We’ll share a few ways we are making changes through sustainable office solutions. We position our sustainability work in the context of worldwide action by utilising the UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs). Our impact needs to be a part of the bigger picture of global change!
Promoting Economic sustainability:
Economic sustainability comes back to the business decisions we make. They must be economically viable and create the capacity for long-lasting and well-executed sustainable changes. We can make a better sustainable impact by ensuring we achieve our business goals and can continue to make impactful changes as an organisation long-term. Economic sustainability has to underpin the work we do socially and environmentally. It does not mean we favour business goals over promoting social impact and environmental change – but it is a pillar of how we work. By promoting the 8th UN Sustainable Development Goal, we can continue to create long-term change.
Promoting Environmental sustainability:
Work from home – One of the biggest polluters in our daily activities comes from the fossil fuels associated with commuting. While debates continue on the actual impact of working from home, we know that working from home four days a week has reduced the amount of Nitrogen Dioxide emitted (a considerable contributor to air pollution) by around 8-10%, which is a substantial reduction in air pollutants and could stand to increase the overall health of our cities significantly. Unfortunately, we are still waiting on data surrounding the impact of reduced Carbon Dioxide emissions as we adapt to more sustainable office solutions such as work-from-home practices. Our responsibility is to be a part of the conversation making decisions that make a difference each day with the most relevant data.
Carbon emissions reporting – Although emissions reporting is nothing new, it is becoming more and more relevant to organisations, allowing companies to understand their business’s impact on the environment. By doing this work each year, it’s easy to create accountability for reducing our overall impact on global warming and climate change. This work ensures that we see the effects of our daily decisions and achieve our goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through energy saving, sustainable office solutions and travel-related reductions.
Promoting Social sustainability:
Sustainable Procurement – As a business, one of the most impactful things we can do is make sustainable procurement decisions, ensuring the purchasing power we have as an organisation uses our financial management positively. A Procurement policy that provides background checks on the tech and office equipment we buy and utilises recycled and easy-to-recycle materials is essential. This policy also allows us to promote increased standards of living and ensure the companies we purchase from maintain suitable working environments. In addition, we guarantee we never support modern slavery or the perpetuation of the conditions for increased social inequality by purchasing from socially responsible organisations with a supply chain that we support.
Organisations must look at sustainability holistically and understand the three pillars that underpin everything we do. Finally, we must change our organisations to shoulder the responsibility of making positive social, environmental and economic changes.
