Bluewave Technology’s Commitment to Sustainability
Bluewave, like all forward-thinking businesses, is extremely aware of the role that companies need to play in reducing carbon emissions. We believe that all organisations, regardless of size, have a responsibility to reduce their carbon output – and there are so many ways to get involved.
Remote Working
As an organisation, we’ve implemented a policy to ensure that travel by the team is undertaken only when needed in order to prevent unnecessary emissions. One way in which we’ve done this is by embracing remote work.
Bluewave adopted significant remote working before the Covid-19 pandemic, but when the world was plunged into lockdown, we were able to consider what we wanted our organisation to look like once things began to open up again. Our team got used to working remotely, rather than on-site with customers, and we found that our customers were very receptive to this change also. As time went on, we realised that becoming a remote workplace would benefit our employees, customers, and the planet – so it was a no brainer.
In becoming fully remote, we’ve eliminated the daily commute for almost all of our employees, with just a small staff presence at our Dublin HQ to handle post and keep things ticking. Not only are our employees awarded the freedom to work flexibly from home, but we’re also preventing excess CO2 emissions that would result from staff taking short journeys to the office and back.
Additionally, having to cater to fewer employees in the office means that our business needs fewer resources. By fully embracing digital solutions (we provide these to our customers, so we do of course walk the walk ourselves) we’re able to operate as a paperless and plastic-free workplace. By cutting down on office size, we’ve also decreased our energy consumption, as our Dublin HQ requires fewer resources to run effectively.
Decreasing Travel
During the pandemic, when a lot of travel opportunities were restricted due to lockdowns, which gave us the opportunity to rethink our approach to staff travel. Now, every trip is assessed to determine whether the event/meeting being travelled to could be executed just as effectively remotely. While we haven’t done away with in-person meetings and events altogether, we’re now mixing things up a little by embracing webinars as part of our events strategy, and hosting virtual staff get-togethers rather than multiple meet-ups each year.
Investing in Net Zero
As a “Summit” partner with Salesforce, we’ve invested significant time in understanding Salesforce’s Net Zero Cloud platform. We’ve built a practice that allows us to understand how to track and inform on our own emissions. Most importantly, we can use the platform to model how our emissions would look if certain changes within the company are made. We’ve begun the process by looking at data, travel, and electricity usage, and plan to extend that to other sources over time.
For more information on Net Zero Cloud, check out our webinar or our demo.
Spreading Awareness
Summer 2022 has provided a stark reminder to us all that the climate emergency is coming at us even faster than predicted. We’re well aware that organisations must act now, and we strive to use our platform to spread awareness about that. We passionately believe that businesses can be a platform for change, which is why we have taken the time to educate and encourage others using social media and blogs, as well as during our recent webinars and events.
In June 2022, we hosted the official Public Sector Networking Event for Salesforce World Tour London, and took time out of our presentation schedule to discuss the importance of reaching Net Zero, and what organisations can do to get there faster. We also hosted a webinar recently, which dove deeper into this topic. This is something we intend to continue with, spreading knowledge and helping organisations that want to reduce their emissions, but might not be sure where to start.
Our Contributions
In June 2022, we hosted the official Public Sector Networking Event for Salesforce World Tour London, and took time out of our presentation schedule to discuss the importance of reaching Net Zero, and what organisations can do to get there faster. We also hosted a webinar recently, which dove deeper into this topic. This is something we intend to continue with, spreading knowledge and helping organisations that want to reduce their emissions, but might not be sure where to start.
In early September, we engaged the carbon reporting experts at Auditel to work with us on a joint offering, and thus, the Net Zero Carbon Clinic was created. The Carbon Clinic is a one-day programme, delivered by Bluewave and Auditel, that’s designed to educate organisations on the importance of carbon reporting, clarify key terms, improve understanding around Scope 1, 2, and 3 Emissions, and help organisations map out a path towards Net Zero, while also revealing cost-saving sustainability initiatives along the way. You can find out more about this here.
In late September 2022, we joined forces with Salesforce to get involved in Smart Dublin’s the Open Data Climate Action Challenge. In response to this challenge, we used Tableau technology to create The Dublin Carbon Calculator – a powerful dashboard built to inspire Dublin’s citizens to get involved in climate action. Find out more about this tool and watch the demo here.
In October 2022, we were invited to present our joint sustainability offerings with Salesforce at Furthr Festival – a Dublin-based innovation event. Our Net Zero Lead: Finian Quinn was joined on Furthr Festival’s Sustainability Stage to discuss our Dublin Carbon Calculator tool, as well as Bluewave and Salesforce’s collaborative efforts to help our customers reach Net Zero, faster. You can find out more about our experiences at Furthr Festival here.
We encourage you to follow our progress as we continue on our own journey to Net Zero and we hope this inspires other businesses and organisations to do the same.
If you’d like to know more about how we’re working towards Net Zero, and what Salesforce’s Net Zero Cloud could do to help your organisation embrace sustainability, contact us to arrange a consultation.