We all love being out and about, whether it’s a brisk walk at lunchtime, or sometime in the countryside at the weekend. But unfortunately, as has been highlighted for many years, the environment is reaching tipping point, with the ever-increasing strains from pollution and waste.
At Prism for many years, we’ve been trying to do our bit and we wanted to share with you how we work to minimise our impact on the environment.
When our new offices were designed a few years back, being green was already on the agenda. The building has solar panels which generate 20% of the total power used in the year and saves around 78,000 kg of co2. Designed with LED lighting, our building is lit using bulbs that last 15 times longer and are 10 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs. We built in a shower room to encourage our people to cycle to work, and throughout the office we have recycling points for paper and cardboard so it’s easy for our people to recycle.
We try to make it easier for our people to be green at work by providing Bobble™ re-usable water bottles, bamboo coffee cups for use internally and bio-degradable pens. We also use recycled paper and card as often as we can, which we then recycle in our various recycle stations throughout the building.
But we haven’t stopped at the environment, we also want our people to be the best they can be. Our well-being strategy includes an annual desk assessment and staff are also offered private medical insurance and death in service benefits. We have also held Free Fruit Friday, popular amongst all the staff.
Our thoughts for the environment also continue to any business marketing projects. We use recyclable paper and card where possible for any mail promotions. For exhibitions and conferences our promotional materials consist of biodegradable ball pens, made from compostable bioplastic, and our giveaway coffee cups are made from naturally grown organic bamboo fibre, highly durable, yet free from any harmful synthetic material.
Our PETT scheme reduces IT equipment sent to landfill and redirects waste to more worthy causes. To date, we’ve donated 282 PCs to 102 third sector organisations, empowering them to achieve much more as they can get online and engage with their audiences. The recipients have included Space4Autism, Breakthrough UK, Brechin Community Pantry, Friends for Leisure, plus many others.
Of course, one of the biggest pollutants associated with any business is transport to and from work as well as any business journeys. We make it easier for our people to do their bit by cycling to work where feasible, providing lovely shower facilities and offering a cycle to work scheme. A recent addition has been the introduction of hybrid cars to our company car fleet and car charging points in our car park.
Every little change helps.