In very serious and exciting news: we convinced one of the biggest landlords in Australia to install solar panels on the rooftop of our Melbourne warehouse. Even more serious and exciting: the panels spell out the words ‘WE GIVE A CRAP!!’ Why that specific message? Because we care about the future of our planet and wanted to shout about it from our rooftops. Putting our entire team on the roof with megaphones was a safety hazard, so solar panels it was.
While it’s a step in the bright direction, Australian properties are using less than 5% of their available capacity for rooftop solar. And we think that stat is bananas. Especially given the government is even offering rebates to support businesses' journey towards using clean energy. (Say it with us, B-A-N-A-N-A-S.)
To help make the world a greener and cleaner place, we need other businesses to get on board. Currently, global supply chains account for more than 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. Installing solar panels is a straightforward, cost effective and proven way to reduce scope 3 emissions and move away from fossil fuels.
Maybe you’re thinking, “But I rent my warehouse so I can’t install solar panels,” or “That sounds difficult and boring…” Well, allow us to bust those buts. You can totally install solar panels, even if you’re in a rental. We’re the proof! And it doesn’t have to be hard or boring. We’d even go so far as to say that it can be a lot of fun. Just take a peek at our festive panels.
What we’ve achieved by installing solar panels
✔️ We’ve seen electricity cost savings of around 24% in the first month, which will contribute to reduced supply chain costs overall.
✔️ We’ll avoid producing 112 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.
✔️ Our solar panels will provide all the power we need at our Melbourne warehouses over the course of a year.
✔️ We’ll generate 8000+ kWh (kilowatt hours) per month, which is the equivalent of 14.6 households (the average Australian household uses 18 kWh a day).
How we got the project off the ground
Like many businesses in Australia, we don’t own our warehouses. So we needed to work with our warehouse partner to get the green light from both our property manager and landlord to install the solar panels. Here’s how we did it:
1. We nailed the timing. Our warehousing provider’s lease was up for renewal, so it was the perfect opportunity to have a conversation with our landlord about our future needs.
2. We were persistent. Once we decided we wanted to do the right thing, we weren’t going to give up.
3. We communicated that everybody wins. Solar panels offer not only sustainability benefits, but also revenue gains, adding value to properties and reducing electricity bills. If you need to do some nifty convincing with your landlord, you can read up on those benefits here.
Once we convinced our commercial landlord to get on board, they connected with a solar provider who arranged the creation of a PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) and the installation of the solar array. We waited for various parties to approve the installation, inspect the site and crunch the numbers. And then it was full steam ahead. Or should we say, full beam ahead. (Solar, sun, sunbeams. You get it.)
Solar is just the beginning — for us and for you
“We recognise there isn't one solution that will reduce all of our emissions. We need to find the right renewable energy solutions for the various steps in our supply chain. The next step for us is to continue to increase renewable energy use at our warehouses and in our manufacturing supply chain. We’ve just integrated EVs into our delivery fleet and are planning to extend learnings, generating new use cases by looking into end of life battery solutions to tie it all together." Elissa Foster, Head of Sustainability at Who Gives A Crap
“Most emissions are produced by the corporate sector - so if every single company can reduce their emissions, then we can finally get to a point where we start to significantly reduce our impacts on climate change. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how profitable your business is in the long run if we don’t have a world that’s worth living in. That means we all have a duty to rethink the relationship between profit and environmental impact, but in this instance, we’ve been able to reduce costs and improve environmental impact - it’s absolutely win-win.” Simon Griffiths, CEO and co-founder of Who Gives A Crap
How to start your own solar journey
We’ve put together some handy tools to help you on your journey. Like this 5-step guide to installing solar panels. And this letter to send your landlord. Download both and get started today. With solar on our side, the future already looks brighter.