How to make your freelance business more sustainable
‘There are times when I doubt humanity can get its act together,’ Obama said during his speech at COP 26, calling on World leaders to ‘step up and step up now’.
COP 26 has provided some positive steps in the right direction, however many argue it’s fallen short and done little to lessen climate anxiety. The prospect of what needs to be done can be overwhelming but there are things we can do as individuals and businesses to play our part.
There are 22 million freelancers in the UK that contribute £162 billion to the UK economy. If every freelancer changed a few of their habits, we can do our little bit to make a big difference!
Websites and Work
Websites, emails and online activity are a necessary part of many businesses but they all have a carbon cost. Sometimes this is trivial, but across all freelancers they add up. Here are some simple, actionable tips to make your day to day work more sustainable:
Use or move to an eco friendly web hosting service such as Green Hosting (I need to make the switch here!).
Reduce the image size of any images on your website - not only can this reduce the carbon footprint but it can also help to reduce loading time and improve the usability of your website. I use Squoosh.
For quick searches or non-work-related searches, use your smartphone rather than your laptop or desktop to reduce the energy use.
Dim your monitor (even dimming to 75% helps!).
Turn off autoplay on websites so videos don’t automatically stream as you scroll.
Turn off your computer or devices at the end of the day or if you’re not using them for a few hours.
Use a search engine with reputable green credentials such as Ecosia.
Unsubscribe from any newsletters or email lists that you don’t usually read and delete emails after you’ve read them if you don’t need them again.
Send a link to a file rather than send an attachment where possible.
Spring clean your inbox and get rid of any unnecessary emails rather than storing thousands in folders that never get referred back to.
Ecosia Search Engine
Equipment
As a freelancer you may be reliant on certain types of technology and most probably use at least a mobile phone and a laptop or computer.
If every freelancer tried to use this equipment for as long as possible we could help to reduce waste. According to research by the United Nations University there was a whopping 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste in 2019, projected to grow to 74.7 million tonnes by 2030.
To reduce the impact of waste you can:
Replace parts before you replace wholes e.g. if your battery life is too short replace the battery before replacing the phone.
Recycle old phones and batteries so that components can be reused.
If you have old devices or gadgets that still work but you don’t use, donate them to charity such as Oxfam.
If your device no longer works some retailers such as Apple and Currys will still take it to repurpose it.
Websites such as Recycle More provide further information on where you can recycle electronics and batteries safely. Ultimately, we should be aiming for a more circular model of our equipment:
Banking and Pensions
This is the powerful bit! As the freelance industry is worth £162 billion a year to the UK economy, we have a lot of leverage as a group to make a difference through how we bank.
Many people don’t know where their money is being invested or are unaware they may be helping to fund the fossil fuel industry. Moving your money to invest in green practises can be one of the most powerful things we can do as freelancers.
To check how green your bank is, you can use this handy tool: Bank.Green.
Better rated banks include Starling, Triodos and Nationwide. If your bank rates badly, move your money!
If you have a pension, you could also look at where that is being invested. The UK Pension Pot is currently worth over £2.6 Trillion and yet, according to a 2021 survey by Morningstar, only £1 in every £10 is invested sustainably. Future World Plan by Pension Bee offers greener investments, as does NEST’s Ethical Fund.
If it’s not easy to change your pension provider, or if your provider doesn’t offer green investment options, you can ask them to go green through the Make My Money Matter campaign.
Energy Providers
If you’re a freelancer that works from home, you may want to consider moving to an energy provider that uses renewable energy. Which rated energy providers’ green credentials based on several factors from matching customer use with renewable power to transparency of where their energy comes from.
The table below shows their top ranking providers, including Good Energy, GEUK and Ecotricity.
These are just some of the things freelancers can do that, as a collective, could make a big difference. It’s all about choices and putting in a little more thought to our actions.
Do you need to take the car or can you travel by public transport? Could that Zoom call be an email? Could that email wait until the next meeting? Is it possible to change your energy provider, your bank or your pension? Can you work with other businesses with a similar purpose?
As freelancers, we are a powerful group. We can step up and we can step up now!
