Indigo Multimedia commits to CarbonNeutral future

Indigo Multimedia has become the latest business in the North East to commit to a CarbonNeutral future.

As one of the regions foremost newmedia agencies, with clients including UK Sport, NE Life, One NorthEast and the North East Chambers of Commerce, Indigo are running an ambitious programme to minimise and balance out their carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in partnership with CarbonNeutral Newcastle.

To help the company understand their carbon footprint an energy audit was recently carried out by CarbonNeutral partners, TNEI, which identified emissions of 25 tonnes of CO_2.

Glen Burdis, Director at Indigo comments, “I was surprised to learn the impact of simple things which we can all address, for instance, a PC monitor switched off overnight, instead of leaving it on standby saves enough energy to microwave six meals.

The support of CarbonNeutral Newcastle has led to a number of energy and cost saving initiatives at Indigo’s headquarters. By switching to green electricity and gas suppliers and fitting a smart meter, the company are not only reducing their carbon emissions but are set to see a reduction in utility bills across the year. New IntelliPlug adaptaptors are now being used on all PC’s, meaning that when they are switched off, the power is shut down to all connected peripheral devices. Low energy desktop lights are now being used by all staff as an alternative to power hungry overhead lighting, further reducing Indigo’s carbon footprint.

The whole Indigo team are embracing the new initiative and some are even taking to their bikes. Prior to the audit 50% of the company carbon output was due to car usage, now with four members of staff adopting green transport methods this figure has been dramatically reduced. By donating to an energy efficiency scheme at Kotmar, central India, Indigo have offset their remaining emissions.

Global warming and climate change affect us all and a group of the world’s most prominent scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), agree that man’s emissions of CO₂ from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are leading to unprecedented climate changes. In the North East, temperature rises are predicted to bring greater flooding, storms and a halving of snowfall in winter. To curb global warming to within safe levels, the world's greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced dramatically by 2050.

Charles Henderson, Project Director for CarbonNeutral Newcastle, said, “We are thrilled to have Indigo Multimedia commit to going CarbonNeutral. This is fast becoming a critical business issue.  Businesses should register with us quickly to take advantage of a 60% subsidy on footprints and energy efficiency programme.”

In summing up the success of the initiative Glen Burdis added, “We take our corporate responsibilities very seriously and recognise climate change and carbon management as important business issues and going CarbonNeutral helps us meet our social objectives. In fact we have been so thrilled with the changes we are giving our staff free IntelliPlug’s to take home as a first step in reducing their own carbon footprint.”

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