This #ScotClimateWeek, are you ready to pledge?
A blog post by Anna Ireland
Posted 11/10/2019
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It’s Scotland’s Climate Week (7-13th October), a week-long opportunity for organisations to celebrate what they are doing to tackle the climate emergency, whilst exploring where they can do more. Where we can all do more.
Climate change is our biggest, and most pressing, challenge as a country. In order to achieve the government’s net-zero target for all greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, we need to make changes, and we need to make them quickly.
Our staff are committed to sustainable, low-carbon lifestyles in a variety of ways. Sustainable travel, food and clothing all feature high on our agendas whilst incorporating, as best we can, small yet impactful changes in our daily lives.
Scotland’s Climate Week provides the opportunity to share these habits whilst reflecting on where we can do better. As our work emphasises, individuals sharing actions and ideas can create a ripple effect of positive behaviour change for those around them.
So, our staff took a pledge: to make a climate-friendly change and share it with the team.
Staff pledges included:
Only buying recycled or second-hand baby clothes and prams. I’ve already saved money and they’re all pre-loved!
Weekly shop at a local food market for seasonal, organic produce! Low carbon food choices, reduced packaging and supporting local.
Travelling sustainably to work events by taking the train when I can, minimising my use of the car.
Working from home to reduce the impact of my daily commute.
Swapping my bike’s clutch, brake and carbon emitting pedals for zero emission pedals.
In-Office 'Greening'
Individual actions represent our collective commitment to reducing environmental impact, embodied by our in-office ‘Greening’ activities. These tackle the waste generation, employee travel, biodiversity and electricity consumption, that we use to reach our environmental objectives.
This year, we have disabled 24 light fittings in our offices which didn’t need to be on, potentially saving £400+ per year and over 1 tCO2e per year.
We recycle crisp packets, cracker and biscuit packaging through Terracycle who do so free of charge. For every shipment, we earn points which we can turn into a cash donation. Here are some examples of what Terracycle makes with our waste.
All our waste is separated and recycled where possible, whilst our catering policies ensure our events use seasonal and at least 80% vegetarian produce.
Our employees are encouraged to travel actively to work through the NextBike initiative, and are provided with 30 minutes of free riding time a day. Participating in this year’s Sustrans Scotland’s Scottish Workplace Challenge, our Climate Challenge Fund team saved over a tonne of carbon emissions from entering the environment.
Sustainable, carbon-friendly lifestyle choices are not always easy but can be implemented at an operational level to ensure employees are empowered to make positive changes. For us, this has meant ensuring we became a cycle friendly employer and ISO14001 accredited.
We pledge to share ideas during Scotland’s Climate Week and into the future; we encourage you to do the same. Let’s keep those positive actions rippling outward.
Need some inspiration? Check out our Guide to Climate Change or the Greener Scotland webpages.
