Going for green - our pursuit of sustainability
This year in line with our determined pledge to be a good corporate citizen and to further reduce our environmental impact on the world we have enrolled on ESI Monitor's Environmental Business Operations Framework.
ESI Monitor promotes positive environmental and social impact and support businesses to drive their transition to sustainability. The Environmental Business Operations Framework is an international benchmark and serves as an environmental management system to measure manage and minimise an organisation's environmental impact.
To support this pursuit we have appointed dedicated teams or representative from each of our offices who will lead the project in their jurisdiction.
In this series we'll be meeting members from our ESG teams around the world and finding out what plans and aspirations they have for their office and how their passion for sustainability influences their personal lives.
Meet Hanah Sage one of our ESG representatives from our Corporate team in London.
What do you do in your personal life or home to minimise your environmental impact?
At home we try to be mindful of how much energy we use. For example we only leave lights on in the room that we're in and make sure to turn off any appliances we're not using. We also take part in our council's recycling initiative to minimise how much general waste we produce and occasionally make a trip to our local recycling centre to recycle items that would have otherwise ended up in landfill.
What three simple changes would you recommend to someone looking to reduce their carbon footprint?
- Recycle where you can. It doesn't take much effort and once you're into the swing of it it becomes second nature. Also try to reuse any single-use plastic bottles and containers or avoid buying them in the first place.
- Try and conserve electricity. Either by using LED lights or by simply only turning on lights in the room you are using.
- Walk or cycle to work if you can. If it's only a 30-minute journey why not consider using a sustainable form of transport on some days of the week?
Why is investing in ESG and being a part of the Group's ESG team important to you?
I think all of us are somewhat ignorant of how we impact our environment. Being part of our ESG team is a way for me to become educated on the subject and hopefully raise awareness not just to my colleagues but also outside of work.
Another motivation is my son who is just under a year old. I think of his future and I am hopeful that he will live in a world where people are more aware of how important taking care of the environment is. At the end of the day we are only stewards of the world we live in and we have a responsibility to take care of it.
What changes/adaptations has your office made to the way it works to manage and minimise environmental impact?
- We have introduced labelled recycling bins in our office kitchen to encourage people to recycle and make it easy for people to recycle their items correctly.
- We have become much less paper-heavy and have adopted the practice of e-signing documents where possible.
- Our office has implemented a clean desk policy which prompts us to think before we print.
- In addition to minimising our paper use where possible we are also now officially part of the Carbon Capture Programme with the Woodland Trust. This gives us the opportunity to offset the CO2 emissions from our paper orders by planting native woodland trees across the UK.
Please note that this article is intended to provide a general overview of the matters to which it relates. It is not intended as professional advice and should not be relied upon as such. Any engagement in respect of our professional services is subject to our standard terms and conditions of business and the provision of all necessary due diligence. © Praxis 2023