Climate Change Data

DEPT®

Climate Impact & Sustainability Data (2020, 2023)

Reporting Period: 2020

Environmental Metrics

Total Carbon Emissions:5,524 tonnes CO2e (offset 7,000 tonnes)
Renewable Energy Share:50% of own systems, 70% of client hosting (Microsoft Azure)

ESG Focus Areas

  • Climate protection
  • Impactful work
  • Diversity, Equality & Inclusion

Environmental Achievements

  • Achieved net-zero emission status in 2020
  • Three offices achieved Green Building accreditation in 2020

Social Achievements

  • Launched Dept Wellness Challenge in 2020 with 400 participants
  • Employee turnover rate of 16.6% (almost half the industry norm)
  • Piloted faceless recruitment in the UK, filling six new roles
  • More than 1300 hours invested by Depsters in volunteering through Dept Cares

Governance Achievements

  • Redesigned ownership structure with approximately 20% owned by management
  • Integrated sustainability and ethics into governance processes

Climate Goals & Targets

Long-term Goals:
  • Not disclosed
Medium-term Goals:
  • Become carbon negative by 2023
  • Have 15% of revenue from impact work by 2023
  • More than 40% of managers identify as female or nonbinary by 2023
  • 70% of office space (including future ones) Green Building accredited by end of 2023
Short-term Goals:
  • Achieve 50% Green Building accreditation of office space by end of 2021
  • Reduce travel emissions by 7% YoY from 2021

Environmental Challenges

  • COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives, businesses, and communities
  • Travel is the biggest contributor to carbon emissions
Mitigation Strategies
  • Focused work on creating digital events, online fundraisings, and social platforms to help clients digitize
  • Developed a plan to progressively reduce travel emissions by 7% year-over-year, including subsidies for public transport, flexible work from home policy, and use of carbon-neutral travel firms

Supply Chain Management

Responsible Procurement
  • Dept Business Partner Code of Ethics
  • Rating and selection process
  • Green and Diverse Preference programme

Climate-Related Risks & Opportunities

Reporting Standards

Frameworks Used: GRI

Certifications: Climate Neutral (US operation)

UN Sustainable Development Goals

  • 3
  • 5
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 12
  • 13

Impact work contributes to these SDGs

Awards & Recognition

  • 8 awards for impact work (including Justdiggit and Honig/Food Bank)

Reporting Period: 2023

Environmental Metrics

Total Carbon Emissions:9,179 t/CO2e
Scope 1 Emissions:252.59 t/CO2e
Scope 2 Emissions:792.17 t/CO2e
Scope 3 Emissions:8133.92 t/CO2e
Renewable Energy Share:37%
Total Energy Consumption:2,460,957 kWh
Carbon Intensity:2.39 t/CO2 per FTE in 2023

ESG Focus Areas

  • Climate and Sustainability
  • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I)
  • Employee well-being
  • Community outreach

Environmental Achievements

  • Reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by approximately 2.23%
  • Reduced travel emissions per FTE by 55.29%
  • Scope 3 emissions reduced by 19.02%

Social Achievements

  • Launched DEPT® Cares Month, with 18% of staff participating in over 40 events across 13 countries.
  • Donated 2.8% of profit to serving causes and non-profits around the world.
  • Launched DEPT®/IMPACT, a set of capabilities focused on helping businesses use digital as a transformative force to create positive changes.

Governance Achievements

  • Established a Digital Ethics Advisory Panel (DEAP) to advise on ethical principles in daily work with digital technology.
  • DEPT Holding BV ISMS certified against ISO 27001:2022.
  • Published first Human Rights and Modern Slavery Policy.

Climate Goals & Targets

Long-term Goals:
  • Net zero emissions by 2050 (not explicitly stated but implied)
Medium-term Goals:
  • Reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2030
  • Achieve 45% women in leadership by 2027
  • Increase underrepresented ethnic and racial groups in leadership by 25% by 2027
Short-term Goals:
  • Reduce water consumption by 10% by 2025 (not explicitly stated but implied)
  • Power 90% of offices by renewable energy by the end of 2025
  • Set near-term science-based targets for the Science Based Targets initiative by Summer 2025

Environmental Challenges

  • Economic uncertainty, industry-wide layoffs, geopolitical conflict, extreme weather events.
  • Limited growth in the market affecting employee and supplier base.
  • Increasing pressure to meet updated standards for digital accessibility set by the European Accessibility Act.
Mitigation Strategies
  • Reduced workforce to preserve business sustainability.
  • Implemented cost savings and efficiencies through supplier relationships.
  • Developed contingency plans to address currency devaluation concerns in Argentina.
  • Created a new Procurement Process and began screening approximately 20% of the supply chain.

Supply Chain Management

Supplier Audits: Approximately 20% of supply chain screened as of Q4 2023

Responsible Procurement
  • Supplier Code of Conduct

Climate-Related Risks & Opportunities

Physical Risks
  • Extreme weather events
Transition Risks
  • Regulatory changes, market shifts
Opportunities
  • Development of energy-efficient products (implied)

Reporting Standards

Frameworks Used: GRI, B Impact Assessment (BIA), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Certifications: Certified B Corporation, Climate Neutral Certified, ISO 27001:2022

Third-party Assurance: Shift Advantage (limited assurance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions)

UN Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 4
  • SDG 5
  • SDG 8
  • SDG 9
  • SDG 10
  • SDG 12
  • SDG 13
  • SDG 17

The report details how various initiatives contribute to these goals throughout the document.

Awards & Recognition

  • 14 Anthem Awards
  • Lovie's Agency of the Year 2023
  • Campaign US Digital Innovation Agency of the Year — 2023
  • Webby's Network of the Year (DEPT®) and Agency of the Year (BASIC/DEPT®) 2023