Rumsfeld’s ‘Known unknowns’

"As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know." – Donald Rumsfeld, 2002 (watch the original clip here).

“We know there are some things we do not know” and that was the basis on which we began our Net Zero 2028 journey, or as one project member deemed, ‘gargantuan’ task. It is not often you become part of a project team with an ‘end’ date of seven years’ time. And so the challenge begins.

Our team:

Leaning on expertise from across Zen Internet, a task force was formed to lead the way on all things sustainability and environment related. 

• As Project Manager, Paula’s our super organised project lead.
• EXCO and board sponsor, we lean on Paul for key decisions on such things as budget, risks and challenges.
• John is our tech guru leading on all technology emissions.
• Our maintenance expert, Tony is looking at our emissions in our Rochdale HQ, and Leeds office.
• A commercial specialist, Raj has taken on board the complexities of calculating upstream and downstream third-party emissions. Essentially looking at our entire supply chain from our AVM FRITZ!Box routers through to our distribution partners such as DPD.
• No such project team can be complete without representation from finance. In comes Tom who is looking at all our travel and logistics emissions, and will provide sound financial counsel too!
• Joining from Brand & Central Marketing, Roisin is the voice of the customer, content creator and main author of this blog.

Our guiding principles

We quickly established that Rumsfeld’s infamous ‘Known unknowns’ was an apt summary of where we are at on our Net Zero ambitions. We are in uncharted territory – there is no guidebook.

So in our first (virtual) group meeting, we established some guiding principles:

1. We will make judgements based on what we know at the time; if that changes, we can change with it.
2. We will go after our most complex carbon and greenhouse gas emissions first. This will force us to navigate the nitty gritty, and help to establish a model and rationale as well as a measurement methodology.
3. We need to accept there will be areas where there is no rationale. When we meet these challenges, we will make an assessment, and round upwards so we are as prudent and transparent as possible.
4. We will agree our science-based targets with third party support.
5. When it comes to those ‘unknown unknowns’ we will challenge each other not to get bogged down in unnecessary analysis that will hold us back. We will make estimates and judgements and take advice. Because agility is essential (we can always revise later if the data changes).

Our environmental journey to date

As this stage, it is worth noting that Zen is a certified B Corporation and holds Carbon Neutral Plus status. This means, from an environmental and sustainability perspective, we are already measuring Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scope 2 (indirect energy emissions) as set out by the GHG Protocol. That is why the scope of this project encompasses Scope 3 (other indirect emissions) and a number of other targets which we will cover in next month’s journal entry.

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about our environmental journey to date, check out our timeline here.