CASE STUDY
Why Tech Company, Karbon, Chose to Reduce Their Carbon Emissions
A carbon footprint report can reveal “invisible” emissions, even with a hybrid workforce.
Karbon serves over 23k accounting professionals daily with their top-rated accounting practice management software. Karbon works with major clients such as Baker Tilly, VIDEN Group, and Armanino to make their communication processes run smoothly. Karbon’s powerful software enables accountants to save time and work with clients effectively.
With a lean, hybrid team of under 50 employees, making a shift toward more environmentally-friendly business decisions wasn’t top of mind across the Karbon team. After all, the majority of employees worked from home, business travel was minimal thanks to virtual meetings, and there were no glaring signs of the company being overly wasteful.
In 2021 however, a simple question was posed by a curious employee. George Connor, Web Developer at Karbon, sent a #general Slack message to start the conversation about measuring, reducing, and offsetting their company emissions.
George wanted to hear from the team, “Could and should we work to reduce our carbon footprint?” and “Does sustainability factor into purchasing decisions for our audience?”
Karbon employees weighed in and agreed that this would be a positive project for Karbon to take on. George took on the role of project owner and internal conversations began. Eventually, decision makers were on board, kicking Karbon’s decarbonization project into motion. Partnering with a sustainability firm would be necessary to fill the gap of in-house sustainability and GHG expertise.
After meeting with several firms, Karbon chose RyeStrategy to support their initiative. RyeStrategy’s strong credibility within the carbon offsetting space and the experienced sustainability experts made them a great fit for Karbon’s sustainability journey.
Navigating GHG Data Collection
The GHG inventory process began by collecting emissions producing activity data for the previous calendar year. RyeStrategy assisted the team in collecting data across a variety of areas throughout the business including utility bills, air travel, and purchased goods and services. For Karbon, employee involvement was key to gathering information such as energy consumption and travel information from anyone who worked remotely or had a hybrid schedule. With the help of RyeStrategy, they had employees complete surveys to quantify emission producing factors from home and their remote offices.
With all of the data collected, RyeStrategy calculated Karbon’s detailed carbon footprint which shows that Karbon produced approximately 980 tons of CO2 in 2020, 99% of which originating in scope 3.
The cohesive carbon footprint revealed they had very low scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. As a remote business selling software online, without onsite manufacturing costs, it was expected that scope 1 and scope 2 emissions would be low, especially compared to scope 3 emissions. Although this emissions breakdown is common in remote or hybrid workforce companies.
The largest contributor in upstream emissions came from website hosting associated emissions. Karbon also noted that 6 out of the 16 tons emitted from business travel were accommodation services. Net emissions from usage of electricity to deliver their product to customers also stood out as a significant emission producer at 37% of total scope 3 emissions.
With the help of RyeStrategy, Karbon was able to offset 100% of their 2020 carbon emissions and gain carbon neutral verification. This is a huge step in the right direction for the company as it hopes to continue engaging in sustainability conversations and accomplish more decarbonization goals. Employees at Karbon are now better equipped and knowledgeable about LEED-certified accommodation and green transportation alternatives. With a new team in-house working to ensure the company stays on track towards emission goals, the culture has changed tremendously.
Read more about this project on Karbon Magazine.
Unexpected Scope 3 Carbon Emission
A thorough carbon footprint report can uncover emission hotspots your business may not even know exist. Using this breakdown, Karbon was able to create and implement offsetting strategies that targeted larger producers of emissions. Scope 3 emissions often go overlooked during the decarbonization process yet value chain emissions represent 75% of many company’s overall emissions, according to SBTi.
“Downstream emissions were completely invisible to us before we started this process.”
George Connor, Web Developer, Karbon
The Road to 100% Carbon Offset Results
RyeStrategy was able to support Karbon throughout their carbon neutrality journey by uncovering and targeting hidden scope 3 emissions to make a difference on their environmental impact.
Three years later, Karbon has grown to over 130 employees and continues to prioritize sustainability and decarbonization initiatives.
Karbon’s climate action began with a simple Slack message, your company’s can too.
“We chose to go with RyeStrategy based on an initial kickoff call where their enthusiasm and dedication to the work really shone through.”
George Connor, Web Developer, Karbon
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