Should our Food System focus on Local?
Why Local Supply Chains should be Balanced with Longer Ones The UK’s food system is grappling supply chains challenges post-COVID with fuel and post-Brexit labour shortages. Throw into the mix the carbon impacts, as well as healthy diets and much of the chatter is...
World Bee Day: Beeing Beautiful in Business
For World Bee Day, here’s a few workplace based ideas on how you can support bees and engage your people at the same time. There are many benefits to your organisation which come with supporting insect pollinators.
Climate Action: Are Your Teams Experiencing Social Contagion?
Learn more about Social Contagion to develop effective Environmental Campaigns. You’ll be surprised by how few people need to believe a new concept for it to gain traction.
Why Planting Trees Won’t Solve the Climate Crisis
Is Carbon Offsetting the answer to the Climate Crisis? I’m asking the question; Can we plant our way out of trouble?
Creating an Attractive Environment for the Hospitality Worker
Retaining good staff in Hospitality and Catering is a challenge. What if you could provide your teams, no matter how large or small, with something which they all have in common. Here’s how.
World Food Day 2020
If you’re wasting food, there’s a lot of costs. You’re paying for more than just the food itself. You’re also paying to prepare it, for the energy to cook/process it and store it, and paying for someone else to take if off your hands as food waste. Read on for steps to reduce food losses in your processes.
The National Food Strategy Part One – A Missed Opportunity
The National Food Strategy Part One contains a massive, sorely disappointing ‘Elephant in the Room’ gap. With the short time-frame before runaway climate change, we do not have a year to waste, waiting for the Part Two review process to be completed.
COVID Crossroads – What Happens to Business After Lockdown?
COVID Crossroads – What Happens to Business After Lockdown? Blue skies, audible birdsong and cleaner waterways may only be a temporary feature which will reverse after lockdown. We are already getting used to seeing more cars on the roads again. Worryingly, people are...
Three Steps to Building Resilience and Sustainability Post COVID-19
Now is an ideal opportunity to re-assess business strategy and activities, bringing our reliance on a healthy planet into the mix. Businesses which use the lockdown experience to build sustainability into resilient strategies are the ones which will prevail.
Home Working and Environment – Top Tips
Whilst working from home, take this opportunity to consider the environment as you adjust to the new way of working.
These six top tips will give you some ideas about how to minimise your environmental impacts now and beyond the current crisis.
Coronavirus, Behaviour Change and the Environment
In this strange new Coronavirus reality, humanity has demonstrated that we can come together to adapt our behaviour. Changing behaviour, both at work and at home, is one of the greatest environmental challenges. This post reflects on the opportunity for a new workplace normal incorporating greater respect for a sustainable environment. Includes a consultation offer for businesses.
Reducing Domestic Food Waste and Other Food Impacts
The Size of the Domestic Food Waste Problem Imagine something ludicrous! Imagine an area the size of China was being used to cultivate food which went straight in the bin. Actually, change that. Image all that food was processed, shipped by air or sea, sent to...
Tackling Food Waste in the Food Sector
Food Waste Impacts There’s a Climate Emergency going on and what we don’t eat has a lot to do with it. Whether you work in the food sector or are a consumer, we all eat and therefore, everyone of us has a role to play in the food system. With vast quantities of food...
How NOT to Implement an Environmental Change; Comment on Stoke-on-Trent Solar Panels
Change takes time. The majority of this time should be in the planning and consultation, thus enabling a swifter, more satisfactory implementation stage.
Sadly, the lack of planning and respect for the residents in the Stoke-on-Trent solar panels case does reputational damage to the whole renewables industry.
Climate Action, Greta Thunberg and a Boat Trip
Young Climate Change Activist Roughing Negative Press There’s been a lot of controversy over Greta Thunberg’s recent sailing across the Atlantic to New York. She’s due to attend the UN Climate Action Summit later in September. The 16 year old, who has greater courage...
Design Thinking for Sustainable Business
Sustainable Business and Design Thinking Work on planning new developments has taught me one thing is for sure. Achieving your business goals and sustainable outcomes cannot be done in isolation. Both are necessary elements for ensuring a secure and resilient future....
Inspiring Leaders
Inspiring Leadership – It’s Inside All of Us “Have you ever had a bad boss?” That was the opening line at a speaker event I recently attended. Most of the people in the room sheepishly raised their hands. It’s sad, but not surprising there’s so many of them out there....
Travel Planning for Work
Travel Plans for the Workplace and Clean Air Zones ‘Easy wins’ are things you can achieve with great results, especially when they are not too complex or costly to implement. A Workplace Travel Plan is part of sustainability planning which can reap rewards – with a...
Windows of Opportunity
The recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report paints a grim picture of the planet’s future, yet at the same time there’ is still room for optimism. We have a window of opportunity to respond to the global environmental challenges which humanity...
You Only Know What You Know!
England football fever may be over, but there’s much for Gareth Southgate to build on following his team’s wonderful foray as far as the semi-finals. Plus, I learnt a valuable lesson under the heading “You Only Know What You Know.” Learning from a Failed Event I’m old...
Review Attitude to Sustainability with an Employee Engagement Survey
Sustainability and the Survey Introducing a Sustainability Programme needs commitment, not just from the management. To be truly meaningful, everyone in the organisation should be on board and involved. But do you know what your employees are thinking? An employee...
The Importance of Communicating the Environmental Message
If you’ve been tasked with ‘Environment’, the chances are communication won’t be your top skill. Whether you gained the role as an add-on to Health and Safety, or it’s your qualification or because it’s your personal interest, communicating the environmental message...
Behaviour – The Critical Factor
Understanding How Critical Behaviours Enable Change If you want the people around you to change, you need to understand exactly how you want them to perform differently. That applies to both sustainability actions and any other daily activities. To...
How to Use the Sustainable Development Goals for Business
Using Sustainable Development Goals for Business Introducing the Goals If you haven’t heard of the goals per se, let alone, how you can use the Sustainable Development Goals for business, you’re not alone. And yet, the goals are an amazing tool for creating a sense of...
Be WasteSmart and Manage Your Compliance Requirements
Are You Clear on Your Waste Compliance Requirements? You Might be Breaking the Law! TWO THIRDS of UK businesses are not compliant with waste regulation. Many simply don’t know they have to be and others may not be keeping up with the latest regulation. Are you one of...
Reducing Food Waste and Associated Costs – A Sustainability Case Study
Reducing Food Waste; A Sustainability Case Study Developing a System and a Culture Within an Organisation Food waste is a particular bug-bear of mine. When you consider that here in the UK, £13 billion worth of perfectly good food is thrown away every year . ...
What Will YOU Do about Plastic Waste?
Plastic Waste - What will YOU do about it? During the holiday break, I received a personal email from an acquaintance about plastic waste. It simply had a link – this one – and the words "What will YOU do about it?" In this article, you will read an update of the...
Will Your Business Benefit from ISO14001 Update?
There’s no question that investing in ISO14001 is a major commitment. To fulfil the requirements of the ISO14001 update entails time, resources and people. Invest in Results If you are making these investments into your business, you should be asking, “What are the...
The Environment – Reasons to be Optimistic
Good Thing are Happening Now When it comes to the environment and business, there are a lot of positives happening. Improved technologies and a genuine human desire to achieve the global goals set on the international arena all provide reasons for optimism. But you...
Transition from ISO14001:2004 to ISO14001:2015
ISO14001 - The Environmental Management System Standard For many organisations, international standards are viewed as an essential part of their workplace practices. Alongside Quality Standards and Health and Safety, the Environmental Management System supports vital...