An agency approach to becoming sustainable by default
One of the founding tenets of the Design+Climate community was to hold one another accountable in bringing The Planet into our design practice; and therefore to deepen our individual work through shared knowledge and learnings.
Having the reputable design agency Idean with us for our 11th event could not have been a better alignment in supporting this goal.
During the event, participants who were working in agencies were asked by Lilli Graf where they thought their clients were on their journey to sustainability?
It’s a depressing picture.
But yet client reactions to sustainability thus far, according to our sample were overwhelmingly negative with only 17% being positive at the current point in time. Many suggested that their clients currently have other priorities.
…and so Idean’s work is impressively proactive:
Operation Green Fist is an approach devised by Idean to reach their goal of becoming sustainable by default. For the agency to share the story thus far was absolutely true to Design+Climate values and it felt like their forthcoming transparency at the event gleaned a standing ovation from respective kitchen tables, bedsides and sofas.
It began around the time of the school strikes when children around the country were opting to miss out on lessons to show their concern for the planet. Daniel O’Connell, who heads up the operation at Idean became extremely concerned that he and his agency were not more active when he read The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells and the corresponding New York Times article.
He described it as a “wake-up call” for him.
Forming an action community
Dan and a few other concerned individuals within the company came together to write a letter to the company Leadership Team. They wanted their concerns about possible inaction to be heard, and to ask “Are we giving people a choice based on ethics?”
According to Dan “it was nerve racking at the time, but was a positive thing; it led to a conversation around the type of work we are doing”. And so they created lists of well-aligned client prospects to work with in this space.
Idean’s action group was set and had defined a few activities:
- Tree planting and carbon offsetting
- A damage report and internal survey
- Gathering for weekly lunches
- A studio takeover of Idean’s Friday all-team meeting
- Writing about sustainability and design — for example Can you heal your digital shame with more sustainable tech choices? The key takeaway for me here is that the internet emits more carbon than the airline industry each year!
All talk and no action?
With these wheels in motion, it was still not plain sailing from hereon-in, even though they had the support of the company behind them and a defined working group with a goal to become the centre of excellence within the Capgemini Group (Idean’s parent company) says Dan.
They ran into problems; they would get in a room and talk but there was no action.
Setting objectives helped for sure, according to Dan, but just like our Design+Climate group, people have busy schedules and other revenue generating agendas often take priority. It’s a challenge D+C have grappled with and hence why we ask our community to share and put into action learnings from our sessions.
(So if you’re reading this and are able to, please join in and share the findings of your actions in our slack community).
Distributed ownership: Turning sustainable business upside down
So Idean made a shift to the approach from a well-meaning small group to a more distributed ownership model so that accountability and responsibility existed at all levels of the business.
They made 10% time available to work on it.
Because of this they were able to calibrate their sustainability lens for new and existing business and really to focus on clients.
“It’s easy to ask what does a sustainable design practice look like.
It’s easy to ask how do sustainable business models work?”
Dan and Lilli and the Idean team started the other end. They asked “which clients do we have, what problems do they have, then which clients might buy our work?” By having conversations with partners and clients and identifying their pain points, Idean were already solving real world problems.
And because they had made the commitment of 10% time, they have effectively won half the battle. By doing this their efforts in the sustainability space inherently have to be viable; they are solving problems not in the abstract, but with real clients: The heat is on!
Which clients?
Each industry has leaders and laggards. In the telecoms industry it’s clear that BT is a leader; they have carbon clauses in their contracts for their clients. For instance
- They put sustainable outcomes as part of bonus and remuneration packages
- They have innovation labs to deliver sustainable outcomes e.g. electrification of vehicles and smart cities.
Environmental efforts are not clear to see in all businesses and employees may not even recognise how they can affect their business’ efforts. In reality all employees can and you don’t have to be the Head of Sustainability to do so.
Internal changes
An obvious change that can be made by all in commerce is reduction of each employee’s carbon footprint. The global pandemic’s effect on transitioning even this D+C Meetup online from in-person, I hope will have lasting effects. I hope people will stop to ask the question “do I need to travel for this right now?”
Idean have taken this one step further and are even recognising that by partnering with agencies who are local to their clients they can perhaps even reduce their footprint even further. Smart.
“Great insight, thanks. I think with the crisis, sustainability should play a great role in redefining the way we work (keyword: New Work)”
- Jennifer Bagehorn, event participant
Five key takeaways from Idean’s approach:
- If you haven’t already, you can start by forming a group of like-minded individuals who are interested in the topic. You can then seek buy-in legitimately from leadership at your company
- It will not be easy — Setting objectives and dedicating a proportion of your week to the cause really sets the project in motion
- To make sure you are adding value, try to focus on real clients rather than hypothetical processes
- Work out which clients will work in harmony with your aspirations
- Think about not only how you can help your clients improve, but also what initiatives and changes to working processes can be made internally.
You can join the Design+Climate community by signing up to our slack channel, joining our mailing list at www.designandclimate.org, or following #designandclimate on Twitter, Instagram and Medium.
We’d love to have you.
