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Saving money whilst saving the planet


Geckota are online retailers of watches and replacement watch straps. Over the past 10 years Geckota has grown from a hobby into a multi-million pound business and they now ship orders out every day to customers all over the world. They trade under several brands, the most established being WatchGecko. Owner Jon Quinn was introduced to Go Climate Positive by a business friend who was already a member of the programme that helps business to take positive steps to tackle the climate emergency.

Jon saw two main benefits from joining the programme saying, “We are keen to reduce our impact on the planet and we would like to get a recognisable certification that shows we take this seriously.” What he didn’t expect was that it would soon help his bottom line too.

Go Climate Positive helped the business to quantify their climate impact by calculating their full carbon footprint. This involved not only looking at their energy use but also the carbon emitted in the manufacture and transportation of their products, employee commuting and online activity.

We helped them to understand that 48% of their footprint comes from the transportation of their products, leading them to investigate the use of sea freighting for their inbound shipments. As an online retailer it was also interesting to learn that their digital activity was the 3rd biggest contributor, accounting for 10% of their total emissions.

By contrast their energy use generated only 4% of their emissions. Nevertheless, they were keen to take some immediate action and, as their current energy contract was shortly to expire, switching this to green energy was identified as a “quick win” allowing them to remove 6.5 tonnes of carbon from their footprint.

We introduced the company to one of our trusted partners, Full Power Utilities, a premier energy and utilities broker who negotiated a new contract for 100% renewable electricity which not only removed the carbon but also reduced their electricity bill by an astonishing 27%, demonstrating that doing the right thing for the planet can also do the right thing for your profits.

Here is what Erika Anskaityte, who is responsible for sustainability at Geckota, had to say about their experience of the programme,

“Go Climate Positive has been very supportive throughout the programme. The hardest bit was to collect needed/backdated information however, we received all the help needed to make this process as easy as possible. We have been part of monthly zoom calls which is very interactive and informative. It allowed us to meet businesses who are in the same boat as us while learning more about sustainability, how it can help our business to differentiate and make the most out of the opportunities around us in a sustainable manner.”

As we do for all our members, we created a unique web page which transparently publishes the company’s footprint and their commitments to reduce and offset it and gave them a certificate for them to use on their website and marketing communications.

Click this link to view their certification page.

This is just the first step in an ongoing journey for Geckota, as Erika says,

“The programme helped us to involve everyone within the company to participate from bringing our own reusable water bottles to producing/designing products from recycled ocean plastic. We still have a long way to go however, we are very proud of where we are now with the help of Go Climate Positive.”

Contact us to find out how we help you do this too

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