No organisation’s journey towards sustainability and net zero is the same.

Some have massive emissions built into their operations and are investing in completely new ways to operate, while some only need to make minor changes to the way they do things.

Some are just starting to understand their carbon footprint, while others have already reached their targets.

The most important element they share is that they all decided to take that first step.

For ReGen Strategic, the decision to become carbon-neutral was the culmination of a decade-long commitment to seeking win-win outcomes for Western Australia as a strategic communications advisory.

There’s no bigger win-win outcome for WA than doing our part to reduce our emissions, so ReGen set out to become a certified carbon neutral organisation through the Australian Government’s Climate Active program.

ReGen’s journey began in early 2022 with a comprehensive examination of our operating activities to gather extensive data needed to measure our carbon inventory.

This included our electricity use in the office and working from home, business travel and employee commuting, office equipment and supplies, waste and use of professional services.

We then established an internal sustainability committee from all levels of the organisation, who worked together to set an emissions reduction target of 30 per cent by 2026 and identify ways this could be achieved.

With that target guiding us, we started implementing changes in our office to make sure we get there.

To date, this has included changing our computer settings to limit energy consumption, reducing emissions from commuting by securing end-of-trip facilities and providing a rebate on public transport fares, and providing staff with recycling bins at their desks to reduce wastage.

It hasn’t always been easy to change long-held habits, but giving our staff ownership of the process has ensured buy-in across the company.

Some emissions remain unavoidable – for now – so in the interim we are purchasing offsets for those emissions each year.

For our initial certification, we have invested in the Yarra Yarra Biodiversity Corridor project in the northern Wheatbelt of WA.

More than 90 per cent of the vegetation in this area had been cleared by farming since the early 1900s, but this project is trying to reverse this. with landowners to reforest non-arable land with native species.

The goal is to create a 200km long green corridor from inland to the coast, reconnecting indigenous vegetation with 12 nature reserves across a 10,000km2 area and sequestering carbon for 100 years.

Since 2008, the project has worked with landowners to plant more than 30 million mixed native species of trees and shrubs across almost 18,000 hectares.

Beyond carbon storage, the Yarra Yarra Biodiversity Corridor’s environmental benefits include improved biodiversity, soil quality and water quality.

In 2022, ReGen Strategic achieved its goal to become certified as a carbon neutral organisation, but our journey is far from over.

Like many of our clients, we acknowledge how far we have to travel and are committed to staying on this road until we get there.

But the most important step is already behind us.

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