Phronesis Security Case Study

Why is caring for the environment important to you?

Historically, businesses have been at the forefront of degrading our environment and emitting carbon for the purpose of generating profit – we wanted to turn that on its head by generating profits to help restore the environment. To us, the climate crisis is one of the most immediate and pressing issues facing our planet, and we wanted to do whatever we could to help tackle the problem. We all rely on a healthy environment to prosper and are lucky enough to live in Australia where we are surrounded by beautiful landscapes, clean air, and pristine oceans. It is our duty, on both a personal and professional level, to help preserve this natural beauty.

How are you collaborating with Carbon Positive Australia?

As a business with a relatively low inherent carbon footprint, we began by reading an article produced by the Swiss university ETH Zürich titled ‘The global tree restoration potential’ (published in the journal Science) to identify the most effective methods of becoming carbon positive. We were surprised to find that quantitative evaluation indicated that reforestation was overwhelmingly more powerful than all other assessed climate change solutions and wanted to find an organisation to support accordingly. We decided on Carbon Positive Australia (CPA) as we were impressed with the scale and impact of CPA’s programs, and the transparency and track record of the organisation on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission’s charity register.

What environmental goals would you like to achieve?

By supporting CPA’s tree planting programs we can not only help turn the tide on carbon emissions but also support a host of downstream benefits such as increasing biodiversity, protecting rare species, improving the water table and quality, and protecting our soil from erosion and salinity. This is what we love about supporting CPA – the organisation’s impact extends beyond just carbon emissions. Our goal is to remain carbon positive (having offset approximately 582 tonnes of CO2e against an estimated footprint of 159.45 tonnes of CO2e to date), offset enough to also cover the emissions generated by our staff in their personal lives, and to visit land that has been restored as a result of our donations.

What other environmental or social initiatives are you working on?

We support two other amazing charities who are helping to close the education gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, and building insecticide-treated bednets to help fight malaria overseas. We also undertake pro-bono work for not-for-profits in addition to our donations to help maximise the value we can generate in our day-to-day work. After all, organisations helping to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues need help keeping their systems and information secure too!