A Greener Future
Becoming carbon negative
From sourcing materials, building our tech and shipping our robots worldwide as well as travelling to events all over the globe, we know there is no place for short-sightedness when it comes to protecting our environment and sustaining our future. The climate crisis is a human issue, and we’re a robot company with a human approach.
Over the past decade, Shadow has experienced hyper-growth and we continue to expand at a fast rate. This means hiring new people, increasing production and delivering our robot Hands and systems worldwide.
While we’re busy with building robots to make working lives better, we know we’ve also got to be environmentally responsible and ensure that we grow in a way that isn’t detrimental to the one home we have, the earth.
The stark realities of climate change can’t be ignored despite the challenges of the pandemic. A key pillar of our company values is “Compassion” and that’s never been limited to people, it includes the planet.
Today, we can proudly say Shadow isn’t just 100% carbon neutral, we’re 200% carbon negative!
So how did we do it?
We offset twice as much carbon dioxide as our company activities produce, and made donations to three carefully selected foundations:Woodland Trust, Trees for Cities and Carbon Footprint Ltd.
More than just planting trees, each of these charities is involved in projects to support communities and cultivate a lasting change.
We use Ecotricity – Britain’s only green renewable energy provider registered with The Vegan Society. They take “Bills to Mills” and we’re happy knowing that each windmill or solar park reduces Britain’s reliance on fossil fuels to generate electricity.
It might be easier for us as our staff is like family but we’re not shy to discuss better ways of doing something if and when we see things happening that would make Mother Earth weep!
We promote flexible working and this was the case before the pandemic. Shadow Robot has remote workers across the globe including Budapest, San Sebastián, Bogotá, Snowdonia and Kraków.
How do our robots help our efforts?
We’re proud to say that the Shadow Teleoperation System caught the eyes of a multinational tech company, within the top 20 list if we go by revenue, as a product that could not only provide worker safety in dangerous, difficult and distant jobs but also massively reduce their carbon footprint associated with travel.
As in the case with this global tech giant, it’s a great feeling when we receive enquiries – not from the Sales or Business Development Lead – but from the person in the company with the most air miles!
Our teleoperation system can be controlled from anywhere even from home to complete tasks at any location without having to catch a flight or drive down to the site. When making our robots, we’ve localised production to our Madrid site. This means robots fresh out of the workshop for you and fewer emissions for the planet.
What’s next?
We’re aiming for all aspects of our supply chain to be planet positive even if it means switching suppliers to more like-minded organisations.
We’re one of the few robot companies that offer long-standing support to our clients and we want to ensure we’re doing that in a way that’s eco-friendly.
We’re thinking about what we can do post-sales from the perspective of encouraging clients to power up our robots and teleoperation systems via sustainably sourced electricity.
We’ll be sharing all our updates here so watch this space!
The climate crisis is a defining challenge of our century, and while it can be overwhelming, we can start from where we are now and recognise that we are the agents of change. We’re open to connecting with more allies in the community around us, so we can collectively work together towards a safer, greener planet.
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