An update on our #goodcompany mission

When we released the first-ever DEPT® Impact Report last year, we were still in the midst of our B Corp journey.

Since then, we’ve not only achieved B Corp certification, we’ve also been named one of the Best for the World™ B Corps in the Governance category – meaning that our score for Governance was among the top 5% of B Corps of our size. 

But, as we said last year, that’s only the beginning.

Our journey towards becoming a #goodcompany continues, but with this year we’re very excited to share the progress we’ve made over the course of 2021 in our newest Impact Report. 

Here’s a snapshot.

We’re bigger than ever, but still small enough to care. Following the addition of 10 exciting new DEPT® teams, our total number of Depsters jumped from 1,300 in 2020 to over 3,000 spread across 18 countries in 5 continents as of the time of this report’s release. Although we’ve nearly doubled in size, we’re still powered by the culture and creativity of a smaller agency.

Our 1% for good mission just got bigger. In 2021, 0.67% of our revenue was donated to charity or through pro bono work, up from 0.5% in 2020. That might not sound like much, but bear in mind that it’s not just our size that’s bigger than ever – our revenue is as well. And so is the 1% of our revenue we’re on a mission to give back, whether that’s through donation or pro bono work.

We’re confident we’ve established a better benchmark for our carbon footprint. Our footprint in 2021 measured just under 10,500 t/CO2, up from 5,500 t/CO2 in 2020. Given the impact of the pandemic on offices, travel, and commuting, however, we’ve always known that our 2020 footprint would be an outlier. In any case, we remain a Climate Neutral company, and have continued to offset the entirety of our footprint through our friends at Terra Neutra.

Gender equality is on track. The percentage of women at DEPT® has increased from 42% to 46% and we’re confident that we’ll reach 50% in 2022. Additionally, 42% of DEPT® managers identify as women or nonbinary – meaning we’ve achieved the incremental goal of 40% we set last year!

Other aspects of DE&I – including race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation – are making steady progress. While challenges with our previous people data system prevented us from collecting data on these aspects of identity last year, we’ve already made the switch to a better system. Furthermore, we’ve come to realise that DE&I looks different depending on the country or region of the world we’re working within. We’re now pivoting toward a series of regional DE&I Strategic Planning processes, assisted by global initiatives like anonymous recruitment.

Helping other good companies do more good. Our work pioneers tech and marketing to help brands stay ahead. But we specifically want to make sure our pioneering work is helping purpose-driven companies achieve their missions of creating a more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive world. To that end, over the course of the past year, 8.6% of our revenue came from purpose-driven work and we completed 99 impact projects.

As the world evolves, we’re determined to evolve with it in a positive way.