There has been a lot of coverage in the media lately about single use plastic packaging and the effect it has on the environment. As a company, we take our responsibilities very seriously and this campaign has led to us examining our own policies and working practices to see if we could make any changes, no matter how small.
As a business, we try to look after our staff as much as possible. Our missions is "to provide professional courier services through our commitment to a happy work environment and outstanding customer service" and we do all we can to facilitate that happy work environment. One of the things that we do for our staff, is we provide them full access to all food and drink in the kitchen area. Until now, that has included providing bottles of water. We have identified this as something that we need to change.
Pictured above are a couple of the re-usable water bottles, that we will now be providing to all members of staff. The bottles come in a choice of pink or blue and we don't even mind who chooses which colours! Joking aside, we feel this is an essential step to reduce the amount of potential waste that we produce as a company. We will no longer purchase bottled water and we are actively encouraging staff to cease their own purchases of other bottle/can drinks whilst at work. We are now providing bottles of cordial in the kitchen, as an alternative to those members of staff who do not wish to drink plain water.
We are stretching this philosophy out further, in an attempt to all but eliminate single use packaging waste as a result of our business. We are also doing the following:
Providing travel mugs, so that staff do not need to purchase coffee on the go
Stocking alternative food items to those in single use/individual packaging
Educating and training our staff on this subject
Our Environmental Policy has now been updated to incorporate these new steps and values. A new section has been added to the policy and the latest version can be viewed here.
We are all responsible for cutting down on waste and protecting the environment for future generations. We will continue to look for other ways in which we can do our part.