Sustainability Policy

80% of people displaced by climate change are women (UNDP, 2015). As a women-led consultancy and certified women-owned small business, our primary social impact goal has a gender focus. To improve equality in the economy, we must do our part in ensuring global sustainability and fighting for climate justice is intersectional.

How to use this document.

This Sustainability policy and assessment is a “living” document and will evolve as we do. This is an open-source document, “something people can modify and share because its design is publicly accessible” (defined by Mary Anne Hitt in her essay Beyond Coal, part of The All We Can Save Project).  

Please treat this document as both an assessment and an informational tool. It acts as a guide rather than a requirement for working with coFLOWco. This document is expansive, but not exhaustive; we aim to evolve.

As a “living” document, this policy is subject to refinement and expansion in the future. You can access and share a PDF version here.

Last updated April 15, 2021

Who is this for?

Internally, these Sustainability goals are the coFLOWco benchmarks we use to make a positive impact on the planet. Everyone participating in the Collective Flow Consulting community is encouraged to adhere to the following sustainability goals, no matter how small your org may be.

Our guidelines are open source and for all employees, whether contract, part-time (PT), or full-time (FT) to review when you begin working with our Collective. 

We encourage clients, colleagues, friends, vendors, collaborators, accomplices, co-conspirators, and stakeholders to follow, adopt, and adapt this document as well. 

We request that all founders, leadership, consultants, staff, stakeholders, and volunteers consider these goals in all company functions. Members sign an acknowledgment of receipt at onboarding.

Why did we bother creating a sustainability policy as a small, primarily remote, contract-based consultancy and collective?

“The same patriarchal power structure that oppresses and exploits girls, womxn, and nonbinary people (and constricts and controls boys and men) also wreaks destruction on the natural world. Dominance, supremacy, violence, extraction, egotism, greed, ruthless competition– these hallmarks of patriarchy fuel the climate crisis just as surely as they do inequality, colluding with racism along the way. Patriarchy silences, breeds contempt, fuels destructive capitalism, and plays a zero-sum game. Its harms are chronic, cumulative, and fundamentally planetary.” 

–Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine K. Wilkinson, The All We Can Save Project

“In other words, the patriarchal systems at play disproportionately affect women, who are more likely to live in poverty than men, have less access to basic human rights, and face systematic violence that is only amplified by the unstable conditions climate change creates.” (Global Citizen). 

While our consultancy focuses primarily on racial and gender parity through pay equity and inclusive work environments, we take a holistic approach to improving the quality of life across the planet, and an intersectional lens to gender and racial economic justice.

We cannot create parity without environmental justice; addressing climate change and fixing the planet are imperative to the success of women and girls, and other gender minorities globally. Our focus is here because their lives are impacted by the effects of climate change the most and therefore we must consider this when talking about how to start and maintain a business or lead a mission driven organization. 

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U.N. SDGs

Our consultancy’s sustainability objectives align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals around the environment are Goals 3, 6, 13, and 16 in 2021.

In addition, we focus most of our work on Goals 5, 8, 10, and 17. We’ve added 9 in since it’s fundamental to business.

Sustainable Business Statement

We can improve the world in more ways than we realize, even as a small group of people. With that, it is important that we share our sustainability efforts with our clients, stakeholders, colleagues, contractors, vendors, teachers, and mentors. We recognize the power of our contribution; we must act in our sphere of influence to fix our piece of the problem.

 

coFLOWco believes it is the responsibility of all businesses, big and small, to leave this planet better than we found it.

Leading by example, and Leading with Purpose and intention, you see where we are headed, and the progress we have already made towards our goals. With this transparency, our hope is to improve your understanding of how to set and achieve similar sustainability goals for your business.

coFLOWco does not believe in inauthentic approaches. We aim to be truly sustainable, for successful business and a clean environment.

We are deliberate and intentional in how we engage with our community. We do not use language such as “net-zero” or “climate neutral,” because we want to accurately and transparently share our business impact on our local communities and the planet as a whole. We will not be using financial means to cover up any problems.

coFLOWco takes care of our people and planet by closely aligning our sustainability efforts with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In order to inspire social entrepreneurship within others, while also turning progress into quantifiable impact, we use open source documents, vetted by 3rd party experts to guide our social responsibility plans and decisions.  Our aim is to have our partners, practices, and processes reflect and improve upon the global sustainability efforts proposed by The United Nations.

Statement of Inclusion

Our Statement of Inclusion can be found here and extends to our vendors, resources, and policies for the planet.

Definitions:

  • Carbon Neutral: Carbon neutrality is achieved by calculating a carbon footprint and reducing it to zero through a combination of efficiency measures in-house and supporting external emission reduction projects.

  • Carbon Credits: a credit for greenhouse emissions reduced or removed from the atmosphere from an emission reduction project, which can be used, by governments, industry or private individuals to compensate for the emissions they are generating.

  • Local: Sourced within 150 miles of your home office (usually tri-state area or anywhere you can get to in less than a day.

  • Sustainable: exists to promote the wellness of the earth and the societies which inhabit it simultaneously

  • Renewable Energy: often referred to as clean energy, comes from natural sources or processes that are constantly replenished. For example, sunlight or wind keep shining and blowing, even if their availability depends on time and weather.

  • Ghost Power: items plugged into an outlet that draw power even when they aren’t being used.

  • Net Zero: any greenhouse gas emissions released are balanced by an equal amount being taken out of the atmosphere.

General Sustainability Targets + Resources

 

“The climate crisis is not gender-neutral. Climate change is a powerful ‘threat multiplier,’ making existing vulnerabilities and injustices worse.”

–Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine K. Wilkinson, The All We Can Save Project