Spotlight: Latest Innovations
Real change requires innovative thinking. Stein IAS’ Chief Creative Officer, Reuben Webb, reveals a new piece of innovative thinking from the MSQ Creative Council that aims to Make Something Change at our Bow Street HQ…
Innovation is one of the key pillars of MSQ – and it comes in all shapes and sizes. So when our MSQ Creative Council leaders set their departments with a challenge to ‘Make Something Change’ through innovative thinking, we knew we’d get something back very exciting.
That’s how Covent Carbon Capture was born. A pioneering experiment to explore how businesses and communities can come together to reduce carbon emissions and global warming.
As the project name might suggest, it all starts in Covent Garden, at our MSQ Bow Street HQ. Working with climate solution experts Ecologi, we’re removing from the atmosphere the equivalent amount of greenhouse gasses that are produced by vehicles as they pass the MSQ window on Bow Street – a 10m stretch of road in one of the busiest areas in the UK.
We’re providing the technology to capture vehicle emissions data and Ecologi is working with its partners to provide the carbon removal technology. All the emissions from the technology powering the project are also being removed. Clever, huh?
So how does it work?
When a vehicle passes the front window of our Bow St HQ, a special camera reads its number plate using Number Plate Recognition software. Our computer then checks with the DVLA database what the emissions data is for that vehicle, and calculates the greenhouse gasses the vehicle emits as it passes the window.
The computer then converts this number into the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide, and sends the emissions data to Ecologi (whilst showcasing said data on our snazzy on-screen emissions counter, which can be viewed live in MSQ’s reception).
Ecologi uses carbon removal technology to turn the CO2 gas emitted (from vehicles and the digital technology powering the project) into a solid state so it is no longer a greenhouse gas causing global warming. Phew.
Innovation in action
We believe our experiment is a completely new marriage of digital and carbon removal technology to accurately calculate vehicle greenhouse gas emissions and completely remove the equivalent amount of CO2. It means it’s a truly net zero approach, distinctly different from carbon offsetting projects, which invest in prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions but don’t actually remove the greenhouse gasses already present.
Why have we done it? Because we don’t believe ‘sustainability’ should be an afterthought in day-to-day business. It’s not a ‘nice-to-have’ initiative left to the HR department or something that can be solved by signing up to a few pledges. Sustainability sits at the heart MSQ, and so what we do every day – creative thinking – needs to be applied to solve the biggest sustainability challenges.
We therefore hope to apply the innovative thinking behind Covent Carbon Capture into other offices and with other clients going forward. Compared to carbon offsetting methods, carbon removal is relatively expensive, so we don’t expect this to happen overnight.
But the more we invest as a society in carbon removal technology, the cheaper it will become. And the more we can therefore raise awareness of and extol the virtues of carbon removal technology, the more hopeful we can be of that happening.
We hope that Covent Carbon Capture is a fun, eye-catching way of starting that journey.
If you’d like to find out more about Covent Carbon Capture, check out coventcarboncapture.com
“MSQ’s Council’s exist to provide energy, insight and collaboration across the group. I’m so proud that our Creative Council has – in true MSQ style – used it as a platform to develop a brilliant piece of thinking that has carbon removal at its heart.”
— Kate Howe, Executive Director, MSQ