For the third article in our series we talk with Tom Greenwood, co-founder and managing director of Wholegrain Digital, a digital design company. Their mission? Create the best websites in the world, use our business as a force for good, and help to accelerate the shift to an Internet that’s good for people and planet.
And did you know if the internet was a country it would the world’s 7th polluter! So Sustainable design is a priority!
Tom is the author of Sustainable Web Design and a leader on web sustainability.
In the article Tom provides some insights (check the environmental footprint of your website!!) and how the B Corp certification has helped his business.
Tom’s journey and background I started my career studying product design and was inspired by the potential of design to create a better world. I wrote my thesis on sustainable product design and created an online guide for designers to find information about how to design eco-friendly products. This led me into the world of websites and digital technology, and the idea that maybe we could protect the environment by replacing physical products with digital services.
Wholegrain Digital – impact, story and work – inspired by the potential of digital technology to create a better world, I moved from designing physical products to digital design and in 2007 co-founded Wholegrain Digital with my wife Vineeta. We wanted to use digital design and technology to help purpose led organisations achieve their goals while at the same time, use our own business as an experiment to learn how to run a business in an ethical and sustainable way. Over the years we have developed a reputation for truly caring about our clients, our team and society, and have been lucky enough to work with amazing organisations like UNICEF, Oxfam, Ecover and Good Energy to name just a few. In 2017 we Certified as a B Corp and it became a catalyst for the next phase of evolution as a business, giving us a framework for improvement and inspiring us to push ourselves further. Over these past few years we have become known internationally as leaders in low carbon web design and I wrote the book, Sustainable Web Design, to help share best practices.
Your digital path for Sustainability, how to plan for sustainable web design, more accessible and inclusive? – Our path to learning about digital sustainability came when we first reviewed the B Impact Assessment and saw that it asked about how we measure and reduce the impact of our products. As a digital agency we didn’t know how this related to us, and when we asked B Lab for advice, they told us to leave it blank because we didn’t make “real” products. This led us on a path to researching what the impact of the internet really is, and upon learning that it has a carbon footprint roughly equivalent to the aviation industry, we knew that we must tak leadership in trying to solve this problem. We created a methodology for calculating the carbon footprint of a web page and launched a public calculator tool at www.WebsiteCarbon.com. We also then started investigating every aspect of the work we do, from web hosting to design and development, to find opportunities to save energy and reduce carbon emissions. We found that this relentless pursuit of efficiency led to other benefits, including faster load times and improved accessibility for people on slow connections, as well as for people for whom data is very expensive. It turned out that sustainable web design was also inclusive web design, and improved user experience for all.
Some tips and lesson learned – One of the main lessons that we have learned is that sustainability should not be a niche, and as such, it must appeal to everyone. If this is to be achieved, then we need to design online experiences that don’t look “eco” and feel as good or better than more polluting services. When talking to clients, while we wished that protecting the environment was always their priority, we have learned that they must prioritise their organisational goals and so we cannot persuade them to adopt sustainable practices just by telling them about the environmental benefit. Instead, we must show them how it is a win-win and will support them in achieving their goals as well as help the environment.
How being a B Corp has benefitted you – Being a B Corp has benefitted Wholegrain Digital in a number of ways. First of all, it gave us an independent framework to improve our business, not just socially and environmentally, but commercially too. It also gave us access to an incredibly open and welcoming community of businesses who wanted to share best practices and help us progress. In a world wear business is generally very competitive, this collaborative community was a breathe of fresh air.
It also acted as a catalyst for us to look at our business with fresh enthusiasm and ask how we can do things better. As mentioned, this led to our focus on digital sustainability, but also many other initiatives including a very rewarding evolution of our company culture that has made our business so much stronger and more impactful than it was before certification.
When we certified, very few people in the UK had heard of B Corp, but as awareness has increased, it has also been a good marker for clients and prospective team members to see that we really do care about the things that we say we do.
The way forward and your plans – Our path forward is very exciting, as we dive deeper into what it means to create a great place to work, or perhaps more accurately, how to make “work” a great part of life. We have created an in-house role for a Cultural Architect and Team Coach who is helping us evolve into the best versions of ourselves, both as an organisation and as human beings.
Furthermore, we continue to lead the change in the digital industry towards a more sustainable future and are in the process of setting up a new department dedicated to digital sustainability consulting. This is an exciting new challenge as its much like starting a new business in an emerging market, so there are many unknowns but also many opportunities.