Background

Can you give a quick intro to Systemagic?

Systemagic is a Managed IT Service Provider based in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire. We support SMEs across various industries, offering them comprehensive and reliable IT support, cybersecurity, cloud and connectivity solutions.

We’ve been around since 1999 and pride ourselves on our fast response times, excellent customer service and friendly, jargon-free approach.

Why is reducing your carbon footprint important to the Systemagic team and your clients/partners?

We've been dedicated to minimising our environmental impact for a long time, ensuring our business doesn't negatively affect future generations.

Additionally, many of our clients require suppliers to have strong carbon reduction strategies. For example, one of our clients is partially owned by Sky, which has a clear Sky Zero commitment for its entire supply chain to be Carbon Neutral.

We started focusing on our carbon footprint back in 2014, which has given us an early competitive advantage.

The Challenge

What were the biggest challenges you faced when trying to measure and reduce your emissions?

Many of the tools and platforms available were designed for enterprise-level reporting, making them quite pricey or requiring significant consultancy to get started.

As tech professionals, we're comfortable with collecting, inputting, and measuring data ourselves.

So, we needed a partner who could help us understand the unfamiliar aspects rather than charging us for inputting data we already knowhow to handle.

What was stopping you from taking action sooner?

We consider ourselves early adopters in the journey towards carbon reduction.

Our commitment to sustainability began years ago when we first recognised its importance, and nothing really held us back from taking action sooner.

Since then, we've implemented numerous initiatives, including investing in renewable energy sources, improving energy efficiency, and reducing waste.

Did you have any existing carbon reduction plans before working with Seedling?

Before working with Seedling, we consistently looked for ways to improve our energy efficiency, optimise our processes, and reduce our overall footprint.

However, we faced challenges in accurately measuring and confidently reporting the positive actions we were implementing.

How Seedling Helped

What made you choose Seedling?

For starters, Seedling is a South West business – and we love supporting local businesses around us.

However, the key factor that made us choose Seedling was the simplicity and efficiency of their data reporting portal.

The portal's intuitive interface makes it easy for us to input and analyse our carbon footprint data, providing us with insights that were previously inaccessible.

How did Seedling help you tackle the challenges you were facing?

Having Blair, Aimée, and the Seedling team assist us has been invaluable.

Their insights into the reporting process and data segregation have helped us identify areas for further action.

Discussing our challenges has also been beneficial, particularly as most of our annual footprint comes from Scope 3 emissions, which are challenging to address as a reseller.

What specific features, tools, or support did you find most valuable?

Getting a handle on scope 3 and how it affects us has been really important.

Learning and understanding the SDG Goals and UN Gold Standard offsets through Seedling has shaped how we think about carbon offsets.

We're confident that the carbon offsets we buy are real and have a meaningful impact.

The Impact

What have been the biggest benefits of using Seedling so far?

Our clients and potential clients often ask about our carbon footprint, so it's great to have easy access to our reports.

Showing that we use an external organisation to review and share information about our carbon footprint has really helped strengthen our green strategy.

Can you share any key results or milestones?

Last year, we managed to cut our carbon emissions by 11.4%.

The year before, we made an impressive reduction of 31.7%!

This shows our ongoing dedication to shrinking our carbon footprint.

How has your team engaged with the process? Have therebeen any unexpected wins?

We've won several climate-focused tenders with some amazing businesses thanks to our detailed reporting process.

While many businesses might just talk about planting trees, we can confidently share our footprint, strategy, and impact.

As part of our sustainability efforts, we have been able to accurately calculate the carbon impact of the IT hardware we purchase.

This enables us to promote greener technology options to our clients.

Looking Ahead

How has this process changed the way you think about carbon management?

It has made us much more mindful of the benefits and challenges, allowing us to concentrate on areas that will truly make a difference rather than sticking to more conventional methods.

For instance, we used to think that paying to plant treeswas beneficial for our footprint.

Now, we take pride in our UN Gold Standard offsets, where we can measure the long-term impacts.

What are your next steps in reducing emissions?

Scope 3 emissions are still our biggest challenge.

While we might be too small to influence global manufacturers directly, we can still offer our clients choices, which is crucial.

Right now, we're concentrating on the areas we can control, like deliveries, packaging, and reusing and recycling equipment.

What advice would you give to other businesses looking to start their carbon reduction journey?

It's never too late to begin, and it doesn't have to be a costly endeavour.

When you collaborate with a partner, like Seedling, who is genuinely passionate about their work, their enthusiasm will naturally inspire you too!

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