Cedar UK Sustainability Statement

As part of our Made Different ethos, Cedar is committed to having a positive impact on the communities we are part of. 

We have made four commitments to increase levels of environmental sustainability across our UK business, with the aim of reducing carbon emissions and waste, while supporting our clients with improving their own sustainable practices.

Our commitments are:

  1. Become a Net Zero business by 2030

  2. Improve environmental management
  3. Reduce waste and plastic use 
  4. Support our clients with content and campaigns to achieve sustainable outcomes

Our plans for achieving these goals are outlined below.

1. Become a Net Zero business by 2030

Cedar is committed to becoming a Net Zero business by 2030. We intend to meet this target primarily by decarbonising our business operations, while investing in carbon offsetting. Our commitments to achieve this goal include:

a. Using more renewable energy within our office
b. Switching to renewable energy for our digital/server energy usage
c. Monitoring and reducing unnecessary business travel
d. The Cedar Woods – Carbon balancing with 9Trees

Cedar works in partnership with 9Trees, a carbon-balancing community interest company based in Wales. In 2022 we are investing in carbon balancing with 9Trees, which includes planting new trees in the Brecon Beacons plus funding a research project to better protect existing trees using biodegradable sampling covers.

Our policy on carbon balancing is to use this approach to offset emissions only when it is not possible to cut the emissions at the source for business-critical reasons.

e. Sustainable production
Cedar continues to source paper from PEFC- and FSC-certified sustainable woodlands – and was one of the first content marketing agencies to apply these standards across all paper products.

2. Improve environmental management
We know that we can’t change what we can’t measure. Cedar is committed to auditing our environmental impact on an annual basis in order to meet our ambitions and commitments.

This includes: 

a. Auditing our business in line with ISO 14001
We audit our environmental management procedures on an annual basis, as part of achieving ISO14001 certification.

b. Auditing our carbon footprint
Cedar uses guidance from the AdNetZero initiative to audit carbon usage on an annual business in order to set our sustainability policy. The carbon audit results are shared with our senior management team annually to inform future planning.

c. Aligning with our Omnicom network commitments
As part of the Omnicom network, we align our Sustainability planning with global Omnicom ESG commitments.

3. Reduce waste and plastic use 
Cedar is committed to reducing waste wherever possible and recycling products where feasible.

4. Support our clients with content and campaigns to achieve sustainable outcomes
We know that improving sustainability is a big goal for all of our clients, and we are committed to helping them achieve their environmental commitments through content.

a. Sustainable campaigns
Some of the ways we have helped our clients’ audiences with sustainable behaviours include:

  • Content and campaigns to help Tesco customers reduce food waste
  • Content to support British Airways flyers to choose eco-friendly hotels and activities while on holiday
  • Content for Nikon to capture the impact of climate change through photography
  • Content for IWG to communicate the sustainability benefits of hybrid working

We are always looking for new ways to help our clients and audiences improve sustainable outcomes.

b. Adhering to the Green Claims Code
Cedar adheres to the Green Claims Code from the Competition and Markets authority and the CAP code published by the Advertising Standards Authority.

c. Sustainable shoots
Cedar knows that content production itself can be a high-carbon, high-waste activity. Cedar is committed to making its shoots as sustainable as possible by:

i. Using locations that are accessible and minimise travel
ii. Choosing locations that use renewable energy for lighting, technology, etc.
iii. Offering more environmentally friendly lunches / snacks
iv. Operating a ‘Leave No Trace’ policy by recycling waste from our shoots
v. Offering our production teams training with Ad Green on sustainable production

We will be working with our production teams through 2022 to help them achieve these goals.