Making Ergo a leader in sustainability and environmental action
We have been working hard at Ergo to be a leader in our sector on sustainability, and while we have been successful and benchmark favourably against other IT services companies, there is still a lot to do. Like everyone else on the decarbonisation journey, we have discovered that it requires evolution rather than revolution, a painstaking process where best practice is still being defined.
The globally recognised GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Protocol is the starting point for ‘scoping’ your company’s emissions and setting a baseline to measure your progress against. We originally set a baseline in 2011 with a plan to reduce our emissions by a minimum of 15% by 2021. This was by measuring Scope 1 (direct GHG emissions from sources owned or controlled by Ergo) and Scope 2 (indirect GHG emissions purchased from providers).
What made it unfeasible was the type of changes every business goes through. Most recently in our case was the acquisition of Asystec. This has led to such a massive business restructuring that we have to recalculate our emissions and set about resetting the baseline – still a work in progress. Revisiting original plans is a constant in sustainable practices.
William Cramer, Senior Product Delivery Manager and Head of the Ergo Sustainability Committee
Influencing the supply chain
When you get into Scope 3, which covers emissions in the supply chain, both upstream and downstream, things get even more complicated because it involves third parties and partners.
You need to be technically competent and prepared to go through a laborious process to get to a place where you can accurately define your organisation and where the boundaries are.
We have undertaken a number of initiatives to tackle the challenges, including the formation of the Ergo Sustainability Committee, but we recognise that we can’t do it alone. An external consultant has brought expertise that we don’t have inhouse and Enterprise Ireland’s GreenStart funding initiative has helped us invest in our programme.
With Scope 3 and the supply chain in mind, we signed up with EcoVadis, a leader in Europe when it comes to measuring the environmental impact of a company’s supply chain. The organisation has a network of 50,000 suppliers that have passed criteria that demonstrate ethical as well as sustainable supply chains.
We first came across EcoVadis when a customer asked if we were a member and have subsequently been contacted by other customers who wanted to find out about the organisation. This kind of organic adoption and interaction is a great way to transform supply chains and make the wider ecosystem part of your plans.
Ergo was assessed by EcoVadis in May 2022 and we’ve scored a silver badge. That puts us in the 86th percentile and alongside big players in our competitive landscape, as well as helps us with defining and tracking our goals around reducing the environmental impact of Ergo’s supply chain.
We are also working to commit to the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi), which provides a clearly-defined path to reduce emissions. According to SCTi, targets are considered science-based if they are in line with what the latest climate science deems necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement – limiting global warming to well-below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.
Hard battles and easy wins
Another challenge is achieving emission reduction when some factors may be difficult to control or change. In our case, we are headquartered on a business park where the management company procures the power supply. There is some use of renewables but we want to use more, and we’d like to put solar panels on our building. All of it has to be negotiated. We are also talking to hardware partners about the impact of ‘last mile delivery’, how transitioning to electric delivery vans and semi-electric cargo bikes could reduce net emissions.
Closer-to-home initiatives are simpler and make an immediate contribution to our mission to be environmentally friendly. We use reusable cups and cutlery in our canteen, for example. Single use plastics that break down into microplastics and damage the marine ecosystem have been removed. We have volunteer days, where employees help with beach and refuse clean-ups.
These positive actions have helped embed sustainability in the culture of Ergo, which helps us as we work on the measurable parts of reducing carbon emissions. There is a still lot to figure out. While understanding of GHG types is mature and standardised at this stage, there is still work to be done on exactly how emissions are reported.
None of this should detract Ergo – or any company – from a diligent pursuit of sustainability. It’s hard to think of more pressing issue than the environmental threat to the planet, and one that’s more deserving of all our attention.
Check out our ESG policy, how we’re embedding it into our culture, as well as how we are targeting ourselves here.
