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Green resources

 

To help uncover the key sustainability concepts we've collated a range of guides, articles and webinars giving insight into the why and the how on getting to net zero in the research sector. 

Own Your Emissions: RED C’s Hands-On Guide to Climate Reporting

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Taking the pain out of CO2 tracking

RED C Research was an early signatory to the original MRS Net Zero Pledge and now the MRS Climate Pledge that launched last year. A key obligation for signatories is to calculate and share CO2 emissions with the MRS through the annual industry survey. This can be daunting for smaller agencies but using the MRS partner, Compare Your Footprint has smoothed the process. RED C UK’s Office Manager, Genie Barton reflects on her experience of using the calculator and shares her top tips.  

Compare Your Footprint - A valuable tool that gets easier with experience

Using Compare Your Footprint to calculate our CO2 emissions was a bit tricky at first, especially for our accounts team as we got to grips with how to use the platform and the data input required. Having said that, once we got past these early hurdles, the process quickly became more intuitive. The platform itself is super user-friendly with lots of helpful resources available, their how to guides and videos help you along the way.

Now that we’ve been through it once, we are far more confident using the platform. It’s a really valuable tool for understanding and tracking our environmental impact and we’re in a great position to streamline the process even further for next year.

Top Tips:

  1. Prep your data thoughtfully – Work with your accounts team early to gather categorized data. Clean, well-organized records reduce confusion later!
  2. Use their excel templates – Download and stick to the recommended import format. Be extra careful with units (kWh, miles, £) to avoid upload errors.
  3. Make use of their resources – Explore help articles, how-to guides and videos. Their explanations around scope 1, 2 and 3 are clear and practical.
  4. Calculate CO2 Per Employee – Once you have your total emissions, remember to divide the total emissions number by the number of employees!

Useful Links: https://www.compareyourfootprint.com/partners/mrs/

Genie Barton About the Author: Genie has been working in the research industry since 2010 in a variety of Field and Operations roles at agencies including: Future Thinking (now Savanta), Flamingo and RED C.
Red C RBG About RED C: An insight led consultancy business with offices in London & Dublin, we help brands grow by delivering clear understanding of human needs and behaviour. Find out more: https://redcresearch.com/

 

Blue Yonder’s Journey to Becoming a Greener Agency

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At Blue Yonder Research, sustainability has always been a guiding principle, but we’ve waited for the right moment to fully embrace and formalise our commitment. Signing the MRS Climate Pledge feels like a natural progression in our journey, but it’s not a step we took lightly. We wanted to ensure that when we made this pledge, we had the capacity and resources to truly deliver on it.

Over the years, we’ve made thoughtful strides in the right direction. From recycling stations and smart energy signage to minimising waste by reducing office bins, sustainability has been part of our culture for some time. Our regular litter picks in the local area, though eye-opening in terms of the volume of waste collected, have given us the chance to directly contribute to the environment.

For four years now, our Sustainability Pulse Survey has raised awareness about sustainability from the consumer's point of view, and we’ve made it a practice to encourage our clients to choose sustainable options in product testing, even when it involves a slight cost increment.

These initiatives represent a solid foundation, but we know there is much more we want to achieve. This year, thanks to significant growth and the addition of key new hires, we’re in a stronger position to elevate our efforts. It’s an exciting time for us. The establishment of an internal sustainability working group, complete with a designated lead, is our next step toward ensuring continuous improvement and accountability. We’ve already registered with the Ecovadis reporting framework, and now we’re focused on moving up the tiers, pushing ourselves – and our partners – to do better.

At the heart of everything we do is our core value of Authenticity. As a business from Yorkshire, this runs deep for us. So, when we say we’re committing to the four key principles of the MRS Climate Pledge, it’s not just a promise – it’s a reflection of who we are. With the right people in place and the momentum behind us, we’re ready to make a tangible impact. If every business steps up in this way, together we can drive meaningful change.

It’s a pleasure to formally commit to this journey, knowing that our pledge is not just words but a call to action for the future.

Richard Heath, Managing Director at Blue Yonder Research

 A day in the life of a researcher… getting greener


As well as research organisations taking steps to reduce their emissions, individual researchers can also incorporate key behaviours to get greener at work. In these videos, Lian Mico from We Are Human 8, walks us through how she is trying to be more climate friendly while working at home as well as when she’s in the office.

How to get your agency to Net Zero 


Our panel of experts look at the realities of tracking emissions and how some pioneering organisations are organising their measurement processes. Hear the results from the 2023 tracking survey on how research organisations signed up to the MRS Net Zero Pledge are faring in measuring and reducing their emissions. Our panel also discusses some of the tools available – what’s useful and what’s not for getting to grips with measurement and reduction of emissions.  

Panel: Caroline Wren, Managing Director, MTM; Jack Young, Consultant for Sustainable Transformation Practice, Kantar; Walter Tucker, Customer Relationship Manager, Compare Your Footprint; Mark James, CEO, Differentology 

Sustainability webinars

Digging Deeper on delivering impactful projects on climate change – Learn about a climate change project collaboration that used semiotic and ethnographic approaches

What brands are still getting wrong about sustainability – how organisations can most effectively harness sustainability initiatives in marketing and communications

Sustainability Summit 2022: In this webinar recording, some of the research sector's green pioneers discuss the agency journey to net zero. 

Bridging the gap between what consumers want and what they buy: Richard Heath of Blue Yonder explores the complex relationship between people’s views  and behaviour.   

How to talk to consumers about sustainability: Hannah Hargreaves of Listen + Learn Research reveals how brands can motivate consumers to change their behaviour around climate.

Sustainability 101: Discover what sustainability means, and the timelines required to stay in a safe space for humanity, and what cultural shifts we might see in a net zero economy.

Sustainability - The Key Concepts: Understand the sustainable development goals, life cycle thinking, the circular economy and stakeholder capitalism.

ICC survey - attitudes to climate change in the sector

In May 2021, a survey designed by the Insight Climate Collective (ICC), probed the attitudes of professionals in our sector on how they see the role of the sector in addressing climate change. Hear how concerned researchers are about climate change in this webinar.

Insight Climate Collective Survey May 2021: Survey results on how researchers view climate change

Useful guides and articles

 

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