Environmental and Social Initiatives

Since incorporating in mid 2008 we have considered a variety of ways to offset the ecological footprint of our company.

We pledged to always factor the environment into our business decisions, from our office environment to the servers we run our websites on.

Our goal is to be a Canadian web company that is a pioneer in how to be carbon neutral. To that end, we are pleased to announce several initiatives at BraveNewCode.

Donations & Contributions

While making personal & company changes and commitments far outweigh cold hard cash in our eyes, we also make donations for events & action days.

Donation List

  • $250 on Earth Day 2010 to oceana.org
  • $300 to the Red Cross for support in Haiti in 2010
  • $100 on Earth Day 2009 to the WWF

It’s important to us that we show our support for non-profit organizations with direct donations, rather than indirectly by providing gifts in kind.

Carbon Offsets for Company Travel

To be a global business you have to undertake global travel. While planes typically produce less pollution than cars traveling the same distance, the pollution is produced in a relatively short period of time and can dramatically increase the total carbon footprint of individuals, let alone a company.

As a policy, BraveNewCode purchases offsets for all company travel via PlanetAir.ca, a Canadian non-profit organization highly regarded by several environmental agencies, including the David Suzuki Foundation.

PlanetAir’s carbon offsets are certified Gold Standard offsets, and they assist in funding sustainable large-scale environmental projects.

Examples of current projects include wind energy generation in New Zealand, and micro-hydropower in Indonesia.

BraveNewCode’s Purchased Carbon Offsets

  • DATE
  • DESTINATION
  • CO2 (tonnes)
  • MAR 09
  • Vancouver, BC – Cancun, MX
  • 1.28
  • MAR 09
  • Hamilton, ON – Cancun, MX
  • .56
  • MAY 09
  • Bellingham, WA – San Francisco, CA
  • .26
  • MAY 09
  • Toronto, ON – San Francisco, CA
  • .80
  • SEP 09
  • Bellingham, WA – Portland, OR
  • .27
  • SEP 09
  • Hamilton, ON – Abbotsford, BC
  • .75
  • NOV 09
  • Vancouver, BC – Punta Cana, DR
  • 1.35
  • NOV 09
  • Toronto, ON – Punta Cana, DR
  • .66
  • TOTAL CO2: 5.94
  • TOTAL OFFSETS PURCHASED: 5.94
  • BNC TRAVEL CO2: 0.00

 

Earth Hour WordPress Plugin

For the past few years, individual members of BraveNewCode have participated in the global environmental event, Earth Hour. Given the amount of exposure the event generates towards global warming and action to combat it, we wanted to do something unique to help with the event. In 2009, we developed the Earth Hour WordPress plugin which that year helped over 500 websites show their solidarity towards the event. As of spring 2012, the plugin has been downloaded over 6,800 times from the WordPress Plugin Directory.

In the future, the donations that we receive from our entire plugin ensemble (including WPtouch and WordTwit) will primarily be used for BraveNewCode environmental initiatives that ultimately reduce our corporate carbon footprint.