Prioritizing Climate Transparency in the Technology sector
Interview partner: Karli Cumber is responsible for any marketing, social media communications, and sustainability related activates for Footprint Technologies. The Berlin start-up develops an AI based technology that enables users to always find the perfect fit for selected apparel during online shopping. In this way, Footprint Technologies provides online retailers with a solution to reduce the high number of returned products, and thus saving CO2 and costs.
In an interview with THE CLIMATE CHOICE, Karli shares Footprint Techologies’ challenges and progress in implementing their own climate transformation and how the Climate Readiness Check has helped them.
Can you briefly introduce yourselves to our CLIMATE Community?
At Footprint, our greatest climate goal is to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions related to returns and reshipments in the footwear industry. Our challenge is to reduce negative environmental effects caused by the processes of shoe returns, specifically due to improper fit. We have started in the children’s shoe segment and this year we are starting to make our way into the adult shoe segmentation. Our services offer a foot measurement technology, which is intended to find the correct-size fitting shoe based on the exact dimension of the shoes’ manufacturing. In 2021, we published our first ‘Sustainability Report’ for the company, where we discussed our climate commitments and partnerships such as with The Climate Choice, as well as reevaluate our current practices. This includes our internal climate code of conduct, to best support our overall climate mission.
What are the biggest climate-related challenges you face in your daily lives?
As we are mostly working digitally, also remotely, we don’t necessary encounter too many climate related challenges on a daily basis, such as transport or paper printing/usage. But because we are a green-minded company, in our Sustainability Report we summarize the day-to-day activities which support our climate mission. Some of these include our energy consumption of our software, mobility, team learning, and event participation. Overall, we make it a priority to choose more environmentally friendly options when available, and create a welcoming space for learning and open dialogue within our team. Additionally, we provide opportunities and encourage the team to learn about sustainable options, for them to pursue a sustainable lifestyle outside of work.
Together we carried out the Climate Readiness Check. What was your motivation?
Our motivation to conduct the Climate Readiness Check was to get insights on where our company currently stands at with our climate efforts and to increase our score as a company.
What were the most important lessons you learned?
From the results of our Climate Readiness Check, we learned that we are extremely transparent when it comes to our climate efforts. While this factor may seem obvious for a company that specializes in technical solutions, we find that our transparency is something that can serve as a model throughout our industry. Other than that, we also took note of the areas for improvement as we continue to look forward. We have learned, there are many different areas that are necessary to be considered during a Climate-Scoring.
What are the best practices that you would like to pass on to other organizations?
We would encourage other organizations to prioritize transparency and enable positive climate thinking. We recognize that it is important to consider the environment in our work solutions and moreover to implement this commitment as an integral part of our values. We want to drive forward change in our industry and encourage future partners or collaborators to think the same way. As technology has the favorable quality of constantly being ready to adapt, also our climate actions should be adaptable.
You want to know more about the Climate Readiness Check? Do not hesitate if you want to learn how our software service is enabling you to take the next steps forward. Contact us for more information.