Using technology to help small businesses reduce carbon emissions – let’s do it!
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 3:48 am
Reducing carbon emissions is the call to action of our time. Urgent, complicated and sometimes costly to implement, how can startups and SMEs balance concrete actions to reduce emissions with the need to grow?
Reducing carbon emissions to a level that limits global warming to 1.5° involves action by governments, individuals and businesses. For small businesses especially, the task can often seem overwhelming when taken in tandem with the pressures of balancing the books, growing the business and keeping staff in much-needed jobs.
For startups too, which often find themselves in a whirlwind of chaotic growth during their first few years of operation, allocating adequate time and resources to address the problem can easily fall down the priority list.
Fortunately, however, technology and data are being used for more than just social media and influencer marketing activities. Kolsquare has partnered with two technology platforms that aim to help businesses join the fight against climate change by simplifying the processes needed to measure and reduce CO2 emissions, and to offset those that cannot be eliminated.
Key points
Although digital activities contribute significantly to global CO2 emissions, technology is also part of the solution.
Start-ups, SMEs and mid-caps must contribute to limiting global warming.
The fight against climate change doesn't have to be doom and gloom; NGOs like Tree-Nation are using social media and gamification to drive change.
The first of these tools is the SaaS platform Sami , which automates the existing c cmo email lists arbon footprint auditing methodology so that companies can measure their carbon output. Sami’s technology collects and analyses financial and accounting data relating to all aspects of the company, which it then associates with emissions based on activity category, such as travel, purchasing, buildings, digital production, etc. Staff are also asked to fill out a survey about their consumption and travel habits.
« In France, SMEs and mid-caps account for 60% of employment and, according to our estimates, between 40% and 50% of French greenhouse gas emissions ,» comments Tanguy Robert, co-founder of Sami. « So we need to make sure that they are included in the fight against climate change. We created Sami as a solution that allows these companies to measure their footprint in a simple and affordable way and so that companies of all sizes have the means to play their part .»
As a technology company, the majority (56%) of Kolsquare’s carbon emissions are generated through digital services such as servers, data hosting, IT hardware, etc., according to the Sami audit. Another 34% is generated through suppliers and services, such as marketing, events, recruitment or telecommunications.
Thanks in large part to its 100% work-from-home model, Kolsquare is around the middle of the pack in terms of emissions when compared to similarly sized companies in its sector.
Reducing carbon emissions to a level that limits global warming to 1.5° involves action by governments, individuals and businesses. For small businesses especially, the task can often seem overwhelming when taken in tandem with the pressures of balancing the books, growing the business and keeping staff in much-needed jobs.
For startups too, which often find themselves in a whirlwind of chaotic growth during their first few years of operation, allocating adequate time and resources to address the problem can easily fall down the priority list.
Fortunately, however, technology and data are being used for more than just social media and influencer marketing activities. Kolsquare has partnered with two technology platforms that aim to help businesses join the fight against climate change by simplifying the processes needed to measure and reduce CO2 emissions, and to offset those that cannot be eliminated.
Key points
Although digital activities contribute significantly to global CO2 emissions, technology is also part of the solution.
Start-ups, SMEs and mid-caps must contribute to limiting global warming.
The fight against climate change doesn't have to be doom and gloom; NGOs like Tree-Nation are using social media and gamification to drive change.
The first of these tools is the SaaS platform Sami , which automates the existing c cmo email lists arbon footprint auditing methodology so that companies can measure their carbon output. Sami’s technology collects and analyses financial and accounting data relating to all aspects of the company, which it then associates with emissions based on activity category, such as travel, purchasing, buildings, digital production, etc. Staff are also asked to fill out a survey about their consumption and travel habits.
« In France, SMEs and mid-caps account for 60% of employment and, according to our estimates, between 40% and 50% of French greenhouse gas emissions ,» comments Tanguy Robert, co-founder of Sami. « So we need to make sure that they are included in the fight against climate change. We created Sami as a solution that allows these companies to measure their footprint in a simple and affordable way and so that companies of all sizes have the means to play their part .»
As a technology company, the majority (56%) of Kolsquare’s carbon emissions are generated through digital services such as servers, data hosting, IT hardware, etc., according to the Sami audit. Another 34% is generated through suppliers and services, such as marketing, events, recruitment or telecommunications.
Thanks in large part to its 100% work-from-home model, Kolsquare is around the middle of the pack in terms of emissions when compared to similarly sized companies in its sector.