Commercial has announced that its Change Champions Team 17 has launched the DONation programme. DONation helps companies to tap into their employees' competitive spirit while reducing environmental impacts. It's an interactive pledging platform that combines education and motivation to help employees, and in turn the business, meet sustainability objectives.
Six teams across the business are making small lifestyle changes, each of which has a carbon saving attached to it.Each team member makes one or more pledges for two months and priority pledges include Smart Drive – driving more efficiently and getting more miles out of the tank; Do Diet – cutting extra calories by not eating cheese or chocolate for example; Fantastic Unplastic – avoiding extra packaging with reusable containers; Lose Your Bottle – cutting down on alcohol, and Rad Reflections – fitting home radiators with reflective foil to save energy.
Simone Hindmarch, Co-founder and MD of Commercial said, "we chose the DONation programme because it's an engaging and fun online tool that shows the Commercial team how making small changes to their daily lives can reduce their own personal carbon footprint. There arealso a host of other health and environmental benefits. It can be hard, as an individual, to feel as if you can actually make a difference to these major global issues, and DONation has created a platform where you can see and understand the contribution you are making. So far, we've had 407 pledges, which amount to 14,668kg of carbon, across the business."
Commercial has been taking positive action to reduce emissions for nearly 12 years. During that time it has achieved significant reduction in its carbon footprint, adopting sustainable working practices including the introduction of a hydrogen-fuelled fleet and the use of renewable energy. The business has moved from 73 tonnes of CO2/£million turnover in 2006 to 20 tonnes of CO2/£million turnover in 2017. This means that for every £1 million of turnover gained in 2017 it emitted 73 per cent less carbon compared to 2006.
Simone added, "the project enables us to reduce carbon significantly, be positive agents for change, and influence the bigger picture. Our target for the end of March is to save 12 tonnes of carbon. Our teams have really engaged with the programme, and we're finding that when it's made easy for people, they really develop an appetite for sustainability. Watch this space."