MSQ Makes Ambitious Carbon Pledge and Hires First Chief Sustainability Officer

MSQ has revealed plans to reduce overall carbon emissions per employee by more than 50% by 2024 - and has hired its first chief sustainability officer to do so.

Already the UK’s first Carbon Negative marketing group, MSQ is now focussing on the journey to become a low-carbon company. The group has created a detailed strategy to significantly reduce emissions by focussing on key areas, such as switching to renewable energy providers across its 12 offices, implementing various strategies to reduce commuting and in-work travel emissions, helping staff to switch to renewables to reduce homeworker emissions, as well as carrying out a full review of all key suppliers over the next three years.

To implement the vision and to ensure that sustainability remains one of MSQ’s core commitments at board level, the group has appointed its first chief sustainability officer, James Cannings.

Cannings is the co-founder of MMT Digital, MSQ’s web & digital product development business. He is also the co-Chair of BIMA’s Sustainability Council, where he is responsible for championing sustainability in the digital sector and building a framework to enable all BIMA members to take action.

He played a key role in helping MSQ become a Carbon Negative business last year, including running an intensive BIMA Sustainability Programme, attended by at least one employee from all 12 MSQ offices, to help calculate the Group’s carbon footprint and identify ways to reduce emissions.

Alongside Cannings’ appointment, MSQ will also hire a dedicated Sustainability Executive and will introduce a Staff Carbon Offsetting scheme, enabling each MSQ employee to become a carbon negative member of society through an optional salary contribution. MSQ has also pledged to contribute further for every person that decides to join. 

Since becoming Carbon Negative in November, MSQ has established an offsetting partnership with Ecologi, through which the Group has already offset over 1,500 tonnes of CO2, which has funded projects such as onshore wind energy generation in Taiwan and forest protection in Zimbabwe. The Group is also preparing to move into a new London HQ, a 20,000 sq ft office in Covent Garden, which has been designed to meet the highest sustainability criteria.

Cannings says: “I’m delighted to take on the role of Chief Sustainability Officer and continue the amazing work that has been done in a relatively short space of time. MSQ is serious about putting sustainability at the heart of the way it conducts itself as a business. It’s why we’re not just a carbon negative business but also committed to rapidly becoming a low-carbon organisation. And thanks to the support from MSQ and through my work on the BIMA Sustainability Council, it’s also about supporting other businesses, especially the SMEs, in how to implement similar strategies that have clear actionable initiatives and make an immediate impact.”

Peter Reid, chief executive of MSQ, says: “Tackling climate change is everyone’s responsibility and we want to do what we can to ensure we’re helping, not hindering, the cause. We believe every business should be ambitious with their sustainability goals and should be implementing clear, tangible plans to achieve them.

“We’re committed to putting sustainability front and centre in our business, working with wider industry initiatives and putting in place unique actionable plans of our own. In James we have a genuine leader in this space, with the passion, knowledge and understanding required to very effectively guide us on this journey. I’m delighted he’s taken the role.”