
But what if we don’t have specific values/passions that align with charities?
Is there a more general scheme?
Giving 1%
BFF Estelle pointed out the “1% for the planet” scheme.
Melissa explains: “So the 1% for the planet scheme is a pledge that you can sign up to either as a business or an individual. And if you sign up, you pledge to donate 1% of your sales or salary to environmental causes. I'm actually not a member of the 1% for the planet scheme because I looked into it and most of the charities that I support personally, weren’t on their list. So I've decided personally not join that and just to make my donations anyway. But I unofficially have a bit of a 1% target as well. I just don't get the badge.”
I think it’s worth saying (this is Steve again - hey!), don’t feel bad if you’re not in a position to donate financially right now. Do what’s right for you. You can’t just give away all of your profits, it’s also important to build up a cash buffer for your business so it’s resilient for the future… which means you’'ll stay in business, grow it and further down the line can commit to donating if you’d like to.
How green is your website?
Our websites are stored on servers. They use energy.
So it’s time to question - how green is your web hosting company? And also how ‘big’ is your website…?
Melissa: “Basically the bigger your website, the more energy it's taking up to hold all that stuff in it. There's a thing called the Website Carbon Calculator by a company called Wholegrain Digital. When you put in your website address, it will work out the carbon footprint of your website, and then you can start to make steps to take that down.
“So when I first put mine in a little while ago, I didn't realise that the image on my homepage was massive, like enormous. And I just got lots of big red flags. And I worked out how to optimise that image and put it back up and reduce my footprint.”
And as BFF Tom Garfield pointed out – Google (or Ecosia!) likes faster loading websites, so smaller sized images are good for SEO too.
Note - There’s a lot of green options for web hosting for Wordpress sites, but I know many freelancers use Squarespace - how green are they? Worryingly they don’t have a public statement on this 😬 but I’ve reached out to their press team for comment and will update here if/when I hear back.
How much space are your emails taking up?!
“It's the same with emails. I'm the type of person that always files all my emails, but then that means your email software is full of all these emails (and attachments!) - it takes energy to host them.”
Should I have an environmental policy?
Melissa: “Trying to be green is just something that personally I try to do. When I went freelance I decided that, why not write it down and kind of make a pledge and actually be public about what I'm doing. It’s been worth the time because talking about it is a really great way of inspiring other people to do the same thing.
Then, at the end of the month on LinkedIn, I do a little roundup of the steps that I've tried to take that month to do good through my business. Mainly it’s an accountability thing but it's also been great because it generates a bit of chat. Other people might see a petition I've signed or think, oh, actually, you know, I'm going to switch to green hosting, that's a great idea. Or they might share things that they've done and give me an idea of other steps that I can take as well.
So I do think it's worth it because I think if we're all secretly doing it and not telling anyone, then how are we supposed to educate and inform people that maybe haven't thought about being a bit greener?”
What can go in an environmental policy?
Melissa: “So first of all: think, what am I trying to do to be more green and be more responsible for the planet? Put those down on paper (or not literally paper if you’re being paper-free!).
So I'm not paper-free yet but I do try to use recycled paper, use less paper. We’ve got a green energy provider. I switched to a green hosting provider for my website.
“Things like any commitments that you want to make as a business? So I'm trying to do five days in the year of volunteering or pro bono work. And I've put that down as a commitment rather than just saying, oh yeah, you know, I do a bit of volunteering - this is how much volunteering or pro bono work I want to do.
“If it's 1% for the planet or something similar, can you pledge to donate 1% to a certain charity? You could say which charities you could support. You could say you’re using the Ecosia search engine instead of Google - Ecosia is a search engine that donates a lot of its profits back to environmental causes and also plants trees for searches and things like that. So there's a whole range of different things that you can put in there.
“If you're completely at the start and thinking ‘where do I start’? Take a read of other people's environmental policies. And you could think like, oh, I do that already. Or I want to do that. Again, sharing is helping us all take better steps. It's not quite the same as reading someone else's advert to make your own advert and just nicking their copy. It's not he same thing. It’s looking at what other people are doing and thinking, you know, that's a step that I could take as well.”
Feeling overwhelmed?!
Don’t worry! As Melissa says: “It is overwhelming and I get overwhelmed by it as well. I think we all do. One of the things for me is to try and see what you can do and not be too hard on yourself. Things are changing all the time. You know, scientists are finding out new things. It's always going to be a bit of a work in progress.
I like to think of it a little bit, the same way as you might do in your freelance marketing. You can't do one advert or blog posts or whatever, and expect that to just work forever. You need to keep revisiting, updating things, doing a little bit more work here and there. But if you start with those small steps, that first step is maybe going to be the hardest or the most challenging, cause it's a bit nerve wracking potentially starting on that journey. And then over time things become habits. Things build. You've made one change and you've done something successful and then you can move on to the next thing. We’re not looking for everyone to be perfect, but if everyone's trying to do a little bit more (or use a little bit less depending) we're all going to be able to move the needle.”
How can we make an impact?
Melissa: “Reducing - trying to reduce your usage - doing everything a little bit less.
- Can you turn your thermostat down by a degree and put on a sweater and have a blanket?
- Can you only fill the kettle enough for one cup of tea?
All those kinds of little changes, if we're all doing them can have a really big impact.
Because I think it's really important to look at what you as an individual can do. Politicians are making huge commitments and promises, but I don't want to have to wait for regulation to make me do the right thing. I want to be trying to do what I can in the meantime. And everyone's business is different. Everyone's lives are different. So I think the answer to ‘what's the biggest impact that you can make?’. If you ask the scientists, it's probably something like don't have children, go vegan, don't fly again. But if we're being realistic, those kinds of choices aren't necessarily going to be ones that people can always make. So for me, it’s really important about thinking what you can do, and going from that. What if your first step is a really tiny step? I don't think that matters as long as you're then looking for your next step and your next one.”
Little Steps & Building Habits
Melissa: “It’s all about taking steps in the right direction. I think if we expect everyone to be perfect eco activists and vegans just at the flip of a switch, it's going to be like New Year's Day when you have 10 resolutions and by midday you’re halfway through a chocolate cake. It’s better taking it slow and steady and doing what you can and building habits and then doing more..”
Which biscuits should I eat to avoid palm oil?
In the Being Freelance community we love a biscuit. But you may have heard that a lot of biscuits include palm oil and that palm oil production has a big impact on deforestation.
But fear not! You can even make biscuit choices that avoid palm oil, so are better for the planet.
Biscuits containing sustainable palm oil include: Bahlsen, M&S, Waitrose, Fox’s, Burton’s (Jammie Dodgers and Maryland Cookies are good to go!).
Biscuits with NO palm oil include: Bahlsen Choco Leibniz, all M&S Butter Cookies and all Waitrose No.1 biscuits. Notice – fancy biscuits use butter instead of palm oil. Here’s a good enough reason to up your rates alone! This means almost all shortbread you can buy is palm oil free.
You can find more on palm oil in biscuits and other products on this link from EthicalConsumer.org
Some ideas FOR a greener freelance business
Energy supply
Policies of the companies you buy from
Paper/printing
Fairtrade Tea/Coffee
Packaging/posting
Cycle/walk more
Check out your local government incentives
Pressure on your cowork space to be green
Reusable coffee cups
Compostable Coffee Pods
Plastic Free
Recycle plastics in larger supermarkets
Switch from dairy milk in your tea to almond 😮🐄
Meat-free days
Eco-friendly toilet rolls (check out Who Gives A Crap!)
Does it need to be a video call?
Do you need that new phone?
Can you upgrade or recycle old tech?
Greener pension/savings
Switch to green search engine Ecosia
What’s Ecosia?
You search the web using Ecosia.
Search ads generate income for Ecosia.
They use that income to plant trees.
Check out government support
Governments and councils around the world have different schemes to help people and businesses become greener.
So what’s available where you are? Google (or Ecosia!) it or ask your accountant.
For example, in the UK the ‘Cycle To Work’ scheme could help you buy a bike.
Just outside my co-work space there’s a a couple of electric cars the local council have purchased - you can be part of their car share scheme and borrow them! They don’t really shout about this, but it’s a great idea. Maybe there’s something similar near you?
One Freelancer’s Green Story
Here’s a great example of how one BFF is approaching making her business green.
Eilidh Steel:
“Being a musician means a fair bit of travelling. For touring I try not to fly if I can help it, instead I use ferries and drive, or go by train and hire a car there.
I’ve never learned to drive (mainly as I didn’t think it was good for the world) so around Scotland/UK I always share a car with band mates or use public transport.
I use a reusable water bottle on stage and for travelling and take my own food when possible. Use switch mode power supplies for PA systems which don’t draw current while not needed.
Each month I give a little of my income to Ecologi to plant trees and support their great projects.
For posting out things bought from my website I use recycled and recyclable packaging and paper tape. If I have to use cellotape I only use a biodegradable one.
At the moment I am looking into electric car / motorhome rental for future touring.
I am currently saving my used strings and looking into how to recycle these in the UK (it seems this is only available in the US just now) and also want to look into jewellery makers who could reuse these.
Personally – I’m eating a lot less meat, try to avoid buying food in plastic when at all possible, trying to grow more in the garden, we use a power company that uses 100% renewable electricity, started recycling soft plastics now that it is available locally and try to use eco friendly cleaning products, toilet rolls etc.
I’m sure I could be doing a lot more!”
Check out Eilidh at elidihsteel.com
NOW We’ve started… Keep Talking
Melissa: “It’s all about starting to question ourselves and think a bit more consciously. There are so many different nuances that different people might make different choices, but if you're thinking about those choices and making a decision that's aligned to your values, then I think that's still a positive step to be taking.
At the moment we would love to have it all and maybe we can't, but just really thinking about what aligns with what's important to you is a good way to approach that decision.
The more we're talking about it, the more we can learn from each other and start to encourage other people to make changes as well.”
MORE FROM Melissa
Huge thanks to Melissa for taking time out from her trip to COP26 to chat with the Being Freelance Community.
Melissa also wrote this follow up post ‘A sustainable business A-Z - take a read to find out more on this topic.
Follow Mel on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and her site.
And we’d both love to know if you take any action of the back of this - do let us know!
The course
New to freelancing life? Feel confident from the start… Check out the Being Freelance course.