But let’s first look at some of the advantages of paying attention to the health of our planet Earth.
The benefits of building an environmentally sensitive enterprise
Going green can contribute to the company’s development in several aspects.
Cost reduction
It brings benefits for the company in cutbacks and profit preservation. Businesses should choose to rely on energy efficiency instead of wasteful and irrational resource usage. They will then save on finances and reinvest in more critical expenses. Switching to renewable energy options for powering essential business equipment is one way to achieve it. Other ways include recycling, digitalizing documents, or electing suppliers with eco-friendly standards.
Positive Image
Running an environmentally friendly business facilitates the building and maintenance of its positive reputation. As a company in general, as a partner, and as an employer. People see environmentally aware companies as more empathetic and caring towards nature. Thus, this vision of care helps them in building relationships with different stakeholders. However, what truly strengthens an enterprise’s advantageous perception is giving back to nature, society, and its well-being.
Employee engagement
Businesses can engage their people in more green initiatives for nature preservation. This helps with team unity and loyalty. As a result, the retention rate increases, and internal communication improves. Not to mention the educational benefit of creating habits that employees can then put in place in their everyday lives.
Overall, a business could kill many birds with one stone. Let us look at a few examples of big corporations’ contributions to the green movement.
HOW TECH GIANTS ARE SHOWING THEIR CARE FOR NATURE
GOOGLE RELIES ON ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATIONS
The American tech giant leverages its technological advancement to help the environment. For example, its Wildlife Insights tool helps conservationists protect species from extinction with AI. The program was announced in 2019 and it is part of Google Earth Outreach’s Nature Conservation. The aim is to save conservation experts and locals time and effort for image analysis.
Another green initiative is the Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE). The tool aids cities to make effective decisions about climate data. For instance, Google Maps data can estimate the energy consumption and the emissions of buildings. It can also assess the rooftop solar potential. All that is possible thanks to high-resolution imagery and AI.
HP FOCUSES ON CARBON EMISSIONS REDUCTION AND EDUCATION
In April 2021, HP announced an ambitious action plan for combating climate change issues. It concentrates on zero carbon emissions, circularity, and creating partnerships with forest restoration and ocean conservation organizations. One of its goals is to reach 75% of products and packages’ circularity by 2030. This would be possible by reducing the usage of toxic substances in manufacturing products. For example – cartridges, producing energy-efficient printers and introducing a carbon footprint calculator.
In addition, HP engages its employees in sustainability through its Eco-Advocate Program. This is a monthly web program, and podcast that educates employees on the green aspects of HP products, operations, and other assets. Additionally, HP allows employees to take time off to do community service. Thus, they feel like they can make a positive difference.
RECYCLING, INNOVATIONS, AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES ARE LENOVO’S TOP PRIORITIES
Lenovo tries to assist its customers on their sustainability journey through innovations. The latter includes liquid cooling in servers. On the one hand, this ensures higher energy efficiency. On the other hand, it allows better performance for research institutions like Harvard University.
Moreover, the Lenovo Foundation helps communities affected by climate increase resiliency against natural disasters and supports projects that aim to maintain access to food and water for communities predicted to be most heavily impacted by climate change.
APPLE CAMP, CONSERVING MANGROVES, AND SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS
Apart from its standard product efficiency efforts, the tech company organizes the curious Apple Camp. This is a free program for children and families taking place in Apple’s stores around the world. Its goal is to encourage families to create and learn about protecting and celebrating Planet Earth. It happens through interactive sessions.
Another green initiative the tech giant has started this year is supporting the conservation of mangrove forests in India. These efforts protect local livelihoods and the environment. Mangroves are one of Earth’s most natural protectors against the impacts of climate change. They absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their biomass and soil.
dell emphasizes plantinG trees, supply chain sustainability, and recycling
Have you heard of Plant a Tree? In 2008, Dell established the program to plant 1 million trees by 2020. With the help of customers, the company reached the Million Tree Challenge goal three years in advance. This initiative reduced Dell’s carbon footprint, restored native tree species, and helped in the protection of natural wildlife habitats.
One more green initiative of Dell’s Advancing Sustainability plan is to reuse or recycle a product for every equivalent product bought by a customer by 2030. The organization also aims to have 100% of its packaging and more than half of its product content made from recycled or renewable material.
samsung organizes an annual world water day event
It’s not hard to guess that as a tech enterprise Samsung Electronics follows the same trends and implements similar practices to its abovementioned competitors. A sustainable supply chain, reduction of GHG, resource efficiency, and environmentally friendly products all fall within its green initiatives list.
What’s curious about the leading ICT manufacturer’s PlanetFirst mission is the World Water Day Event. Every year, on the 22nd of March, team members from all Samsung worksites gather and perform activities that help for the presentation of streams and ocean ecosystems. For example, cleaning beaches or delivering workshops on water education. Not only employees but also local communities, civic groups and academia support these water conservation campaigns.
The Accedia way to a greener tomorrow
There is a clear need for greener work environments and the introduction of eco-friendly ideas that involve employees. At Accedia, we have established and integrated eco-friendly practices into our daily office life and procedures in a few directions.
ELECTRONIC LABOUR FILES
It almost sounds scary that the global demand for pulp and paper is expected to double by 2060 and around 93% of paper comes from trees. On average, it takes about 8 trees to produce 1,000 pounds of paper. The environmental impact of replacing paper with digital services could be impressive. The leading eSignature provider DocuSign estimated that its electronic signature service has reduced approximately 837 tons of paper – or more than 14,000 trees.
Given the abovementioned facts, at Accedia we have taken a step towards a paperless office. And we are proud that every employee has their own e-Labour file. The e-Labour file is electronic storage that contains all signed documents between Employee and Employer in a digital format. These include labour contracts, annexes, agreements, declarations, etc.
Each employee uses a qualified electronic signature (QES) for signing all such documents. The process is remote, easy, and most importantly – paperless. This significantly reduces the number of printed documents. Also, every team member has access to the documents they have signed electronically. They can download or review them at any time as well as trace the history of the signature date and other details. That way, we not only save costs but also maximize facility space. Also, we increase security and productivity. All that while protecting the environment by reducing generated waste.
COMPLIANT WITH THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Accedia has in place an Integrated Management System (IMS) in compliance with various international standards. The most relevant to the topic is the EMS (Environmental Management System), ISO 14001:2015. It shows our commitment to reducing the negative impacts of our operations on planet Earth’s well-being. Among the core principles of our environmental policy are pollution prevention, efficient resources usage, waste reduction, maintaining eco-friendly technical infrastructure, and constant improvement.
RECYCLING
We believe we can make a difference by cutting back on the usage of items such as straws. In addition, our welcome package includes a notebook and a pen made of recycled materials. We also switched from paper cups with lids to glass cups only.
Separate containers for recycling are on every floor of our office premises. The six types of materials that are being recycled are glass, plastic and metal, paper, plastic caps, batteries, and cans. The plastic bottle cups are being donated to the “Caps for Future” action program. It aims to raise funds for newborn hospital equipment.
REDUCED WASTE BINS
Within most open spaces in the corporate environment, offices place a waste bin for every employee. Whereas at Accedia, you may find one or a maximum of two waste bins per room, which encourages our people to generate less waste in general. This works subconsciously on a few levels. The person is urged to get up and go to the bin, instead of just leaning to the left or right to throw their waste out. So, on the one hand, movement is encouraged. On the other hand, it makes one think about the quality of waste they generate.
SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN
Embracing green logistics surely has an impact on carbon emissions reduction. In this regard, eco-friendly delivery is one more green initiative we are truly proud of. The company we work with for our office supplies transports the goods by electrical vehicles. Another simple yet important step we have taken in this direction is to organize the orders in such a way that we only have one delivery per week.
ENCOURAGE GREEN COMMUTING TO WORK
On the one hand, Accedia stimulates travelling to and from work by public transport. Every employee that has 10 or more visits to the office per month receives a bonus to their salary. It is in the amount equal to one public transport card for the whole urban network.
On the other hand, our flexible benefits package allows team members to choose Spark vouchers for electric car sharing. This allows them to move around the city in a sustainable way.
In addition to that, the bike storage located in our office premises facilitates our people to make a greener and more conscious vehicles choice.
MAXIMIZATION OF NATURAL LIGHT
According to the World Green Building Council, employees who work near sunlit windows show a 15% higher production rate. The Accedia office is in a modern building that has enough floor-to-ceiling windows. They let natural light shine over people’s desks. By relying more on natural light, we also save energy.
GREEN INTRAPRENEURSHIP AND EVENTS
We highly stimulate our people to propose ideas and then help their realization. This provides them with the opportunity to build intrapreneurship skills. Thematically, a good example is our IDC Skill-Sharing Initiative. It turns our team members’ innovative ideas into working software solutions. This year’s 7th season entitled “Green Future” gives bonus points to projects for environmental preservation.
In addition to that, several events such as cleanup days and tree planting are organized every year. In this way, we show our support for the environment and make a significant contribution.
Green seeds for thought instead of conclusion
To conclude, businesses should focus their efforts on reducing their environmental impact in various aspects. From energy efficiency and renewable energy sources through carbon emissions removal to introducing green practices within the office spaces. All these would educate and engage their team members. It is important to monitor the current initiatives and strive for improvements by generating new green ideas. Being less dependent on natural resources not only cuts down on costs but also works for the positive image of the company in the eyes of its potential employees, customers, vendors, and other stakeholders.
If you consider yourself a nature lover and appreciate green initiatives in your office environment, go ahead and check out our open positions here: Careers – Accedia