For many years, environmental initiatives for businesses fell under the wide umbrella of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Often considered a ‘nice to have’, CSR initiatives were often voluntary choices taken by individual companies to appear more socially aware and eco-friendly.
However, with increasing focus from government, regulators, and the public on the importance of recycling, businesses are not immune to the call to demonstrate their green credentials. Environmental considerations, however, cannot be tackled in isolation, there is a collective responsibility that runs through the entire supply chain.
Our aim is to produce products and services that satisfy the needs of our customers without this having a detrimental effect on the natural environment, or to the health and safety of our employees, customers and the community at large.
Our environmental aims
To support our commitment to a greener planet, we have recently partnered with Earthly, an organisation that aims to support businesses with a range of solutions to balance carbon impact.
Our partnership with Earthly enables us to report and assess our environmental impact, and address ways that we can be a more environmentally conscious business; as Managing Director Martin Clarke explains:
“It is important for us to be able to demonstrate the steps we are taking to be a climate positive business and working with Earthly allows us to do this. By submitting information as part of an environmental report, we are able to see our current carbon impact and start to take steps to reduce this figure.
“We have adopted environmental standards across some key business areas such as transport, energy usage and waste disposal. We also pride ourselves on responsible material resourcing and waste processing, and do not use any harmful glues or paints to produce our products.
“The partnership also allows us to commit to helping restore biodiversity and local communities as part of Earthly’s global environmental projects.”
Investing in nature
Through this partnership, we are now supporting tropical forest protection, by investing in global projects that will help to offset the effects of our business on the environment.
The project we are involved with is the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary (KSWS) project in Cambodia. The Ministry of Environment of the Royal Government of Cambodia manages the KSWS which is part of the ancestral homeland of a large number of ethnic Bunong people, for whom the forest is a key source of income and central to their spiritual beliefs.
KSWS plays a vital role in the preservation of the region’s important and vulnerable wildlife, including the world’s largest populations of the endangered Black-Shanked Douc and Yellow-Cheeked Crested Gibbon, as well as a nationally important population of Asian Elephant and many other species.
The largest threat driving deforestation in Cambodia is land clearance - for both large and small-scale agriculture. The project works to develop solutions for long-term land use, planning and sustainable protected area management, helping ensure the long-term protection of the project area and reduce further deforestation.
Cultivating change through collaboration
Another step on the Clarke Rendall journey to becoming a truly Climate Positive Business is our membership of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). FSC’s sustainable forestry standards translate into tangible actions that make a positive impact on the world’s forests.
The certification confirms compliance with the highest social and environmental standards in the market and in doing so we are showing commitment to upholding a common set of responsible forestry standards.
The scheme ensures relevant material purchases are sourced from responsible and sustainable forestry.
If you are looking at a project that requires FSC certification, please get in touch as we can help, contact us at hello@clarkerendall.com for more information.