Empowering companies to reduce their environmental impact

The Global Net Zero Strategy

On 12 December 2015, world leaders reached a breakthrough in the fight to address the impact of climate change: the historic Paris Agreement, which marked the beginning of a shift towards net-zero emissions. In 2021, the UK Government released their own Net Zero Strategy, outlining the steps to reduce emissions and decarbonise all sectors of the UK economy.

The Challenge

Using this framework and the guidance outlined in Net Zero Strategy, Paragon committed to reducing their carbon footprint by 46% in the years leading up to 2030, and 90% by 2050, with all residual emissions removed through credible offsetting schemes.

Paragon set out to design, develop and launch a Carbon Calculator that would help its clients minimise their own carbon footprint and provide greater transparency of the carbon emissions associated with the products and services they purchase from Paragon.

This data would enable Paragon’s clients to make more informed, responsible decisions that align with their business goals and compulsory carbon neutrality targets. It would also provide a means of tracking progress, as both Paragon and its clients work towards becoming carbon neutral.

Business objectives

Improve market relevancy by positioning Paragon as a leader in decarbonisation

To make the Carbon Calculator truly competitive on the market, the Paragon team knew it needed to offer something that other third-party tools on the market did not. A competitive analysis revealed that most existing carbon calculators took a holistic view of carbon neutrality, including analytics across the organisation’s entire operations. Paragon’s Carbon Calculator, on the other hand, collects and analyses quantifiable data at a product level for every product or solution they deliver for their clients.

Bring more value to existing Paragon clients with additional services

Providing clients with transparency and giving them the carbon footprint associated with Paragon’s products are the first steps towards increased awareness and carbon reduction. Paragon aimed to empower clients to take the next step in decarbonisation by offering additional carbon consultancy services to help them decrease or offset their footprint. The Carbon Calculator is a valuable data source and the basis for Paragon’s carbon consultancy services.

The Solution

The Carbon Calculator is a custom-developed platform that automates carbon footprint calculation across all the service types. Users can enter the data for each campaign, together with the respective location, service item, products, specs, volume and timeframe, and receive an aggregated amount of carbon emissions for each data input.

Main features

• Advanced calculation formulas

A key challenge for the project was creating a comprehensive set of properties for each product type, and incorporating a formula that calculates each input. For example, if the user chooses ‘Mail/Fulfillment pack’, they are then prompted to enter the pack type (such as letter, leaflet, envelope, packaging, etc), as well as size, weight and production material (plastic, polyester, wood, etc.). This ensures accurate calculations, and each product property calculates emissions based on a specific formula.

• Powerful Analytics

Through a powerful analytics dashboard, clients can create custom-built reports, filtering by product type, timeframe and product stage. Clients can also export reports to communicate and analyse carbon emissions with different stakeholder groups, empowering them to shape new strategies to reduce their carbon footprint.

• Campaign bundling

The Carbon Calculator also offers campaign bundling of products, ensuring the carbon footprint of a whole campaign is visible. For example, if a client has used various products in different volumes and materials for their Christmas campaign, they can see the overall campaign impact and the carbon emission of each product type, which enables them to make informed decisions and plan for future campaigns.

• ERP system integration

The Carbon Calculator has been integrated with the Paragon's ERP system so all orders created in the system get an automated carbon footprint calculation.

Impact

The Carbon Calc helps Paragon clients gain full transparency of their environmental impact. Just months after the Carbon Calculator was first released, several clients have already taken advantage of its capabilities as well as Paragon’s carbon consultancy services.

To support global efforts in sustainability, Paragon also offers free of charge access to the “Lite Carbon Calculator” where Paragon clients can receive an approximate carbon impact anytime.