This summer, Laura joined the LEaF team for a placement project. LEaF Translations was used as a case study in Laura’s dissertation as part of her Masters studies at the University of York, where she audited our sustainability as a business and looked at providing a framework to help us continue to improve our sustainability efforts.
The process
We started with a couple of coworking sessions in York, giving Laura the opportunity to meet the whole team, talk us through the process of the project and ask us any questions she had. We discussed why sustainability is important to us, our future goals and where our challenges currently lie. This process continued with further interviews with Lucy, followed by solo work for Laura, researching, auditing and writing her dissertation.
“LEaF Translations is a small company wanting to make a significant impact despite the uncertainty around how to achieve it.”
Laura, The Challenges and Opportunities of Small Businesses Leading Sustainable Change
The results
Laura shared her dissertation with us when it was complete, the aim of which was to develop a sustainability framework for LEaF by assessing our current progress and assisting us in becoming leaders in sustainable business.
Here are some of the key findings that Laura discovered throughout the project:
Carbon-neutral claims
We need to tread carefully with our carbon-neutral claims. While we are offsetting through our partnership with Ecologi (an organisation that we fund to plant trees for each new client), which has had and continues to have a positive impact, we could do more to limit our emissions first hand. As a remote and mostly paperless (aside from occasional certified translations) company, the main area of concern is our digital footprint. If we were to report on our operations, this would help us articulate our carbon-neutral claims.
Wider LEaF team
Sustainability is one of our key criteria when selecting freelancers to work with in our wider team. We ask applicants to explain what they do to limit their carbon footprint, if the response is insufficient or a mere form of box ticking then the applicant wouldn’t be considered for the role. This ensures that we work with suppliers who are aligned with our values and also want to make a positive impact on the world around us, as well as promoting LEaF as a responsible employer in an industry that tends to exploit freelancers.
Digital footprint
Even as a small, remote company, it is possible to have an unexpectedly large network that feeds into our emissions. In LEaF’s case, this would be Google Drive, which we use to store and share data. These data centres currently consume 1-2% of worldwide power, which is expected to rise to 3-4% by 2030. This increase in energy consumption is linked to developments in AI, highlighting the importance of being fully informed and choosing new technologies and softwares wisely.
“Considering that the small businesses of today may be the larger businesses of tomorrow, embedding sustainable practice at the beginning will make it easier as the business grows.”
Laura, The Challenges and Opportunities of Small Businesses Leading Sustainable Change
The next steps
Through her dissertation and this project, Laura gave us some recommendations to improve and develop LEaF’s sustainability. Here are some of the next steps:
1. Invest in team members
Even though we already screen applicants on their sustainability habits, we can go one step further by following up and providing our freelancers with training on important sustainability matters. By assisting our wider team members to reduce their individual footprints, we can reinforce LEaF’s overall mission and create a collaborative approach.
2. Reporting as a form of reflection
Sustainability reporting is rare for small businesses to complete due to the lack of resources available, however it is an important part of business sustainability to decide on strategies and support claims. We could use GRI or IFRS standards as a guide, rather than creating a formal report. This will allow us to identify areas in our business that require further attention.
3. Partnerships and collaboration
As a small business, we will struggle to make change alone so we should look at the potential partnerships and collaborations we can form to assist our sustainability mission. This could be either forming a group of like-minded SMEs working towards a common goal, where LEaF can help lead change, or team with a larger business on a mentoring basis, where both parties can benefit from lessons learned from one another.
This project has given us great insight into what we’re already doing well and the areas we can improve on in terms of sustainability. We will take the time to thoroughly look into Laura’s suggestions and find the best way to incorporate them into LEaF Translations. We would like to say a huge thank you to Laura for her work on this project and providing a fresh perspective to our business’ sustainability efforts.
