Helping green innovation thrive – from within 6point6 and beyond
Janet Coulthurst, Chief of Staff, speaks with Angela Leung and Ian Mitchell to explore how 6point6, a part of Accenture, is delivering against its Climate Pledge commitment – and promoting environmental entrepreneurship inside and out.
Record-breaking temperatures and exceptional weather conditions are fast becoming the norm. A daily influx of news reminds us of the detrimental impact of global warming, with 2023 producing another landmark figure as global air temperature rises exceeded 1.5°C across the whole year.
Tackling climate change is rapidly becoming an urgent necessity – one that should be everyone’s business. At 6point6, we take our responsibility seriously, working to address our greenhouse gas emissions and promote green practices with our clients.
I spoke with Angela Leung and Ian Mitchell to hear their valuable insights into the steps we’re taking as a business to reaffirm our long-standing commitment to sustainability.
Angela Leung, Delivery Lead and Head of 6point6’s Green Team
Greening 6point6 with our community of sustainability champions
We’re building sustainability into everything we do, which is why we’re supporting every employee to make eco-conscious choices. Our employee-led Green Team works closely with our leadership team to create an impact, such as launching new staff benefits, knowledge-sharing through our monthly internal newsletter and arranging company-wide socials to get everyone excited and active about environmental stewardship.
Examples of initiatives we’ve introduced include an electric vehicle scheme and Cycle to Work scheme. We have also partnered with charities and organisations including Manchester City Council, Sharp Futures and Mustard Tree to donate refurbished laptops – promoting digital access and inclusion by providing opportunities for everyone to benefit from technology, whilst creating an estimated saving of 316 kilos of CO2 emissions per reused device compared to brand new. Meanwhile, calendars are marked for our upcoming workshop later this month led by horticultural experts from the social enterprise The Glasshouse, who will deliver a hands-on and educational session on planting and potting. At the end of the workshop, attendees will take home their new plants, grown and nurtured by women who are reaching the end of their prison sentences in the UK and learning new skills to help their transition to the community.
Beyond engaging directly with employees, our Green Team is also taking steps to drive environmental innovation through partnering with on-shore green initiatives. Earlier this year, we made a donation to Earthly, a small social enterprise working in partnership with Biome Algae to scale the positive impact of seaweed farming in the UK. Promoting home-grown innovations is a key plank of our social value and the driving force behind our support of their research into developing nature-based solutions that remove carbon and restore biodiversity. This partnership will aid ground-breaking research examining the impact of kelp on carbon capture, biodiversity preservation, and kelp’s other potential benefits as a fertiliser and alternative to plastic. Our donation will also mean that an additional 90,000 m³ of kelp beds will be planted and nurtured in Devon and Cornwall, enough to fill approximately 36 Olympic-sized swimming pools, with an estimated impact of 66 tonnes of CO2e removal!
Research into kelp farming is part of a sustainable long-term approach to decarbonisation. It’s still a drop in the ocean for what we collectively and globally need to do to reverse climate change - but it’s a vital part of 6point6’s sustainability story! As a Climate Pledge signatory, we are working to be net zero by 2040, ten years ahead of the Paris treaty.
Angela Leung
Delivery Lead and Head of 6point6’s Green Team
Ian Mitchell, Director of Architecture
Driving up efficiency and sustainability for our clients
Unlocking significant cost savings by implementing sustainable solutions is the ideal scenario we’ve developed for our clients. We offer advice on environmental impact as well as guidance on how to run a green IT department, producing environmental benefits while bringing down costs. Our team of sustainability architects are working at the forefront of green tech solutions. All are plugged into our internal library of resources with the latest advice and information on reducing and mitigating environmental impact for a more cost-effective and greener approach to IT.
We’ve also launched a cloud consultancy service to help clients minimise their cloud expenditure and carbon footprint. For example, we worked with a key pensions provider to cut their cloud computing costs and environmental impact – in turn reducing expenditure by more than a third through customised cost-and-usage monitoring. We identify a comprehensive set of effective methods to monitor and track costs across different dimensions, pinpointing inefficiencies and optimising resource usage across the whole system.
Training and developing our technical engineers and solution architects in green tech solutions also forms a core part of our approach. Our sustainability architects come with relevant experience bolstered by rigorous training and certification, with over 20 consultants now accredited having completed certifications including the Linux Foundation green software course and the British Computer Society ethical IT training. These certifications will also join our key training pillars at 6point6’s Technical Architecture Academy to further entrench our practice of architecting for sustainability.
We're embedding sustainability at every stage of design - from evaluating environmental impact to cost modelling. Every decision we take benefits our clients by helping them adopt environmentally conscious practices that yield cost savings and optimise performance.
Ian Mitchell
Director of Architecture
