Aquent, the largest marketing/creative staffing supplier in the US, recently got into the solar farm business as a way to reduce its carbon footprint. The firm is now carbon negative.

Aquent rolled out the solar farms in 2022 and 2023 mostly in Indiana and Ohio. These states are relatively heavy users of coal in electricity generation, and placing solar farms there means extra bang for the buck when it comes to reducing carbon, said Chris Bambacus, director of social and environmental responsibility at Aquent. The company began by placing the solar operations on midsize commercial buildings.

The solar farms are part of a wider effort to cut Aquent’s emissions. Bambacus said the move is not because of government regulation but because of client demand.

“We’re doing it because we believe it’s the right thing to do and because our clients are asking us, ‘What are you doing for sustainability? For your carbon?’” Bambacus said. “I think it gives us a competitive advantage when we’re doing RFPs.”

Aquent tracks how many kilowatts each solar farm produces.

“We know how much carbon that is offsetting in that particular area, and because we own it and operate it, there’s no question of where those carbon credits are coming from,” he said.

In addition to Indiana and Ohio, the company has a solar farm in Maryland.

With the expertise gained in reducing its carbon footprint, Aquent is branching out into staffing for sustainability projects.

A recent report by SIA found that the renewable energy industry is estimated to expand 8% this year and add nearly 10 million new jobs over the next seven years. An SIA ESG programs still central to contingent workforce development also noted that environmental, social and governance programs can be a key differentiator when it comes to attracting talent.

Other staffing firms are working to lower emissions as well. AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE: AMN) in November announced a plan to achieve net-zero emissions.

“We believe that businesses have a vital role in driving down GHG emissions and building a resilient, zero-emissions economy,” AMN President and CEO Cary Grace said in a press release. “Our commitments not only align with scientific standards but also demonstrate our leadership and responsibility towards a sustainable future.”

Just One Step

Solar farms are just one of the steps Aquent took to become carbon negative.

The effort began by becoming a virtual-first workplace, eliminating 170,000 square feet of office space across more than 30 locations worldwide. This reduced auto emissions to and from the office among other things. Aquent also replaced technologies with more efficient ones, including migrating cloud storage to a facility powered by renewable energy.

Bambacus said Aquent conducts a greenhouse gas inventory every year to determine how it could lower emissions, and going remote was a big step in cutting its carbon footprint.

“We have a handful of offices in Japan and Australia that are still open, but for the most part we’re a remote-first company,” he said. “And that’s had a dramatic impact on our carbon footprint because burning gasoline to drive a car or take a train — however you get into work — is a much bigger emitter than sitting at home using a laptop, even if you’re counting the heat for the home and everything else.”

Aquent also works with a third-party vendor called Apex for certification. Its emission numbers are published each year on platforms such as CDP.

The effort to achieve carbon-negative status caps four years of work.

“Reaching carbon-negative status has been a collaborative effort that spans every level of our organization,” Aquent founder and CEO John H. Chuang said in a press release. “Going beyond just carbon neutrality and offsets and embracing initiatives that truly have a positive impact on our global community is essential and must become common business practice across all industries.”

Bambacus also lauded the companies working in the carbon-reduction space.

“Typically, you think of companies as competitors, but in this field everybody’s working towards one common goal of reducing emissions: stopping climate change as much as we can,” he said.