2011 was a year most remembered for massive upheaval and change the world over. Revolutions and riots aside, other far-reaching shifts also occurred, including Brazil overtaking the UK as the world’s sixth largest economy. Brazil, who’d have thunk it? With what were once ‘developing’ nations now consuming, spending, producing and polluting as the West does, something’s gotta give. So wide awake to the reality that there is no Planet B, the green team at Jacob Bailey have created a brand new Plan A for our operations.
We’ve always been very conscious of our effect on the environment and as a company we’ve taken proactive steps to reduce our impact on our planet’s resources. As London Environmental Manager I’ve kickstarted a number of new initiatives in accordance with our ISO14001 accreditation. Beyond recycling paper and card, we now also recycle all plastics and aluminium and only print on paper sourced from sustainable forests.
Since November, all of our office supplies are socially and environmentally kind: we keep alert with Fairtrade coffee, support Sao Toméan cocoa farmers with delicious hot chocolate, and treat our clients to organic biscuits. Even our cleaning products are plant-based, so unlike standard cleaning petrochemicals, they biodegrade and actually give back to the earth. Eco-logical!
We purposefully do not run a fleet of company cars, but instead cycle, walk, or take public transport to the office and meetings whenever possible. When those options aren’t practical, we’ll car/taxi share, which significantly reduces our carbon footprint.
In the eloquent words of Richard Branson, “Screw business as usual” – time is running out for a much-needed respectful, collective ethic and we at JB have made a proud stand to run a sustainable business. The team and our clients value working for and with a caring and responsible company, so we’ll continue to seek new ways to make our operations even greener throughout 2012.
