- The SaaS sector hangs behind others in sustainability awareness and industry
- Digital emissions grow rapidly and AI accelerates the environmental impact
- ECOSEND runs completely on renewable energy and serverless digital infrastructure responsible responsibility
Sustainability is not a word that most people associate with saas. Unlike sectors that are very dependent on physical infrastructure or global logistics, the software industry often does not have to investigate when it comes to environmental impact.
With carbon cost of digital activity, especially in AI’s era, it begins to change.
Since launching just over two years ago, EcoSend, an E -mail -Marketing Platform, has run completely on renewable energy and serverless infrastructure. I talked to James Gill, the company’s founder and CEO, to understand what is holding back from being really sustainable and what it will take for the industry to lead, not disappear, by building a greener digital future.
What does it mean to be sustainable for an online business like yours? How do you measure/monitor your sustainability?
At EcoSend, sustainability is not just a buzzword or a reflection. It is baked in our very DNA as a company.
Since we launched EcoSend just over two years ago, we have run our platform on full renewable energy and the latest ‘serverless’ technology. Being ‘sustainable’ means that our planet must be at the heart of any decision we make and every corner of our product. Historically, SaaS companies have avoided the level of control of sustainability that other industries have been exposed to.
Companies operating in hardware, transport, supply chains, etc. have begun to adapt to more sustainable practice as a result of this control. We are convinced that SaaS companies must adapt in the same way to actively lead us all towards a better future instead of continuing to hang behind.
To help us monitor our commitment to sustainability, we not only trust internal processes but external accreditation and reporting. We are certified by ‘Green Small Business’ as well as members of the good business charter, lifting 1%and Terra Carta. In addition, we are currently in the process of certifying as B Corp.
As a SaaS provider, what are the biggest obstacles you have encountered in your journey towards being more environmentally friendly?
One of the biggest challenges we face is common to many companies working in the sustainability space and that is a lack of attention. Few people are aware of the carbon cost of our digital activities, and yet, if ‘the internet’ was a country, it would be the fourth most polluting nation in the world.
By taking E -mail specifically, over 360 billion e emails are sent per Day according to research from Statista. Each e -mail can have a carbon cost of up to 26 g. Still, few marketers are aware of the environmental impact of their campaigns. While many of us can understand the effect of boiling a boiler, the effect of digital activities seems like sending an e -mail harder to wrap his head around.
So the first challenge is to create awareness. Secondary to this challenge is motivational change.
It is one thing for a company to pay attention to the environmental impact of their online activity, but to motivate them to migrate their E -mail service provider is data and campaigns another.
We dedicate a great deal of effort to make migration as easy as possible for businesses to help remove the inertia associated with changing software. This includes custom import tools and dedicated onboarding sessions with our support team to facilitate the process of companies that are eager to change.
What would this do to get publishers like us to report more about organic credentials for SaaS providers?
I think a starting point would be better awareness of the extent of the challenge. Digital emissions are often behind reporting on other high -emission activities, such as air travel. But the ‘invisibility’ of digital emissions should not mask its scale or its influence.
With the recent, meteoric increase in AI, the impact of digital emissions will only continue to grow and become more very felt.
The ‘carrot’ motivation for SaaS companies to improve their sustainability information will only get us this far. But increased coverage of publishers in the digital sustainability sector will lead to increased regulation across the ecological credentials for SaaS companies. This will play a further ‘stick’ factor in motivating companies to change to better practice and reporting. Both are required to facilitate change.
EcoSend has sustainability built in the nucleus as its USP. How different is the composition of your audience compared to your peers?
We are lucky to work with hundreds of dedicated B-corps, charities and target-controlled organizations for which the concepts of sustainability and holistic capitalism are ingrained in their core ethos.
Our clients are ambitious and determined to grow profitable, but the most important difference is that this growth never comes at the expense of people or the planet.
Whether they are entrepreneurs, SMEs or large companies; We learn so much from our client’s efforts to create digital sustainability forward, and we are happy to support them in their mission.
AI has been hailed as the solution to sustainability conundrum and the destruction of forests. What are you taking on this?
The increase of AI constitutes both threat and opportunities. The decisive factor will be in how AI is implemented. Chatgpt is currently estimated to spend about 39.98 million kWh per day. Day. This is more than the annual energy consumption of over 100 nations.
Frivolous use of AI will only throw us further down a path that we should not be on. That said, if we can consciously exploit AI, we can use it to create a better future. Whether it is to automate complex ESG reports, evaluate the sustainability information in a large supply chain or increase the efficiency of companies’ administrator tasks; There is a possibility that AI can serve us instead of contributing to our death.
If the use of AI is both limited and conscious, I think it can be a solution to the sustainability challenge. Unfortunately, it seems that the current trends show the opposite.
Where are you going from here? How do you become even more sustainable?
We are currently in the process of certifying as B Corp. The process of using and maintaining B Corp certification will ensure that our company is kept to B CORP’s high standards for ethical and sustainable business practices. Through this application, we will be publicly responsible for ensuring that we ‘go’ by sustainability, ethics and communities across our company, software platform and supply chain.
In addition to our B CORP application, we regularly review how we improve our sustainability information. These reviews have led us to take a more active role in our communities through volunteering on food banks and preservation places throughout London.
An example of ways we have evolved – we have always sent a gift to our business clients every Christmas. We change from sending inhibitors to sending donations to Beam – an organization that supports people experiencing homelessness in the UK to find stable work and accommodation. We have so far sponsored over 50 clients through our partnership.
In addition, we recently added a new wooden planting partner to our ecosystem to improve monitoring and reporting on where our customers’ trees are planted.
While we are proud of what we are doing, we know that the world needs more – more from us and more from all businesses. We are happy to push ourselves to do more to protect our home planet and inspire others to follow.
