Today, Secretly announces a major commitment to long-term, environmental sustainability. In honor of Jagjaguwar and Secretly Canadian's 25th Anniversary this year, the company affiliates of Secretly Distribution, Secretly Group (Secretly Publishing and record labels Dead Oceans, Jagjaguwar, Saddest Factory Records and Secretly Canadian), Ghostly International, The Numero Group and 37d03d have all joined forces to develop a phased approach for zeroing out Secretly's negative climate impact on or before the 30th Anniversary in 2026.
While sustainability has always been a core value of Secretly - from minimizing product packaging, eliminating plastic jewel cases and operating strict pressing rules that avoid CD and vinyl overstocks, to recycling unsold formats and installing a solar array at its flagship office - this extensive new Sustainability Plan builds on the company's early efforts in order to achieve not only carbon neutrality, but the ultimate goal of becoming climate positive.
Read The Secretly Affiliates Sustainability Plan Here:
https://linktr.ee/secretlysustainability
In 2019, Secretly created 150 metric tons of heat-trapping greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its buildings and company vehicles. The company has since purchased high-quality, third-party certified carbon offsets to zero out the impact of those GHG emissions, and in 2020 its carbon footprint was lowered by 22%. Due to a combination of solar panels and the work-from-home policy enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, GHG emissions dropped to 116 metric tons, which Secretly balanced out with additional carbon offsets.
Secretly is updating its accounting systems to measure GHG emissions from business travel and employee commutes, and moving forward the company will further slash its carbon emissions by following a series of newly implemented action steps:
- Investing in energy efficiency throughout Secretly buildings
- Assessing opportunities to replace natural gas equipment with electric options
- Measuring and reducing the company's Scope 3 emissions
- Switching to 100% renewable energy
- Being a founder investor and user in IMPALA's bespoke Carbon Calculator for the music industry
By 2026, Secretly will annually measure and offset 100% of its GHG emissions, while offsetting five times its 2019 emissions to symbolically account for the carbon debt the company has incurred since 1996. For emissions Secretly cannot directly reduce, it will continue to purchase rigorously-selected carbon offsets via Native.
"As we grapple with climate change's increasingly dangerous and pervasive impacts, we also are reckoning with our role in contributing to climate change," says Ben Swanson, Secretly Group COO & Co-Founder. "With this sustainability plan, we move from awareness to action. We are encouraged by the commitments of our peers and hope to further inspire others to join the movement for climate action."
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