Sustainability
At Haynard, we know that being more sustainable means a company or organisation is more resilient- and therefore, successful. We’ve seen this with clients and we’ve researched why this happens. We enjoy helping our SME clients to get to grips with this area when it’s new to them, when they get some of the best benefits.
So, why resilience? Put simply, for business, sustainability is all about an extra set of opportunities and risks some people aren’t managing or are choosing to ignore in the hope they’ll go away. If you don’t try to get ready for these, you will get unpleasant surprises (disrupted supply chains, global fuel price spikes, more extreme weather affecting your sites and people, changes in what customers want) where you will lose out to competitors or can even suffer serious and sudden impacts. You also won’t be ready if an opportunity with sustainability angles to it suddenly pops up.
Not only does embedding modern more sustainable thinking help you ride out smaller disruptions, it helps you pivot to deal with longer term trends. Sustainability for business has become mainstream- just like quality, and safety, did before that.
Our sustainability philosophy
For us sustainability, especially for SMEs, has to be practical. It needs to be focussed around what you need to do as a business, what you can actually achieve and benefit from, and should be evidence based so you can show your progress. That might or might not mean a document, or a plan, or a business decision. It shouldn’t be a word-salad annual report for box-ticking purposes that no-one looks at again!
The first step is often doing a carbon footprint -usually because a customer has asked for this; and working out how and where you emissions can be reduced in ways that make sense for your business. Customer usually need their suppliers to have carbon reduction plans because they have their own targets and accreditations, where they are held responsible for your emissions when they buy your goods and services.
There are some very good, and very bad footprints out there and some very good and very bad reduction plans. You’ve probably heard people discussing some of the bad examples! So we only ever support you to make credible, clear plans that you can actually implement.
Sometimes the question or issue you’re responding to isn’t about a carbon footprint or plan- we can help SMEs with those too. We help clarify the situation and can either support you directly or pass you to a different expert who can help.
How we support businesses
Through our client work, we help SMEs understand their carbon impact, identify realistic reduction opportunities and respond confidently to customer, tender and supply-chain sustainability requirements.
Our focus is on practical action: clear data, credible plans and recommendations that businesses can use internally as well as share externally when needed.
We also like to help you grow your internal skills base wherever possible because that’s how you will get the most benefit- we don’t hide behind jargon and try to lock you into long term contracts. We work alongside your team and explain as we go.
How we act on our values
We aim to keep our own operations practical, efficient and low-impact wherever possible.
This includes working digitally where appropriate, improving the efficiency of our home offices, minimising travel and keeping our website lightweight and efficient. We make conscious choices about the tools, systems and suppliers we use, so that the way we run our business reflects the advice we give to clients.
We also continue to review our own practices over time, recognising that sustainability is an ongoing process of improvement rather than a one-off statement.
Low-carbon website
We also pay attention to the environmental impact of our digital presence.
According to Website Carbon, this website produces approximately 0.19g of CO₂ per page view, which is a very low result. We aim to maintain this by keeping pages lightweight, optimising images and avoiding unnecessary digital bloat.
Responsible use of contractors and AI
We don’t think a website needs to use AI in its design or presentation to be good- there are still too many unknowns, too much uncertainty over copyright infringement and too much high carbon impact. So actual humans designed this site for us, using branding and imagery we have the rights to. We don’t have a chat bot either- you can book a free call with us and speak to a real live expert human!
That’s not to say we never use AI- it is after all embedded in a lot of software, not least how we calculate some parts of carbon footprints- but we do review where we use it to make sure it is useful, appropriate and proportionate to the results and any negative impacts.
Responsible website analytics
We use privacy-focused analytics to understand basic website performance without collecting unnecessary personal data. This helps us improve the website while keeping visitor privacy in mind.
Accessibility and inclusion
We want our website to be as clear and accessible as possible. We use plain-English copy, clear page structure and readable fonts and designs to help visitors find and understand the information they need.
We also use an accessibility widget, allowing visitors to adjust their browsing experience where needed. This supports a more inclusive website experience and reflects our commitment to making our information easier to access.
We continue to review the website over time and look for opportunities to improve usability, accessibility and clarity.
Always improving
Sustainability is an ongoing practice, not a finished statement. We review how we work, the tools we use and the impact of our digital presence so that Haynard’s own practices continue to reflect the standards we encourage in our client work.
If you notice something we could improve, we welcome your feedback.
We do calculate our own footprint and reduction plan too- if you’d like to see that please contact us for a copy!