At the beginning of 2021 we began a sustainability review across the whole LeftLion operation, because we want you to be confident we’re doing everything we can to face up to the climate crisis. We want to have as little negative impact on the environment as possible, and we’re committed to working towards a future where we have a net positive impact.
This is an ongoing process, and it by no means finishes at plonking a few words in print. We’re getting trained up on how to tackle the big issues. As our sustainability lead, I recently completed a course in Sustainable and Inclusive Leadership along with achieving a carbon literacy certification from the Carbon Literacy Trust via Nottingham Trent University, and in good Notts fashion we’re meeting regularly and collaborating with all our partners who are making similar efforts.
As with our own individual homes, lifestyles, and current level of understanding, we’re all on a journey here - so wherever you’re at on it, we hope you’ll come along with us. While we’re not in a perfect place just yet, here’s a bit of an overview of where we’re at, and what we’re doing to change in our key business areas.
Print
LeftLion Magazine is fully recyclable and home-compostable. We print on paper that is recycled or made using FSC certified sources, which means you can be confident that any forestry in our name is being conducted responsibly and sustainably. Our printers boast one of the most modern and efficient printing presses in the UK, and they’re run on 100% renewable energy. We also aim to never print more magazines than we need to - so every one of them (bar a few archive copies) ends up in our readers’ hands. If there is ever any wastage, it’s recycled.
Digital
We’re committed to powering leftlion.co.uk sustainably, and we’re looking to move our website over to completely renewable-powered, carbon neutral servers at the next opportunity. Our current servers are based in highly efficient data centres that use no air conditioning, with a carbon consumption rate of 200kg of CO2e emissions on average per server/year - half the general average of 458kg CO2e per server/year. Our cloud computing services are handled by Google who are a carbon neutral company, and we’re working to make sure other services we use are as eco-friendly in their own working practices as possible.
Coverage
Since we were founded, LeftLion has always taken environmental issues seriously. With the increasingly clear risks of catastrophic climate change, and the growing appetite for more coverage of these issues that’s been reflected in interest from our readers, we’re expanding our environmental content by launching this new Environment section, dedicated to tackling the subject of all things green through a Notts-centric lense. You’ll be seeing more stories across LeftLion Magazine, on leftlion.co.uk, and in our weekly LeftLion Newsletter too, and we’ll be doing our best to inspire action and hold ourselves and others to account through this work.
Other bits
We’ve reviewed our supply chain to make sure that all our office supplies are as sustainable as possible. We use rechargeable batteries, and we recycle any old technology that we no longer need. We’re also exploring options for zero-emission delivery of our magazines, such as electric vehicles, and as many deliveries as possible are made on foot.
If you’ve got any specific questions, concerns, or suggestions, we’re keen to hear them. We’re also looking for contributors to write and illustrate for this very section - if you think you can help tell a story about Nottingham and the environment, drop us an email.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
