Canva looking ‘beyond net zero’; calls for acceleration away from fossil fuels

Australia’s fastest growing start-up hit its climate targets two years early, and its billionaire co-founders have a message for others to follow suit.

Canva co-founders Cameron Adams, Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins.

Businesses should not be content with just achieving net zero emissions, according to Canva co-founder Cameron Adams, who is calling on the government to accelerate a shift away from coal and gas from the ­nation’s energy networks and for more Australian businesses to commit to action on climate change.

The Sydney-based design tech start-up, led by billionaire co-founders Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams, has this week unveiled “Vision for Beyond Net Zero”, its sustainability framework for reducing and removing emissions to coincide with Earth Day.

Mr Adams, who recently featured in The Australian’s Green List, said that while local businesses should be applauded for targeting net zero greenhouse gas emissions, Canva had reached that goal two years ahead of schedule and was now looking to go further.

“We don’t plan to just stop at decarbonisation. We want to go beyond net zero,” he said.

“It’s not enough just to think about how much carbon you can cancel out. You need to think about regenerating the planet, which we’ve put into crisis over the last decade. This means that when you’re looking at projects which can take you to net zero, you should go beyond the figures and think about biodiversity, social impact and traditional landowners.

Cameron Adams at Canva’s head office. Picture: Jonathan Cami

“There is not going to be one sweeping bill passed in parliament or the closing of just one single power station that is going to solve this problem. It’ll be a multitude of efforts that harness the small changes of a big group of people.”

Mr Adams, a former Google executive, said Canva’s global operations and print services were 100 per cent offset by ­nature-based carbon credits, and planted a tree for every tree order placed, with more than 1 million trees planted to date. More than 200,000 non-profits also have free access to Canva’s design products, including the Clean Air Council and Trees for the Future.

“We have a dedicated team who focus on sustainability, and they’ve been around for two years now. We started from absolute zero, we didn’t have the strategies to deal with it, and since we’ve set up this team we have learned a lot and we are hitting all of our goals ahead of schedule,” he said. “There are ­financial costs to carbon offsetting, as well as environmental costs, but there is so much you can do. Our Australian operations have been running entirely on renewable energy for the past year, and our offices around the world are on track to be doing that in the near future.”

Like fellow local software outfit Atlassian, Canva has long been outspoken on social and environmental issues, and Mr Adams said he wanted whichever party was elected at the May election to accelerate a shift away from coal and gas in the ­nation’s electricity networks.

“It’s been really heartening to see how much climate is on the agenda and how important it is to the majority of Australians.”