April 22nd marked the 52nd anniversary of ‘Earth Day’, founded in 1970 by US Senator for Wisconsin Gaylord Nelson, upon witnessing the devastating effects of a 1969 tanker oil spill in Santa Barbara. This action is widely attributed with triggering the environmental movement and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts, and much more that followed.

Now as we face our bigger, global challenge, it is time to stop and reflect – what can we do individually and as a company to help prevent the climate disaster which is washing upon the shores of every living thing? We can’t ‘fix the world alone’ but we can stop being part of the problem, and start being part of the solution towards ‘Net Zero’ carbon.

At Talking Medicines our Net Zero Strategy is 3-fold:

Now – Cutting Emissions

Next – Scaling Sustainably 

Future – Permanent Carbon Removal

Now – Pledging to Cut Emissions

a)    As a Company we will drive better patient outcomes through improved medicines communications by leveraging the digital Voice of the Patient through the PatientMetRx® portal with the downstream aspiration of reducing waste, inequalities and inefficiency in healthcare.

b)   We foster a Team Culture of personal carbon responsibility offering support and tools such as the PawPrint app, providing secure bicycle storage, and information and support re travel plans and green living options in the UK and USA

c)    We identify and measure our company contributions to carbon emissions, using embedded processes and software such as Greenly which automatically calculates our carbon impact from our accounting software, tracking our daily carbon expenditure

d)   We focus on reducing our impact in the key areas of travel, energy (office and IT emissions), and food by seeking alternate suppliers of software, data management, and travel partners which offer better CO2 impact, or offsetting in an affordable way

e)   We encourage our team members to engage with the Community, and to share personal hints and tips, and to volunteer time to community and green projects through Social Good Connect, supported by the company

f)     We benchmark and measure ourselves against our peers, always seeking to lead by example, and to learn with humility

g)    We have appointed a Sustainability Officer to manage and oversee this. It is a testament to the whole team’s commitment that this is an internal, voluntary role and was oversubscribed

h)   We monitor our progress via key metrics in monthly ESG team meetings and report quarterly at Board level as part of our Governance.

Next- Scale Sustainably

a)    From our learnings of today, we will implement a Business Sustainability Plan, an actionable targeted plan which will move our company as we scale in revenue, size and capability to respond to our carbon debt

b)   We will continue to track our progress using key metrics and by setting carbon targets as we track to Net Zero

c)    We will focus on emerging trends in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 1-3 which are directly relevant to the company – Business Travel, Food&Drink, Tech emissions

d)   We will look to develop internal and external partnerships with stakeholders and thought leaders who share our carbon zero aspirations

Later- Permanent Carbon Removal

a)    We will operationalise Carbon Offsetting as a key result of Talking Medicines

b)   We will follow the Oxford Principles to cut emmissions, shift to carbon removal offsetting, and look to support long-lived carbon storage

c)    We will not only zero our emissions going forwards, but will look to repay our carbon debt accumulated during scaling when fewer viable commercial options were available

d)   We will endeavour to become thought leaders in scaling responsibly, and to share our insights, learnings and errors transparently with the wider business community, and support SMEs in their aspirations.

During this process, which we acknowledge may take years, we will hold ourselves to account in our sustainability and ESG goals through our company values of Quality, Innovation, Community and Transparency by reporting quarterly on our progress into our board, seeking external validation and support where available, and publishing an annual ESG report which speaks to our progress and challenges in these vital areas.

On Earth Day we re-commit ourselves to these goals, and hope you too will find ways to help the global effort to a brighter, net zero world. We welcome any genuine conversation from companies and individuals who are sharing or have been on our CO2 journey, and wish to collaborate on ways to support.

Scott Crae, Founder Talking Medicines – [email protected]

Stewart McKee, Sustainability Officer and Full Stack Developer – [email protected]

References

1.    Earth Day 2022 – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/22/happy-earth-day-2022-what-activities-environment-quotes-facts

2.    Pawprint Eco App – https://www.pawprint.eco/

3.    Greenly – https://www.greenly.earth/en-gb

4.    Social Good Connect – https://socialgoodconnect.org/

5.    Greenhouse Gas Protocol – https://ghgprotocol.org/

6.    The Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting 2020 – https://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/publications/reports/Oxford-Offsetting-Principles-2020.pdf

7.    Photo by Nikola Jovanovic on Unsplash