Hi Matteo, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what your role is here at Tide?
I joined Tide 4 months ago as a Net Zero Lead, so I’m fairly new to Tide, but not new to sustainability. I’ve been working in similar roles for over 10 years now – I’m a proper sustainability geek!
I currently look after all aspects of our Net Zero Plan, so you can typically find me measuring our carbon emissions, finding ways to reduce it, exploring carbon removals projects or looking at ideas on how to help our members on their own Net Zero journey.
What does World Environment Day mean to you, and why is it so important?
For me, it’s all about visibility and awareness. Of course, every day should be World Environment Day, but the reality is that the environment may not be your first thought when you wake up in the morning, especially as a small business owner.
Days like today give us an opportunity to take stock about such an existential challenge, and reflect about the impact we all have on the planet.
This year’s theme is around ending plastic pollution. How does this align with the work you’re doing at Tide?
We’re a remote-first organisation, so we produce very little plastic waste. In all our offices, we put a lot of emphasis on recycling – Tideans in our Sofia office participate yearly in an initiative called ‘Caps for the Future’, which is very popular in Bulgaria. They collect bottle caps which are then sold as recycling materials, and all the profits goes towards incubators, medical equipment, and specialised children’s ambulances to hospitals across Bulgaria.
Can you tell us more about our goal here at Tide of becoming Net Zero by 2030?
We’ve made a public commitment to purchase durable carbon removals to match all our direct and indirect carbon emissions, and we have been doing so since 2022. We use biochar, which is a great way to lock in CO2 emissions and store it for hundreds of years.
We’re also on a path to reduce our carbon footprint per employee by 90% by 2030, and by the same time, we also aim to reduce it by 97% per revenue. We’re a fast growing organisation so this is a big challenge for us.
Finally, SMEs play a key part in the journey towards Net Zero, so we made a commitment to making Net Zero simpler for our members by developing support for them to reach it. We have joined forces with industry leading initiatives such as Perseus and Banking for Net Zero to make it easier for SMEs to calculate their carbon emissions, and our members in the UK already have access to a carbon calculator which is free to use, and a large number of our members have already used it.
What do you think is the biggest challenge when it comes to incorporating sustainability into fast-growing companies like Tide?
I think the biggest challenge is finding the right balance between growth and sustainability, and the two things can go hand in hand. Of course, carbon emissions are likely to go up as companies grow, and so it’s important to set clear policies and targets early on, so that sustainability is embedded in the culture of the organisation.
For example, we’re a global organisation with operations in the UK, India and across Europe, yet we do very little travel around countries. That is built into our DNA – it fuels our growth, but also helps us maintain our carbon emissions.
Lastly, what advice would you give to SME’s who are starting to think seriously about their environmental impact?
I would say it’s a marathon not a sprint, so just start somewhere. It may be by measuring your company carbon footprint – our members are able to do that via our app, Or perhaps your business consumes lots of water or produces lots of waste – in that case, that may be your first focus. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress.
It’s also helpful to speak to your customers, your suppliers and your employees or business partners if you have any, as I’m sure they’ll have some ideas.
