Sustainability Statement
The Observatory International is committed to sustainable development (meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs) as a guiding principle within our operations. We are committed to actively manage our operations in a way that balances our social, environmental and economic objectives and have incorporated sustainability considerations into our company policies and ways of working.
Principles
The Observatory International is committed to contributing to a more sustainable society and to continually improve the impact we make by:
- Promoting responsibility for the environment within the organisation and communicating and implementing our sustainability policy at all levels within the workforce
- Ensuring compliance with all relevant legislation and standards
- Ensuring our ways of working reduce waste and pollution and strives towards a zero emissions future
- Encouraging our employees to support our commitments to sustainability by providing them with appropriate training, advice and information
- Encouraging our clients and suppliers to support our environmental commitment
- Reducing the use of energy, water and other resources through staff awareness
- Minimising waste and pollution by reduction, re-use and recycling methods
- Continually reviewing how we can make improvements to our commitments to sustainability
- Reduce business travel miles through better journey planning, use of lower emissions travel methods and better use of technology
- Providing appropriate resources to meet these
Our Partners and Commitments
The Observatory International is a member of and/or supports a number of industry bodies and initiatives committed to creating a responsible and sustainable marketing and media industry:
- We support the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN), a coalition of over 70 organisations set up to ensure that industry ethics catches up with the technology of modern advertising, in particular tacking climate misinformation.
- We champion the Creative Equals kitemark, helping clients identify partners committed to diversity.
- We are a strategic partner of ISBA, the UK trade body committed to championing a transparent, responsible and accountable advertising industry.
- We are a strategic partner of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) helping set standards for responsible marketing communications worldwide and have supported them with the development of material for their Planet Pledge initiative.
- The Observatory International is accredited by The Good Business Charter which encourages responsible capitalism and recognises companies with responsible business practices measured over 10 components: real living wage, fairer hours and contracts, employee well-being, employee representation, diversity and inclusion, environmental responsibility, paying fairer tax, commitment to customers, ethical sourcing and prompt payment. A company must meet all 10 commitments to be accredited.
- We are a member of the MCA and our quality and professionalism strongly echoes the MCA’s Code of Practice. We are committed to the MCA’s standards of Consulting Excellence, and we sit on the MCA’s Diversity & Inclusion and Sustainability Working Group.
We actively increase awareness amongst our employees, clients and partners of key industry initiatives in support of climate change, including:
- The Conscious Advertising Network’s Climate and Sustainability manifesto which outlines steps and resources for advertisers to consider throughout the working process.
- Ad Net Zero – an Advertising Association initiative to reduce the carbon impact of developing, producing and running advertising to real net zero by end 2030
- The WFA’s Planet Pledge – a framework designed to galvanise action from marketers to promote and reinforce attitudes and behaviours which will help the world meet the challenges laid out in the UN SDGs.
Through our consulting work we proactively identify opportunities for brands to implement more sustainable practices and behaviours.
In addition, members of The Observatory International team are founding sponsors and actively involved in sustainability and societal initiatives:
- The Biodiversity Foundation – fighting together for species protection
- The Joy Africa Foundation – providing financial, logistical and advisory support to independently-run children’s homes and orphanages across Africa.