Monday 5th June is World Environment Day – a day when the United Nation encourages worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. At Skout we have been working away behind the scenes to develop our sustainability pledges to ensure that, as a business, we are doing all we can to protect the valuable resources that we have and also to challenge behaviours within the agency to make us all more accountable for our sustainability practices.
The first step on our journey was to look at what was both realistic and achievable for us a business. It was no good putting pledges in place that bore no resemblance to the work that we do day to day – it needed to be meaningful, actionable and something that the team could get behind and give full support to. We formed our own ‘sustainability squad’ who had the job of pulling together the views of all of the team on how we could make a positive difference.
After calculating our carbon footprint to give us a benchmark for our current activities we collated all of the feedback from the team and set about developing the pledges. The final pledges below are designed to take Skout through the 2020’s with a positive action on sustainability.
Pledge One – Treat our sustainable practices in our workspaces as we would at home
Practically this means making changes such as switching off unplugged sockets and unnecessary lighting, and always opting for the most eco-friendly option and packaging when it comes to office supplies.
Pledge Two – Proactively champion the use of recyclable material in our working environment
We will implement measures such as the removal of individual desk bins and single use plastic bin liners. We will proactively encourage more sustainable choices for packaging, and encourage the use of central office provisions such as water cooler and coffee machine to cut down on unnecessary non-recyclable waste.
Pledge Three – Always consider the environmental impact of our travel as an agency
We pledge to use more sustainable transport where possible, such as train or bike instead of car, and assess how sustainable our courier and delivery services are, always seeking the most eco-friendly options.
This is just the beginning for us though. Sustainability is a journey rather than a destination and it’s a choice that we need to make every day. Whether that is opting to buy your lunchtime drink in an aluminium can rather than a plastic bottle or choosing loose fruit and vegetables over the plastic bagged variety – being conscious of the most environmentally friendly options helps us all to make positive changes that will all help to keep us a more sustainable team.
Coincidentally, and totally unplanned, the theme for this year’s World Environment Day is #BeatPlasticPollution. We are already starting to tackle this as a team but there is certainly more that we could do. We will update you regularly on our sustainability journey but we would be interested to find out how you are tackling the challenges that Net Zero will bring with it in your business. Get in touch with us now to share your story or to chat to us about how we can help you bring your story to life for your customers.
