How GoCardless planted 5000 trees in one day and dug deeply into its sustainability strategy with Carma – an ESG case study
Payment company GoCardless is demonstrably committed to change the future – it has never made a secret of its belief in the importance of sustainability. With a comprehensive Sustainability Strategy and Net Zero plan, it has participated in many Action Days, helped employees volunteer for change and helped found industry groups committed to action.
Now it has brought its commitment to life in a new way.
On a sunny Friday in November 2022, Head of Sustainability Ben Knight along with 20 GoCardless team members headed to Yorkshire. He told us: “Real success in sustainability is all about employee engagement – targets are fine, but ultimately you need to educate and empower people across the business to act.”
“Real success in sustainability is all about employee engagement – targets are fine, but ultimately you need to educate and empower people across the business to act.”
They joined a team of 10 service veterans from the Green Task Force, who partner with Carma in our work to help people and businesses plant trees. It was a fantastic day of investing in the English landscape and its biodiversity, with some unusual visitors including a cheeky sealion.
For Ben, it set a new standard for their volunteering initiatives – but employees are not the only stakeholders who gain from such activities. Its customers are regularly asking about the company’s actions, and even GoCardless’ investors are noting the company’s proactive stance: “Our investors are asking questions … Showing tangible actions like the tree planting with Carma are so important.”
"Our investors are asking questions … Showing tangible actions like the tree planting with Carma are so important.”
The company knows that these 5000 new oak, alder, willow and other English native trees will ultimately tackle around 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Yet, this wasn’t an exercise in simple carbon-offsetting: “It was definitely worth the investment in planting trees with Carma. We could have used the same budget to plant remotely or to buy carbon offsets – but the value of the co-benefits to nature or community, working alongside the Green Task Force, and the massive positive impact on our employees speaks for itself. It is a day my colleagues will always remember,” he said.
“It was definitely worth the investment in planting trees with Carma. We could have used the same budget to plant remotely or to buy carbon offsets – but the value of the co-benefits to nature or community, working alongside the Green Task Force, and the massive positive impact on our employees speaks for itself. It is a day my colleagues will always remember,”
Read the case study in full to discover how the day panned out – and just how that sealion (not to mention the minibus drivers) became involved.
