Our employees understand that contributing to a sustainable future involves—not just creating innovative software and services—but paying attention to how we conduct everyday business in our cubicles, employee meeting rooms and break rooms. We’re proud of being a software company with limited GHG emissions and that our employees took the initiative and formed the “Green Team” to ensure our internal practices are sustainable and reflect our priorities and values.
The Digimarc Green Team is made up of employees from all departments and all levels of the company, and is dedicated to promoting internal Digimarc sustainability practices. For instance, it has implemented an Environmental and Climate Change Policy. Other key initiatives include:
- Switched to 100 percent renewable wind energy, including electricity, heating and cooling, for our corporate office (98% of Digimarc employees work at this location).
- Reduced our electricity usage at our corporate office by six percent from 2018 to 2019.
- Reduced our water usage at our corporate office by 13 percent from 2018 to 2019.
- Utilize Microsoft Azure for cloud hosting the majority of our data (Azure uses 99 percent less energy than traditional onsite IT infrastructure).
- Replaced all conventional light bulbs in our corporate office with energy efficient bulbs to reduce GHG emissions
- Eliminating company-provided plastic drinking cups, plastic straws and disposable coffee creamers; providing employees with reusable water bottle and lunch bag; and using washable dishware and silverware
- Established recycling bins for paper, plastic and glass in our corporate office; purchasing 30 percent recycled paper for general use copying
- Contacted food vendors to request orders that come with less food packaging
- Recycle all of our old electronic equipment and batteries with certified recyclers; send toners back to manufacturer for recycling
- Composting all of the food waste generated in our corporate office
- Incentivizing employees to take public transportation to work or to carpool
- Installing low-flush toilets to reduce water usage
- Encouraging and supporting bicycling to work—including an employee bike challenge—and much more
We also want to see more trees and plants planted to help in the fight against climate change. Digimarc’s 2019 holiday cards contain seeds, so recipients can plant them inside or outside of the office. Our employees also donated and sold athletic shoes, the proceeds going to school children in Africa to buy seeds. And at EuroShop 2020, we participated in The Trillion Tree Campaign by donating a tree for each business card we received.
The Digimarc Platform is a multisided platform connecting retailers, consumer brands and consumers in a series of mutually-beneficial relationships. By adopting the Platform—or collaborating with us—our partners and customers can help fulfill their own ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) missions.
The three core functions of the Digimarc Platform are identification, discovery and verification. By providing objects with an indelible, visually imperceptible data carrier—Digimarc Barcode—everyday objects and textures can be uniquely identified and validated (scanned) by machines and mobile devices.
Retailers
Retailers are looking for new ways to combat shrink and food waste challenges in fresh products. Digimarc Barcode for fresh product labels allows associates to quickly identify the “reduced-to-clear” inventory and surface discounted, fresh items to consumers so they sell before expiring and are not discarded as waste.
Consumer Brands
Adding Digimarc Barcode to packaging reduces costly manufacturing errors, which force brands to discard countless mismatched items on the inspection line.
In addition, Digimarc Barcode on product packaging can improve plastic sorting at waste facilities, reducing the amount of plastic sent to landfills; Digimarc is working with Tomra and leading consumer brands, such as Procter & Gamble, to revolutionize plastics recycling as part of the HolyGrail 2.0 project. This initiative complements the manufacturing quality control use case by offering consumer product manufacturers a sustainability benefit from the manufacturing stage to post-consumer recycling.
Read our manufacturing case study with Procter & Gamble.
Benefit to Partners
By partnering with Digimarc, companies can offer their customers value-added benefits that help contribute to sustainability. Some examples include:
- Scale Manufacturers - By printing fresh labels with Digimarc Barcode, these companies can help retailers reduce food waste
- Machine Vision & Barcode Detection Companies – Digimarc-enabled hardware helps brands and retailers optimize their supply chains and reduce waste
- Premedia Companies - Help their customers add Digimarc Barcode to packaging, bringing with it all the benefits of waste reduction in manufacturing and future recycling benefits
We also want to work with partners that share our values. Our business partners are required to follow our equal employment opportunity policy.