ECO-TECHNOLOGY start-up Pawprint and Standard Life Aberdeen have teamed up to help take the lead on climate change.
Pawprint – founded and led by Aberdeen entrepreneur Christian Arno in 2019 – is based around an app that helps users make choices affecting their carbon footprint.
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With the ongoing pandemic, how people currently work and live has changed dramatically and therefore so has their carbon footprint. Whilst the emissions from offices and, more importantly, business travel have reduced, the majority of people are now working from home and creating emissions from increased energy use there.
Standard Life Aberdeen has estimated that their employees carbon emissions from working at home could represent up to 60% of their overall 2020 carbon footprint. That is why the global investment firm has joined the Pawprint Pioneers Program.
Standard Life Aberdeen will initially target a representative sample of 500 colleagues from around the world to use the Pawprint for Business app, an online tool which helps users measure, understand and reduce their carbon footprint.
The results will give Standard Life Aberdeen data on the emissions their people create when working from home, and also allow them to offset those emissions as part of the company’s carbon neutral commitment.
Sandy MacDonald, Standard Life Aberdeen global head of sustainability, said: “The Pawprint app will not only enable our people to understand and tackle their own carbon footprint, but also allow us to better understand the impact on emissions of our employees working from home.
“We will then be able to offset this as part of our carbon neutral commitment and further work with our people to reduce it. Standard Life Aberdeen is committed to help fight climate change and we can’t wait to get started on this project.”
Six of Edinburgh-based Pawprint’s board are from the north-east: Mr Arno, Chris Bradbury and Ross MacNay are all from Aberdeen, Mark McCafferty hails from Banchory, Douglas Cook is from Alford and non-executive director Sarah Ronald is from Westhill.
Mr Arno said: “We are delighted to confirm Standard Life Aberdeen as the second company to commit to using Pawprint for Business to engage their employees on sustainability.
“Having a company of this size and stature lead in this way really sets the standard for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Pawprint’s mission is empowering people to fight climate change at home, at work and beyond and we’re off to a strong start.”
Ellon-headquartered brewery and pub chain, Brewdog became the first business to sign up earlier this year.
