Sustainability policy.

Studio Republic is an ethical agency with one objective: to deliver our services with diligence, social responsibility and with minimal unnecessary environmental harm. These services inspire and enable our team and our clients to implement solutions that enhance lives and/or protect the environment.

Our policy

Every day we make choices; from what brand of coffee we drink to deciding where we source our energy. But what effect do these choices have on the world around us?

At Studio Republic, we believe that these everyday choices are our chance to make a change; a change for good. We use our moral compass to guide us. We keep it simple, we keep it kind, and we make a difference. Download our full policy here.

The planet

We take our responsibility for the environment seriously at Studio Republic, and understand the need to respond to the challenges we face globally around issues such as those outlined in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Here are a few of our biggest achievements to date:

We won a Green Apple award

We were awarded the Green Apple Award for Ethical Design through Sustainable Consumption in November 2018. You can read more about the Green Apple Award and our entry here.

We purchased two electric cars

We replaced two petrol vehicles with two electric cars, which is set to save us 0.56 tonnes CO2e per year. On top of this, 81% of the SR team walk, cycle or use public transport to get to work on a daily basis.

Our electricity is 100% renewable

We switched energy supplier to a renewable energy provider, Bulb, who provide 100% renewable electricity, and 10% renewable gas. That means 55% of our total energy is produced from low-impact renewable sources.

We offer sustainability consultancy

We have expanded our service offering to encompass sustainability consultancy, allowing us to help our clients on their sustainability journey too.

We’re certified carbon neutral

We became certified as a Carbon Neutral agency in June 2018. We offset five tonnes of CO2 by donating to this Ugandan Borehole Rehabilitation project.

We reported our progress

In 2018, we implemented a Sustainability Policy, a Waste Reduction Policy and published our very first Sustainability Report which allows us to measure, monitor and report on our progress.

Targets for the planet

We see sustainable development as a journey. We realise that we’re not perfect, and that’s ok – we can only try our best and strive to do better. So, we have set ourselves some targets to keep us on track, keep us focused and help us achieve our sustainability mission.

Reduce our emissions to 3tCO2e

Continue to monitor and report GHG emissions, and meet our 2019 reduction target of 3tCO2e.

Reduce single-use plastics

By monitoring the amount of ecobricks we create we aim to be able to calculate how much single use plastic we save from sending to landfill.

Record and reduce our waste

We will start to measure our waste output with the view to set year on year reductions.

Add sustainability to board review

Encourage the review of SR’s social and environmental impacts during the annual board review to ensure targets are being met and actions are taken seriously.

Upgrade our windows

As part of our journey to reducing our energy usage, putting in measures to help us become more energy efficient will keep our energy output low.

Eliminate hazardous waste

Hazardous waste needs to be disposed of responsibly in a way that can be verified. We aim to reduce the amount of hazardous waste we send to landfill to zero by the end of 2019.

Implement a thermostat

As part of our energy consumption reduction journey, we will implement a thermostat to monitor and control our gas usage.

Encourage ‘meat free mondays’

In a bid to reduce the environmental impact of our food consumption habits, we will encourage staff to participate in ‘Meat Free Monday’.

Switch off at weekends

Turning off our computers at the weekend will help reduce our energy consumption.

Use all plant based inks

Research and implement low VOC or soy based inks to reduce ecological impact.

Switch to 100% renewable gas

We want to minimise our impact so we commit to finding a supplier who provides 100% renewable gas, or who provides vegan energy.

Switch to 100% LED lighting

Although 78% of our lighting is already LED, we want to improve this by ensuring 100% of our lights are LED.

Transparency

We’ve always considered ourselves to be an open bunch of people and have always been more than happy to share information openly, that’s why, when we began our “B Impact Assessment”, we were inspired to be more open with the information we share and the things that we do here at SR. Here are a few of our biggest achievements to date:

Provide transparent pricing

It’s an important part of our business plan to ensure that we provide transparent pricing models to all of our clients.

We share industry secrets

We share industry secrets with our community at our monthly Winchester Creatives event as well at other guest lecturing and networking events.

More supply chain transparency

Improved our Supply Chain transparency by offering information about our suppliers to all who ask.

Shared our sustainability journey

Openly shared our sustainability journey on our website, through our sustainability policy and sustainability report (our successes and failures!).

Developed and improved policy

Developed our Staff Handbook to detail the Studio’s practices and employment policies more in-depth and turned our unwritten policies into written ones which we share openly with our staff and the public.

Internal sharing of our financials

Internally, we have begun to share the company financials to all employees that are interested.

Targets for transparency

Share financials quarterly

We currently share our financials to team members who ask. To take a step further we want to share our financials openly, on a quarterly basis, with the whole team.

Implement a new supplier criteria

It’s important to us that we work with suppliers who share our values, so we want to develop and implement a new supplier criteria that considers the environmental and social impacts of each supplier. To go further, we plan to make this criteria available to the public.

Make our policies visible

2018 saw us create a lot of policies and implement them in the workplace. This year, we want to make these policies open to the public to view.

Become a B Corporation

We began our B Impact Assessment in 2018 and hope to become certified in 2019. This will help us to continue to monitor and assess our performance against third party standards, as well as acting as an incentive to continually strive for better results.

Continued Sustainability Reporting

Our sustainability journey doesn’t end here, we will continue to report on our progress and will make this information available to the public each year.

Team

We value our team here highly. We spend at least 42.5 of our 112 waking hours each week together. Factoring in travel to work, and other commitments, it’s possible that we spend more time with our colleagues than we do with our nearest and dearest so it’s important to treat each other well. Here are a few of our biggest achievements to date:

Implemented staff reviews

Implemented a formal staff review process which includes social and environmental goal setting as well as personal progress reporting.

Provide and support training

Encourage and provide staff with Continued Professional Development opportunities and training.

We eat together twice a week

We provide our team with two free lunches per week, which we share together. One of these lunches encourages plant based eating, helping contribute towards our Meat Free Monday target too.

We work flexibly

We have made flexible working possible, including facilitating remote working.

Our desks are ergonomic

50% of our desks are ergonomic standing desks, and we implement new ergonomic facilities whenever possible.

We provide health schemes

All of our staff are covered by our Company Sponsored Health Scheme and our Income Protection Scheme.

Our Targets for the Team

Diversity and inclusion training

To implement and provide diversity and inclusion training for staff.

Employee satisfaction survey

Ensuring we provide a happy and inclusive workplace is important to us. We aim to set up surveys through which staff can provide anonymous feedback.

Regularly review worker benefits

Ensuring that staff are satisfied and are rewarded for good work boosts staff retention and aids the production of high quality work.

Create a bonus structure

Formalising a bonus structure that applies equally to all staff.

Add to our staff handbook

Formally write our intern hiring practices into the staff handbook to ensure that all staff, however temporary or junior, receive fair treatment and are supported in their roles.

Charity

We’re lucky to work with a number or charity, not for profit and purpose driven enterprises, as well as ethical local businesses. Our services help them to achieve their goals and maximise their positive impact. As part of our commitment to doing good, we’ve made some changes in house to benefit the charities that our team support.

Worked with 20 ‘for good’ clients

For Good clients are those who work every day to bring some good to the world, whether it be a charity, or an ethical, local business. Last fiscal year we worked with 20 for good clients. We’re still counting this years’ numbers so stay tuned!

Collaborated for a shared goal

Collaboration with our clients has allowed us to contribute toward the achievement of some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Helped raise £21,573

Working with Step by Step, a youth homelessness prevention charity, we helped them raise an impressive £21,573 through their Christmas Campaign, Open Doors.

Our Targets for Charity

Work with more charities

We love doing work for good people and good causes, so as part of our journey to doing more of this, we aim to increase our charity / NFP client list by 5% with the larger goal to have more of an impact on achieving the UN SDGs.

Offer more pro-bono services

To approach a charity or business in need who we think we could help through the provision of our services on a pro-bono basis. This encourages collaboration for a shared goal and is an important way to give something back to our community and to causes / businesses that we believe in.

Become active donors

To sign up to 1% for the planet, or another donation scheme that allows SR to make annual charitable donations.

People

As part of our sustainability journey, we have continued to actively engage with the local community, encourage our employees to contribute towards social good, and factor in social considerations into our everyday activities. Here are a few of our biggest achievements to date:

We donated 178 hours

We donated 178 hours of studio time to various charities and causes, beating our 2018 target of 176 hours by two hours.

We hosted Hack for Good

We ran our very first charity hack day, Hack for Good, which aimed to benefit or support homelessness services.

We buy ethical coffee

Coffee is important to us at Studio Republic, that’s why we buy BySea Coffee. They’re fair trade and donate 100% of their profits to Sailor’s Society, a charity that supports seafarers.

We host Winchester Creatives

We continued to run Winchester Creatives, a monthly free event which supports creatives and information sharing in the local community.

Supported underserved enterprises

Our services supported 19 underserved / purpose driven enterprises in the last fiscal year. Find out more about our client work.

We’ve expanded

We opened The Loft at Studio Republic, a venue space where we plan to host educational events, sustainability talks, networking sessions and more.

Our Targets for People

Volunteer 220 hours

Continue to offer 15 hours paid time off for volunteering opportunities to our team, encourage guest speaking, community events such as Winchester Creatives and Hack for Good, and team days out that benefit the community and / or environment.

Host Hack for Good 2

We are planning another Hack for Good this time focusing on mental health awareness. It’s a great way to collaborate with fellow agencies and use our industry skills positively to impact the community in which we live.

Host more community events

Giving back to the community is important to SR. That’s why we aim to increase our community event output by 10%.

Promote environmentalism

Sustainability is at the core of what we do, and we want to share the knowledge we have gained with our staff and community by being more vocal, hosting more events and encouraging networking.