What does hiring a green design agency involve?

So-called ‘triple bottom line’ reporting takes into account the relational and environmental as well as financial outcomes for a company. If you want to improve your green credentials, one unexpected way to do that is to find a green design agency. London has hundreds of design companies, some of whom aim to do business sustainably. If you’ve given thought to the way your company affects the planet, it also makes sense to think about the way your suppliers’ work does, too.

There are several obvious ways to improve your company’s environmental bottom line: cutting unnecessary power use, finding green energy tariffs and reducing travel where possible. After that, there is a second layer of changes to make: the businesses with which you interact have their own impact on the planet, and your use of them actively endorses that. A green design agency should make sure that the services they supply to you do not add to your company’s broader footprint. One factor is their power consumption: web hosting is energy-hungry by nature, and ensuring sustainable energy provision is a big part of offsetting that.

As it happens, transferring business onto the internet has built-in green advantages that can be complemented by hiring a green design agency. London is a huge consumer of power: its offices and transport networks run day in, day out, burning fossil fuels without a break. A web-based business, or one which carries out a proportion of its transactions online, significantly reduces its carbon footprint, since people end up shopping virtually rather than in person. Plenty of businesses now operate very successfully without any physical outlets at all.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Although it might be better than jumping in a car and going to the shops, even web use has its impact on the planet. The more traffic you attract to your site, the worse it gets. Research by Google indicates that a basic single-hit web query creates around 0.2 grams of carbon dioxide. If you need to hunt around a bit more – perhaps for a few minutes before you find what you’re after – that can total around the same as boiling a kettle of water. A green design agency will be able to track your visitors and to estimate the effect that has on the environment, enabling you to offset the carbon footprint that brings.

Of course, this comes at a premium, and you will probably end up paying a little more than the average for a green design agency. London, however, is a great place to start looking, since it offers such a huge range of services. Just one advantage is the physical proximity of so many companies, since you will no doubt want to meet to discuss projects from time to time. Working in the same city – and one with reliable public transport – all helps to reduce your carbon footprint.

All told, there are many different factors to take into account when looking for a green design agency. Any company that claims green credentials needs to be examined carefully to make sure that they really do what they say: it’s too easy to make the odd change here and there and tout them as proof of sustainable practices, while making very little real difference in reality. Start by asking them about their energy policies, particularly for web hosting, which accounts for a significant proportion of power use and may be carried out by a third party. It’s also worth checking out some of the other companies with whom they have done business, and making sure they aren’t connected to any companies that suggest they don’t really care about how their services are used.

James Marshall wrote the Article 'What does hiring a green design agency involve?' and recommends you Google 'Dhub' for more information on London web design.