The Four Workplace Sustainability Angles

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31 March 2022

A new report commissioned by Moneypenny and WORKTECH Academy has identified four different types of corporate approaches to sustainability, to help businesses establish just how green they are.

The new Moneypenny and WORTKECH ACADEMY report, which launched 23 March, highlights the key challenges of sustainability, shows how new ways of working are driving change and provides tips on how to build Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) credentials.

"Through working in close partnership with organisations large and small, we’ve been witnessing a growing requirement for sustainability in the workplace."

 

– Joanna Swash
Group CEO, Moneypenny

In particular, the report identifies four green corporate typologies:

1. Placemakers – organisations which use their office building as a canvas to display their green credentials and aims – such as Google’s new campus in London’s King’s Cross, which has provision for more than 600 bicycles and just four car parking spaces.
2. Changemakers – organisations which understand the value of influencing green behaviour and are using the ‘return to office’ to encourage employees to modify behaviours in the workplace. Examples include Coca-Cola, Intel, and eBay.
3. Choice-givers - organisations that use new ways of working and flexible work policies to give employees the autonomy to make green choices for themselves, including outside the office – such as working from home to reduce their carbon footprint. Examples include printing giant Xerox Design which allowed 8,000 of its 27,000 employees to work remotely full-time, resulting in 92 million fewer miles driven, 4.6 million gallons of fuel saved, and 41,000 metric tons of carbon avoided annually.
4. Arbitrators - organisations that extend sustainability beyond the office to the wider community. These organisations are likely to offer subsidised transport and smart home energy solutions for employees, as well as run community-minded green initiatives. Examples include Apple, Facebook and Johnson & Johnson, who support employees with bike travel, group shuttle buses, and public transport.

Green Washing, or Social Responsibility?
 

Social value accreditors such as Planet Mark can help advise businesses trying to utilise the best combination of these in order to achieve net-zero goals, as well as official ranking on its own and other rating systems. BM has recently been awarded Planet Mark accreditation for a third successive year after it achieved a 26 per cent absolute carbon reduction, and committed to a further five per cent decrease, as announced in its latest CSER report published recently.

Joanna Swash, Group CEO of Moneypenny said: “Through working in close partnership with organisations large and small, we’ve been witnessing a growing requirement for sustainability in the workplace. We commissioned the WORKTECH Academy report to explore how our services can support and nurture this valuable business need, but what we discovered is important for all organisations to consider.

“What is important to recognise is that the four typologies of a sustainable organisation are not mutually exclusive. Moneypenny, for example, has traits in all four. A Placemaker because our HQ was built with environmental goals in mind, a Changemaker because of our eco-pennies employee-led sustainable living group, which shaped our HQ and so much more since then. We are also classed as a Choice-giver as we invested in technology to make hybrid working a viable and successful option, and an Arbitrator, as we are engaging with the wider community and choosing to offset our UK carbon emissions.”

Picture: Moneypenny workplace graphic. Image credit: Moneypenny.

Article written by Bailey Sparkes | Published 31 March 2022

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