Already a carbon negative international creative and technology group, today we have launched our first Sustainability Report, outlining our progress and learnings as we embark on our mission to cut carbon emissions by more than 50% by 2024, plant one million trees and achieve approved Science-Based targets.

The report has been launched as a low carbon website, found at sustainability.msqpartners.com, and is complete with figures showing how we’ve performed in areas such as total emissions and emissions per head, as well breaking down Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions.

The report also outlines our array of staff initiatives, such as the Electric Vehicle lease hire scheme and the Giki Pro challenge, as well as our progress in carbon capture, low carbon production and our efforts to help clients produce more sustainable digital marketing activity.

As MSQ we have made a series of actionable sustainability commitments for the 12 months ahead, including new staff sustainability schemes in the US, China and Singapore, the launch of a suite of new low-carbon marketing services, the rollout of an electric bike lease hire scheme and a new series of client-focused Sustainability Sessions.

The 2022 Sustainability Report was driven by James Cannings, our Chief Sustainability Officer and the co-Chair of BIMA’s Sustainability Council, and MSQ/Sustain, our dedicated agency to helping commercial brands and NGOs with their sustainability comms.

Cannings says: “We’re very proud of the achievements that we’ve made as a business when it comes to moving our sustainability agenda forward. We recognise that there’s a still a long way to go – which is why we have Science-Based Targets in place and why it was important for this report to focus as much on clear and actionable plans as it was to celebrate what’s been done so far. But measuring our progress is a vital step, and through this Sustainability Report, we hope to inspire our clients, peers and MSQ colleagues around the world to help build a better future.”

Richard Armstrong, founder of MSQ/Sustain, says: “You only have to look at this week’s Cannes Lions schedule to see that sustainability is rightly at the forefront of the conversation in our industry right now. And whilst lots of agencies and networks are talking the talk, we’re proud that at MSQ we’re walking the walk too. We believe that all businesses should be tracking and communicating their progress, and through a low-carbon Sustainability Report, this is a key step for us to be doing just that.”

Peter Reid, Global Chief Executive of MSQ, says: “In reality, taking sustainability seriously isn’t a competitive advantage anymore – now it’s table stakes. Going beyond carbon negative, devising and implementing initiatives that truly move the needle is the source of competitive advantage now. It’s good for business, but more importantly it’s good for the planet.”

We achieved our goal of becoming one of the first international agency groups to be carbon negative in November 2020. We appointed Cannings as our first Chief Sustainability Officer in April 2021 and set formal Science-Based Targets in October 2021. As part of the Million Tree Pledge Scheme, we’ve promised to plant one million trees by 2030, and are helping other businesses on their sustainability journey by open-sourcing our modelling tools and Net Zero strategy through a free-to-access course. As of June 2022, 1,666 businesses have enrolled on the course via the Future Learn platform.