Our journey to become a carbon-balanced business

We are committed to using business as a force for good, finding the balance between purpose and profit and prioritising people, communities and the environment.

There is no doubt that urgent action is required across the world to combat climate change and its impacts. The UN has set goals of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero emissions by 2050. B Corporation has set an even more ambitious target of achieving NetZero by 2030.

SMEs, such as Omni Productions, play a key role in reducing emissions and leading by example. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, SMEs account for 99.9% of the business population in the UK and account for three fifths of employment.

This creates the opportunity for small businesses to have a huge collective impact, sharing learnings and working together is going to be key to driving effective change.

Our goal is to reduce our emissions as much as possible before offsetting the remaining unavoidable impact we have. Omni Productions has always been conscious of its environmental impact, but we now understand the need to track our impact in more detail, so we can analyse our progress in a scientific and meaningful way and determine how much offsetting is required.

Richard Bromley from Carbon Lens who has over 25 years’ experience as an environmental consultant helped us understand our impacts, and gave us a better understanding of the ways a company like ours can help balance our business.

For Omni Productions there are office and production specific considerations.

In terms of the office, we are focusing our efforts on facilities, including electricity, energy and heat savings measures, company and employee travel, recycling, virtual meetings (which COVID-19 restrictions have helped us become more accustomed to) and green hosting.

As a film and video production agency, travel forms a crucial part of our work. We already have several processes in place, such as the rental of items instead of purchasing new, recycling on set and only travelling when essential and hiring crew that are local to the shoot location. Third parties play a really important part in our business and we are working on ways to ensure our suppliers are aligned with our vision and goals.

It is possible to pay to offset unavoidable emissions and there are projects out there that are trusted and verified so you know exactly where your contribution/investment is going. For example, Climate Neutral Now and Gold Standard both offer a range of projects throughout the world.

In the UK we are proud to be working with 9Trees, a Community Interest Company (CIC) whose mission is to restore new woodland habitats, promote biodiversity, create jobs within the countryside sector and connect more people to nature. Their mission goes beyond offsetting carbon emissions and looks at how the environment can benefit people on an immediate community level as well as having lasting impact.

The more we look into carbon offsetting and setting net zero goals the more we realise there isn’t just one clear solution. It requires a balance of tracking, reducing and offsetting. We know we have a long way to go but we are excited to have started our journey and will continue to explore and learn new ways to have a positive impact on people and the planet.

As a B Corp, our core value is to care and we firmly believe that being in balance with nature and prioritising the environment, people and communities is the future of business that balances purpose and profit.

If you are interested in talking to us about our approach to the environment and becoming carbon balanced, please feel free to contact us.