How green are we?

ESG Report for Kemp & Kjær

Updated on May 4, 2023. Next update no later than November 1, 2023.

We are at a time of a number of major crises affecting the climate, the environment and biodiversity, to name some of the biggest. It concerns us because we want to pass on a better world to our children. That is why we are preparing for a future with sustainability and ESG on the agenda.

Summary of our ESG reporting

Our own ESG footprint is first and foremost ‘downstream’, i.e. the difference we make to our clients’ businesses, and thus the increase in the footprint of the client. Therefore, we focus on attracting customers that have a positive ESG footprint, for example in the “B2B Impact Tech” category.

“Upstream” we have mainly IT services, media and other consultants, so their footprint is limited compared to downstream.

Direct footprint is limited for us as we are not a goods producing company and employ few people.

What are we currently doing to promote ESG?

Helping to raise awareness of technology companies and organizations contributing to the green transition (although we also have a few clients operating in industries with carbon challenges)
Establish partnerships with companies and organizations working on sustainability
Preparing to report on ESG by 2025
Joining a code of ethics from a trade association
Cycling to and from work all year round
Hold over 90% of meetings digitally
Eating a vegetarian lunch
Going paperless

Where do we have challenges with ESG:

We find it difficult to measure our contribution to our customers’ ESG footprint
Our office is part of a shared office space without separate meters for electricity, water and heating, so we find it difficult to calculate our actual footprint.
Some customers are unlikely to have a positive ESG footprint. But not negatively either.
Our office is in an old building without modern insulation.
Our private cars run on fossil fuels, but we rarely use them for business.

Main ESG initiatives

Environment
Promoting impact technology
Minimizing own emissions

Social
Pro bono advice

Governance
Ethics

ESG report

Our main contribution: Helping to promote impact technology

UN Global Compact Goal 9.4 to promote sustainable industrialization and support innovation.

Where we can really make a difference is by using our expertise to support the uptake of green technologies.

Working since 2012 in PR and strategic communications for technology companies, we’ve seen them make a difference in the world and we’ve spread the word about them.

New technologies are scalable and can be deployed globally. This is what is most needed if we are to see real change in the world.

That is why we can make the biggest difference by helping those tech companies that make a tangible impact on the world because it is part of their DNA. These range from CO2-reducing technology for sugar factories to solar batteries, pasteurization technology and environmental data platforms.

Kemp & Kjær’s work with companies that have a positive impact on the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Several of our customers are working to achieve one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals because they work with what we call “impact tech”. Here are some statistics on how much work we have done for those clients in total.

In 2022, we did not have a specific focus on Impact Tech, and we expect the segment to represent a higher share of our activities in 2023.

2022 Impact tech customer statistics

	Number of	Share of our production
Customers in B2B Impact Tech	7	14%
Number of PR efforts	13	9%
Press coverage generated	46	9%
Potential audience*.	8.000.000	6%

* “Potential audience” = a figure for the size of the audience of the medium and not a figure for the number of readers/viewers of the specific mention.

Clients with ESG challenges

2022: We had three customers in the construction and real estate sector in 2022 that accounted for less than 5% of our turnover. They rank in the better half of the industry in terms of ESG according to their own information and according to what we can verify ourselves.

Other customers: We assess that our other customers do not have significant ESG challenges.

Ethics: Don’t play dirty

UN Global Compact Goal 10: Anti-corruption

PR has the potential to cause widespread damage to society through lies, misleading communication, manipulation and smear campaigns – or the ability to generate ‘fake news’. That’s why we take extra care to make sure that the PR we do contributes something positive.

PR is a discipline born of state propaganda and has a checkered past. The first time the term Public Relations was used and attempted to be professionalized was by Edward Bernays, who used methods that we now consider unethical.

Since then, the PR industry has matured significantly – at least in Denmark – and it is relatively rare to see unethical behavior in the industry. In recent times, we have seen a few examples, the most common being:

Smear campaigns, where PR is used to tarnish the reputation of a client’s competitor through, for example, slander or spreading false rumors.
Payment for positive media coverage without clearly indicating that it is sponsored.
Working for clients with conflicting interests without disclosing it to them.

At Kemp & Kjær, we strongly reject those methods that are far from our culture and values.

“Transparency” is one of our three core values, and it’s about making sure that everything we do can stand the test of time. This means, among other things, that we recommend “walk the talk”, where we ensure that customers communicate things they have evidence for. This means no “half-truths” or negative publicity about customers’ competitors.

We know that strong brands don’t need to use unethical PR and that keeping your path clean is a long-term win-win.

We also endorse the code of ethics of the former trade association, Public Relations Branchen, which has now merged with the trade association Creativity & Communication. But we are not a member.

It is difficult to demonstrate compliance with the Code of Ethics. But an ethical approach to work is already at the recruitment stage, with our ESG policy and values at the heart of the process.

In addition, during 2023-2024, we plan to document how we:

take responsibility for adhering to ethical standards and values
ensure transparency and integrity at work
avoid conflicts of interest and ensures objectivity in our work.

Opting out of industries

PR can also cause harm to society if it is successfully used to promote ethically questionable, but otherwise legal, businesses. That is why we reject potential customers who want us to promote gambling, payday loans or tobacco, for example.

Our climate considerations in 2023

UN Global Compact Goal 13: Climate action.

PR is classic office work and thus at the low end of the scale in terms of CO2 emissions. This also limits what we can do, but it does not stop us from doing a little.

What we do:

Cycling to and from work all year round
Hold over 90% of meetings digitally
Eating a vegetarian lunch
Going paperless
Recycle electronics(see picture from event at the Locomotive Workshop)

Where are we lagging behind?

We rent office space with a number of other companies in an old building that needs better insulation, and we sometimes drive to meetings in petrol cars, and occasionally travel by plane to visit our international network (three times in 10 years).

This is difficult to address without significantly sacrificing efficiency and/or increasing costs, which can negatively affect the company’s ability to generate profits and deliver results for our customers.

But as we get ready to report on ESG in the annual report, we hope to identify where we can reduce CO2 further without significantly impacting our ability to do business.

Next steps in our ESG efforts

ESG reporting brings with it a range of considerations beyond climate and environment, in particular social initiatives, ethics and governance.

A key step for us is to introduce ESG reporting in our annual accounts, and we will have this in place by the 2024 annual accounts at the latest.

In addition, we will expand our network of companies and organizations that are making a difference and learn more about the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Danish and EU policies in this area.