World Environment Day 2020: Let's work together

Today marks World Environment Day, which falls every year on 5 June. Since 1974, it has been the most renowned day for environmental action, encouraging awareness and action for the protection of our environment. This year's theme is biodiversity, which describes the variety of life on Earth, including the 8 million plant and animal species on the planet, and the ecosystems that house them. And with one million animal and plant species likely to disappear soon - the concern is both urgent and existential.

We need to safeguard our forests

As part of the discussion around biodiversity, the importance of forests cannot be underestimated. Forests provide habitat for the vast majority of the terrestrial plant and animal species known to science and mitigate climate change. Yet, despite our dependence on forests, we are still allowing them to disappear. According to a recent report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, human activity has been the cause of the loss of more than 420 million hectares of forest since 1990. The good news is that we can reverse the trends of biodiversity loss by acting now.

That’s why we’re proud to be making regular donations to Trees for Life, a conservation charity based in Scotland. To date, we have donated 10,120 trees to our Krystal grove, which will be carefully planted in protected sites in the Scottish Highlands, providing space for wildlife to flourish and communities to thrive. Recent studies have found that trees may be the best way to stabilise our climate by removing CO2 from the atmosphere, giving tree planting a prominent role in the fight against climate change.

Energy for the future

However, in order to meet the UK’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions and end its contribution to global warming by 2050, businesses around the world must play their part. As a web hosting company, we are all too aware that data centres require a tremendous amount of energy, which is why in 2017 we became one of the first hosts to be powered by 100% renewable energy - no vague carbon offsets, just a direct relationship between our datacentre and Ecotricity to power the facility with energy generated by 100% renewable sources. In our eyes, achieving carbon neutrality of our electrical energy usage isn’t the end goal, it’s the barest minimum first step.

We’re always looking for new initiatives to contribute to both lowering carbon emissions and actively work to improve the environment beyond simply negating our business footprint. Going beyond our direct business operations we also offer an incentive scheme for our staff to help them make the switch to 100% renewable energy supplies at home, with the aim of actively contributing to the reduction in domestic carbon usage.

Let's work together and foster a new relationship with nature

On the occasion of  World Environment Day, let's be more aware about biodiversity and put the spotlight on nature. We rely on nature for our energy, for our food, and everything we need. We need the planet, more than the planet needs us. Ultimately, we need to foster a new relationship with nature, to support this beautiful planet we call home, and we can achieve that together. 

You can read more about our commitment to environmental sustainability here.