Spotlight: Behind the Numbers
MSQ’s Chief Sustainability Officer, James Cannings, analyses the detail behind the numbers shared in this year’s MSQ Sustainability Report, and outlines the actions needed to keep businesses on track for achieving Net Zero targets.
Our carbon footprint is going up, but we’re not panicking (yet!)
The fact that our 2022 carbon footprint is higher than our 2021 footprint was no surprise, even though the sustainability team at MSQ did a huge amount of work in 2022 that was focussed on reducing our carbon footprint. We migrated a number of additional offices to renewable energy (our flagship UK office in Bow Street is now on 100% renewables) and launched a number of additional staff schemes across green energy, green transport and personal carbon footprint reduction. And whilst our focus on reduction is only one of the four core pillars of our Net Zero strategy, it’s certainly the most important. So what happened in 2022?
The problem for professional services in the post-Covid world
We’re a relatively low-carbon professional services business, not a high-carbon manufacturing business. Our footprint is heavily influenced by commuting and business travel, and by mid-2022 it was very clear that the post-Covid world didn’t look as we might have assumed a year or two earlier. Offices were busy again, clients were open for business and everything felt “normal” again. Great for culture. Great for mental health. Not so good for the planet!
So, we know that from 2023 onwards we need to double-down on behavioural change. There is lots we can do centrally. We can control our energy suppliers and rollout lots of staff schemes. We can centralise measurement and carbon offsetting, plant trees and even start to move towards more impactful carbon removals projects. But unless we find ways to get our individual agencies, and the individuals within those agencies, to change some of their behaviours, then we’re unlikely to be able to hit our own Science Based Targets.
So, what are we doing about it? A big step for us was to change the way that sustainability is funded across the group. I won’t go into the details here, but you can think about the MSQ agencies as departments of a larger organisation. By cross-charging for our work in the right way we can make sure that the leaders of those agencies engage in order to make sure they are getting the benefits, which in turn drives the right behavioural changes.
And for our new financial year we are for the first time introducing a set of “Do The Right Thing” KPIs. We’ll set more formal annual targets at the agency level for tree planting, travel emissions, engagement with staff schemes and more. All of this is about helping to drive the behavioural change that we need.
We have a great Net Zero framework of measurement tools, staff schemes and other sustainability initiatives. Now we just need to drive that engagement down through the organisation. Easier said than done, I’m sure. But with the interim deadline of 2030 looming, by when all companies must have halved their carbon footprint, it’s critical that we do all that we can.
Finally, it’s great once again to be able to use this report to highlight some of the low-carbon work that our agencies are doing for our clients. Whilst our Net Zero strategy is critical, it’s the work that we do with our clients where an organisation like MSQ can really have an impact. Whether it’s designing low-carbon packaging, reducing digital emissions or helping with our client’s own sustainability comms, it’s an exciting time to be leading the complex, grown-up conversations that need to be had by the advertising and marketing sectors.
“It’s about changing years of behaviours and asking the right questions – can we take the train to an overseas event instead of flying (as is the case with the Cannes Lions this year)? Lots of small steps can make a big difference.”
— Matt Williams, Global Head of Marketing, MSQ