2024 Impact Report
Driving meaningful change
Welcome!
2023/24 was an interesting year for many digital agencies around the world, and our company was no exception — whew! During COVID-19, we all needed a more robust internet, and in 2021 and 2022, Plank experienced that surge as we helped a lot of clients and partners quickly respond. But 2023/24 saw a slowdown as some of our typical partners paused to reassess their next steps. We made it through but had to carefully reevaluate some of our goals.
Now that the realities are clear, how did we manage to stay true to our impact promises? We leaned into one of Plank’s core values: Empathy.
“People are at the heart of everything we do. We consider the needs of our partners, clients, their users, and our team members, offering our support and understanding to all.”
We focused on our team by developing new skills, leadership ability, refined tools and processes, strengthening partnerships, and improving financial controls and budgeting. Empathy and transparency were key factors in so many decisions we made. While we had to cut back on spending for remote travel, we were able to increase the time dedicated to learning and professional development.
I’m proud that no one left our team during the year—we faced these challenges together and are now ready to take on a better 2024/25. At Plank, we believe the internet is fundamental to where the world needs to go, and we remain committed to working with organizations that aim to make a positive impact.
I’m excited to present our 2024 Impact Report, which offers a deeper look into our journey over the past year. Many of the insights in this report show how these experiences have strengthened our resolve and shaped our path forward. I’m incredibly grateful to our team for their dedication, making Plank an impactful company, ready to drive meaningful change and embrace a bright future.
Steve Bissonnette
Managing Partner, Co-Owner
Proud B Corp Since 2022
We use our business as a force for good by inspiring purpose-driven organizations to join us in making the internet a better space for all.
Successful company metrics not only measure financial value, but employee engagement, community involvement, and environmental footprint.
B Lab Cofounder Bart Houlahahn discusses this and more with Dart Lindsey in this episode of Work For Humans.
Plank's steadfast commitment to developing genuine partnerships with clients never ceases to impress me, and helping mission-driven organizations make an impact on their audiences and communities gives me a deep sense of purpose.
After 25 years, I’m still amazed daily that I get to work with such a smart, talented and passionate group of people. While I’m proud of our work, I’m equally proud of the rich relationships we’ve built based on trust, commitment and service.
One promise that Plank has definitely upheld this year, despite a troubling economic climate, is our commitment to working with clients that have a net positive effect on the world. It would be all too easy to quickly grab at easy, less socio-economically significant work, but that doesn’t sit well with any of us. It’s a highly commendable trait.
2024 has been a transformative year for our business strategy. We've deepened our commitment to working with purpose-driven organizations, expanding our impact while aligning with clients that reflect our core values and vision for a better world.
People
People
People
People
Our Team
Empowering new leadership, enhancing transparency, and expanding mental health care.
I appreciate Plank’s transparency on the state of the company. It shows they value the trust of their employees.
Our new team leadership structure has fostered an environment where every voice is heard, and this has elevated our cross-team collaboration to a whole new level.
2024 has proven even more that employees are the heart of Plank and that we care about them, we made tough decision to keep our team intact, and this will certainly pay off as 2025 looks bright and promising.
Plank has always been an amazing and inspiring place to work. I feel very fortunate to be part of this fantastic team. With Plank’s supportive culture, our team is always striving to make us better and stronger.
Plank has always prioritized team growth. This year, I had the opportunity to work on inspiring internal projects with significant creative freedom. The new skills I gained will greatly benefit future projects and my career growth.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
We believe in creating an environment that supports growth, fosters belonging, and prioritizes the well-being of both our team and the communities we serve.
Committed to Diversity and Inclusion
We proudly supported QueerTech by sending two members of our team to the QT Conference in Montreal. The event allowed us to connect with and support the LGBTQ+ tech community.
Mental Health Accommodation
We developed a mental health accommodation plan, with the help of our partners, to ensure our team members have the support they need to manage their mental well-being in the workplace.
Gender Representation
Gender Representation In Leadership
Plank's celebration of individuality has been instrumental in my growth on a personal and professional level. I appreciate the safe environment we’ve created where anyone can just show up as their authentic self.
At Plank, web accessibility has always been a cornerstone of our development process. Equally important to us is innovation, which can present challenges to accessibility. This year, we focused on advancing our approach to balance accessibility needs with creative animations, bridging the gap to ensure an inclusive, dynamic web experience.
After a year at Plank, I am certain I’m in the right place. Plank promotes growth and teamwork, with a focus on mutual development. Plank’s commitment to work-life balance creates a supportive environment. I am proud to be part of this exceptional team.
Growth and development are integral to Plank’s values. Their commitment to fostering an encouraging environment has allowed me to not only expand upon my own skills, but experiment in ways that ultimately allows Plank to continuously evolve.
Ethical Web Collective
In the past year, we were able to relaunch and improve our ethical stance on building digital spaces.
“Ethical web design refers to the approach to creating digital spaces that consider the moral rights every individual has over their information. Moreover, it accounts for the ability of these users to participate in those online spaces.”
Employee Insights
Time Off In Numbers
Mentorship Program
As community is a key focus at Plank, we also began rolling out a Mentorship Program for new developers and creatives. Our goal is to provide guidance and insight into life at a web agency, covering various departments and how these roles interact with one another. The program also offers practical advice on navigating the job market and approaching potential employers, helping to shape the future of our industry.
Human Resources & Operations
Our top priority in this area is ensuring that our team is happy, healthy, and compensated fairly. We’ve made some positive steps this year and hope to continue in the coming years.
Supporting Growth
A New Approach
We focused on promoting clarity and fairness for our team by enhancing support and transparency in compensation and career progression. Our new approach ensures clearer growth opportunities and expectations regarding pay, and helps the team better understand the compensation process.
In terms of support, we surveyed our team about what benefits they valued most and expanded our healthcare to support those needs.
Plank has been behind me every step of the way as I've been pushing forward our Content Strategy practice! It's been so cool to lay this out ourselves and see it solidify and become a product we can sell.
Plank has five core values, and strives to adhere to those on every project we undertake, both internal and external. As such, there are many avenues for growth available in the company, allowing everyone to find a solid life-balance.
Plank is truly committed to personal learning & development. It fosters a culture of continuous learning, where employees are encouraged to take courses, attend workshops, and pursue certifications.
Plank’s support for remote work allows me to excel in my career while enjoying the flexibility to maintain a balanced life. The genuine commitment to work-life balance is honest and unwavering.
Plank’s commitment to fostering each individual’s growth and career path allowed me to switch from the Strategy team to the UX team. With Plank’s support, I now feel confident in the direction of my career.
Types of Training
Total Training Investment Per Type
Total Training Investment Without Conferences
Professional Learning & Development
Investing in Our Team’s Skills
In the first half of the year, there was a big push on conferences and events like WordCamp, Laracon, and SmashingConf. Most of our training budget went towards group learning opportunities for team building, networking, and staying updated on the latest in our industry.
With cutbacks on spending and travel in the second half of the year, we shifted our focus to non-conference learning — certifications, online courses, and internal projects — allowing individuals to dive into specific areas of interest like UX, animation, and front end development. This ensures that our team continues to grow and build new skills while keeping costs in check and balancing our day-to-day work.
PAWcon2023
If you’ve been following Plank for a while, there is a good chance that you have heard us use the term “PAW” before. For those who aren’t in the know, PAW refers to our annual employee appreciation event, otherwise known as Plank Appreciation Week. It’s something we take very seriously around here. In fact, we’re pretty proud of it!
Over the years, PAW has transformed massively, from a one-day observance to a week-long celebration of our team. As we approach our 25th anniversary, we wanted to introduce a new iteration of the event. One that inspired us and that reflected on our team’s hard work as well as looked to the future of the company.
This year, instead of spreading out our activities over a full week, we hosted two full off-site days with immersive workshops and discussions in a rented space at the beautiful La Piscine.
Read more on this year’s very special
25th Anniversary
celebration of PAWcon
Responsibility
Responsibility
Responsibility
Income Impact
Our mission remains rooted in the success and well-being of the organizations we collaborate with. In 2024, we proudly partnered with 20 organizations on numerous projects that furthered causes close to our hearts.
Shaping a Better World
Our goal as we look to 2025 is to continue working predominantly with non-profit and purpose-driven organizations and to increase our collaborations with certified B Corps—not only to support fellow B Corps but to help drive their mission forward, raise awareness about their impactful work, and learn from their leadership.
Partnering with inspiring, mission-driven institutions continues to energize and motivate our team. We’re honored to contribute to their missions and look forward to future impactful collaborations.
Investing in Positive Initiatives
In 2024, we realigned our investments to reflect our commitment to sustainability and social responsibility. We moved to a new financial group with instructions to avoid environmentally problematic or war-related funds. This change ensures our resources support positive initiatives without contributing to environmental harm or conflict.
Client Breakdown
Committed to working with diverse sectors
Environmental Impact
At Plank, we are committed to reducing our environmental impact and making more sustainable choices in all aspects of our business.
Tracking Our Impact
From minimizing travel and offsetting our carbon footprint to rethinking how we use energy in the office, our goal is to continually improve our practices. Here’s how we did with our goals this year.
Air travel with certified, high-impact carbon offsets
The result: Plank purchased more offset flights than 2023 *
Promoting travel by rail for its extremely low CO2 emissions
The result: 4% less of our travel in 2024 was by rail
Promoting electric car rental for ground transport at remote destinations
The result: No electric cars were rented
Promoting local green travel for our team — bike share, metro, bus, LTR, walking
The result: Bixi usage in Montreal and minimal car usage.
* We don’t have an exact number from previous years, but are now tracking.
Sustainable Business Travel
Evaluating Plank’s Carbon Footprint
Our Travel in Numbers
2024 saw our team travel less, with most trips focused on essential client meetings in North America. We continue to look for ways to reduce our environmental impact, including using carbon offsets for flights and planning trips to accommodate multiple meetings or purposes, thus minimizing unnecessary travel.
Estimated Total Travel Carbon Footprint
We purchased quality Carbon offsets for 42% of our air travel mileage in 2024. Our goal for 2025 is to get that number to 100%. We continue to look for carbon offset solutions which actually help, and have been verified by trusted third- parties.
46.7
tons CO2e
(43,360.526 kg)
2023
36.7
tons CO2e
(33,289.82 kg)
2024
Primary Work Machines
We’ve always promised to keep our team on recent and capable Macs, but we put a short pause on most Mac upgrades for 2024, as our machines had all gone through a modernization plan between 2020-2023.
We’ll resume in 2025, with continued careful consideration that any Mac that is retired is sold, reused, upcycled or donated.
We’re happy to see Apple environmental progress continue as they work towards Carbon Neutrality by 2030.
Supplier Policy
We have not updated our 2023/24 supplier policy, instead focusing on improvements with our partners.
Carbon Neutral Goals
While we made strides here, we have paused on our commitment towards complete carbon neutrality as we continue to evaluate tools and methods to get us there. This is now an attainable 2025 goal we’re working towards.
Our Suppliers
Generosity
Generosity
Generosity
Community
Building strong relationships and giving back has been a core focus of Plank’s mission. We strive to engage in ways that align with our values and drive positive impact.
Improved Partnerships
We prioritize fostering strong, fair, and transparent relationships with our partners. In FY24, we focused on ensuring each collaboration was rooted in respect and shared values. We expanded our partnership network to better support Plank’s mission and to provide our clients with more comprehensive solutions, leveraging expertise in specialized areas like AWS, CRM integrations, and SEO. These efforts have established a solid foundation for future collaborations and deeper community engagement.
In 2025, our goal is to further nurture and celebrate these alliances by enhancing collaboration with existing partners and expanding our network with like-minded organizations.
Plank x Great Partners
Impact Reports Map Progress and Opportunities for a Positive Difference
by B The Change
B Corp Community Support
This past year, we dedicated more time and resources to engaging with the B Corp Community by supporting other mission-driven businesses on their journey to certification and beyond. Steve has played a key role in this effort, offering guidance to companies like Drink Noa as they navigate the B Corp certification process. Our contributions were highlighted in an article by B Lab’s B The Change, where we were interviewed about the importance of impact reporting as a tool for measuring progress and identifying new opportunities to make a positive difference.
As we embark on our recertification in 2025, we continue to deepen our engagement within the B Corp community, learn from our peers, and actively contribute to discussions around the evolving standards of social and environmental leadership.
Open Source Contributions
Plank continues to give back to the open source community that we rely on. Last year we increased our number of public open source projects on GitHub to 23, and actively keep them up-to-date, documented, and usable.
We also made an impact by supporting Christina through volunteer time to attend and speak at WordCamp Canada and help document WordPress for users worldwide. Dave was able to attend the WCUS 2023 contributor day with the training team. We believe we’ve lived up to our “Five for the Future” commitment, and will be evaluating how we can improve this in 2025.
Plank believes in and actively contributes to open source. I am fortunate to be able to use some of my time at work to attend and speak at WordCamps and to contribute to WordPress’ documentation team as part of the Five for the Future initiative.
This year, Plank's support for continuous learning and the long-standing emphasis on partnering with purpose-driven clients has enabled me to explore new technologies and give back by contributing to open-source projects. I’m proud to be part of a team that values collaboration and works on projects that drive positive change.
Plank has fostered an open and safe space for its employees. It’s a community of passionate individuals where collaboration, growth, and well-being are prioritized. The culture encourages creativity, transparency, and respect, empowering people to thrive both professionally and personally.
I really appreciate how Plank has encouraged me to continue learning new technologies to expand on what we currently offer our clients. They give me the opportunity to follow my interests and shape the work that we get in the future.
WordPress Playground: The Famous 5 Second Install
Old WordPress REST API, New Tricks
The documentation for every version of WordPress released subsequently needs updating. Christina contributed by writing and editing user documentation* for the individual WP blocks, and refreshed a large number of screenshots and video for the documentation.
* What people read to understand how to use the CMS, not the developer documentation
Giving
Plank believes in giving back to our community in meaningful ways. This year, our team dedicated its volunteer time to contributing to causes we’re passionate about.
Carolyn’s Community
Carolyn’s Community organizes an annual Holiday Toy Drive, providing gifts to children, teens, and mothers in shelters and community organizations around Montreal. For the fourth consecutive year, Plank played a key role, contributing 3 days of volunteer time to collect, purchase, and pack 212 gifts for children in need during the holiday season, in addition to weeks of outreach, coordination, and planning that Paisley and Nas dedicate on their own time.
As someone who has been involved with Carolyn’s Toy Drive for nearly 10 years, I’m incredibly proud to be part of a team that consistently goes above and beyond to bring joy to those in need. Each year, the energy in the office is palpable when we transform part of the space into Santa’s Workshop. Plank’s commitment to Carolyn’s Community speaks volumes about the kind of people we have here—caring, generous, and always ready to step up and help others.
Toys Collected Year Over Year
Volunteer Time
Our team dedicated 10.75 days of volunteer time
CRC Robotics
We’re proud of our involvement in the CRC Robotics competition. Massimo contributed 2.5 days of Plank’s volunteer time, plus several weeks of his own time, to support the event. The competition is a multidisciplinary event that encourages students to design and build robots, create websites, videos, and kiosks, and even produce tutorial videos. It provides a unique opportunity for everyone involved to learn something new. Check out the highlights
Technology Donations
In line with our commitment to reducing electronic waste and supporting local organizations, we continued to donate retired equipment in 2024. This year, we provided a Dell screen to the Montreal Fluency Centre, helping to support their vital work while giving our technology a second life. By repurposing older equipment, we contribute to both environmental sustainability and meaningful community investment.
There’s really something special about the CRC, in my opinion. Whenever the competition is happening, and all the kids are rushing to fix something broken or strategize about how to perform well in the next rounds, there’s this level of enthusiasm that can’t be described but needs to be experienced. I volunteer for the CRC, not just because I used to be a participant, but because the people I’ve met and the memories I’ve made are some of my most cherished.
Other Community Contributions
Lunch Bags
Our team spent 1.75 days purchasing groceries, preparing and packing lunches, and distributing 50 lunch bags to those facing homelessness in Montreal.
WordPress Events
Christina volunteered at WPCamp Ottawa, spending 1 day contributing and 1 day speaking.
Western Canada IT Conference
Jerry volunteered 1 day at this year’s event.
School Support
Jason volunteered 0.5 days at his kids’ school, helping with community engagement activities.
Looking Ahead
Looking Ahead
After rollercoaster years in 2023 and 2024, the next five months at Plank will be dedicated to stabilizing and regaining our footing. One significant change is aligning our fiscal year with the calendar year. Our next impact report will cover January 1 to December 31, 2025, providing us with a clearer picture of our progress and our impact.
We’re developing a fresh financial plan for 2025 with a renewed focus on what matters most to us: giving back, supporting our community, and staying true to our values. Transparency with our team and maintaining accountability will continue to be central to who we are.
We’re also committed to improving how we collaborate with our partners, contractors, and freelancers, all while staying aligned with our impact goals. Sustainability remains a priority—we’re aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by the end of 2025.
Additionally, we’re ensuring our team grows alongside us by providing more opportunities for learning and professional development. As we work towards recertifying as a B Corp, we’re focused on making meaningful improvements that reflect the kind of company we aspire to be.
Thank you for reading!
The entire Plank team
2024 showed us that making an impact means being open to change, and that’s okay. Creating real impact is an ongoing effort that adapts to whatever challenges come our way.
Unlike many companies in our industry, Plank has never operated in a “hire-and-fire” manner, we have been thoughtful about our growth and taken hiring as a serious long-term decision. It has helped our culture and shows commitment to our employees.
Getting to see first-hand how Plank has stood by its values in a tough year has been really inspiring. It instils a culture of integrity that I want to be a part of and showcase.
Plank has an unshakeable belief that it’s important that we do work that matters – even when the going gets tough, upholding company values is at the core of what we do, and it’s reflected in our work year over year.
It’s been rewarding to see how people can flourish when they are given flexibility in pathways to growth. From lateral role changes, to restructuring teams and to encouraging experimental skill enhancement, we’ve seen people get inspired, remain challenged and collaborate to create our best work yet. I’m incredibly proud of our teams!
