Delivering Sustainable Ecommerce Solutions as a Carbon Neutral Agency!

Here at Swanky, we feel that it’s our duty to honour our environmental responsibility and do all we can to preserve our natural world. We truly believe that it’s time to reinvent attitudes to sustainability within ecommerce, particularly on the part of agencies. 

Let’s find out about why this is such an important cause for us, and how we’re supporting carbon offsetting projects across the globe.

Why is it important to deliver sustainable ecommerce solutions?

COVID-19 took the world online, which generated exponential growth in the ecommerce industry (we’re talking 10 years of growth in just 90 days at the height of the pandemic!¹). However, it also placed unprecedented pressure on all those who work within the sector to reconsider how their operations affect the world that we live in. 

The speed and significance of today’s consumption is having hugely negative impacts on the environment, and this has only been accelerated with the pandemic pushing more shoppers online than ever before. Carbon emissions are on the up as a result of the estimated 150,000 extra delivery van trips that took place in the UK last year, whilst global online returns created five billion pounds of waste². 

In the meantime, while sustainability is by no means a new concept, its values are becoming of greater importance to consumers. This presents a growing need for companies to take a more conscientious, environmentally friendly approach to their operations.

With the environmental impact of retail under more scrutiny than ever before, we believe there’s no better time to offer our clients sustainable ecommerce solutions. So far, efforts have been made to integrate things like eco-friendly packaging and greener transport options within online retail, but as yet, sustainable initiatives haven’t stretched to ecommerce website development and marketing services themselves. 

This is where we come in.

How Swanky are integrating sustainability into the core of our operations

So, what exactly are we doing to become a more sustainable ecommerce agency?

We’ve partnered with innovative climate change initiative Ecologi to become carbon neutral, with a view to becoming carbon negative in the very near future! We want to go beyond achieving net zero carbon emissions and remove more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than we generate, thus creating a climate positive workforce.

We’re working towards this goal by funding renewable energy and forest protection projects across the globe. Swanky has already planted over 2,200 trees in our growing ‘Forest of Swank’, including 800 mangroves planted in Madagascar and 500 trees in Mozambique. 

Planting trees in Madagascar. (Photo credit: Eden Reforestation Projects and Ecologi)

So far, this means the company has offset over 159 tonnes of CO2 and counting, which is equivalent to 123 long haul flights or 396,786 miles driven in a car! And, not only are we actively offsetting our carbon footprint by tree-planting, we’re helping to create employment for local families whilst restoring wildlife habitats.

By integrating sustainability into the core of our operations, we’re enabling the businesses we work with to minimise their environmental impact as well. We’re proud to be establishing a blueprint for sustainable ecommerce services, supporting our clients and their customers to make more ethical, environmentally-friendly choices.

Snapshots of a project we’ve supported in Mozambique. (Photo credit: Eden Reforestation Projects and Ecologi)

Easy ways to get involved

We’ve shared how we’re embracing low-carbon living as a company, and there are plenty of ways you can get involved as an individual. Here are some of our favourite suggestions for how to support Earth Day and start reducing your carbon footprint:

• Follow the Earth Day movement online – check out Instagram, Twitter or their website EARTHDAY.org.
• Find and support a local event – Earth Day have an interactive map on their site here.
• Educate yourself – read up on areas where you can have an impact.
• Reduce, reuse, recycle! A great start point for tacking plastic pollution starts with the three Rs.

Our sustainable ecommerce services

Keep your eyes peeled for our new sustainability hub coming to the Swanky website soon!

In the meantime, to find out more about the range of sustainable ecommerce services we offer, including store replatforming, branding and design, and conversion rate optimisation, get in touch with our friendly team of Shopify Plus Experts today. 

For reference:

[1] https://www.shopify.co.uk/enterprise/the-future-of-ecommerce/omnichannel 

[2] https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/online-shopping-environment-plastic-covid-b1762283.html