Silver linings – huge drop in our carbon footprint

Since founding Gamper Smith Associates in Scotland in 2017, one of the issues we have grappled with has been how to reduce our climate impact working in a sector that has traditionally involved a lot of international air travel. We work through our network of locally based colleagues where we can, and pre-pandemic, had been convincing some of our clients that support using online platforms can work really well.  Nevertheless it seemed for some jobs flights were unavoidable - in 2019 alone, we spent 90 days travelling, including 4 long haul flights.  The coronavirus pandemic forced us to stop all of that, and clients who had been reluctant to try a virtual model were keen to give it a go.

In the 18 months or so since February 2020 we have taken only one work-related flight, but have stayed as busy as ever, working through Zoom and MS Teams. We estimate that we have knocked at least 15 tonnes of CO2 emissions off our carbon footprint compared to a similar period pre pandemic. Best of all, our clients agree that this model can work; it’s here to stay as a major way we offer our services. We are also looking into how online collaboration tools could make learning exchange and development more accessible and inclusive in  countries where domestic travel is challenging, but cheap data coverage and smart phone ownership is rapidly increasing.