Stephen Dracup, COO at Chess, explains how Chess celebrated Earth Day. He covers:
Earth day is an annual cultural day to raise awareness about the environmental challenges we face and to inspire people to make changes in their daily lives that will have a positive impact on our planet. Whether it's reducing our carbon footprint, conserving water, or supporting local eco-friendly businesses, every action counts.
Chess and ESG
ESG is short for Environmental, Social and Governance. It is a set of standards measuring a business's impact on society, the environment, and how transparent and accountable it is.
Over the last few years, Chess has made huge steps in reducing its carbon footprint. One of the biggest successes has been the move to Home First where over 95% of our people work from home. The move to Home First and Hybrid Working has allowed us to significantly reduce our office space and has almost eliminated the daily commute to work.
Technology is at the core of any modern business and, if applied effectively, can often help businesses improve their ESG. Implementing the right technology, with ESG in mind, can help you build a sustainable, resilient organisation, while driving operational costs down.
Blog
The role of technology in ESG
Read Now
Earth Day 2023
This year, our Green Team shared information, research, resources, and tips and tricks each day of the week.
Monday – Our people shared the history of Earth Day, what it is and why we celebrate.
Tuesday – The Green Team shared useful information and resources on plastic pollution and recycling. We also launched our Declutter challenge where our people had a spring clean and donated unwanted items to charity, sold them online or offered them free to their community on OLIO.
Wednesday – We’ve got a huge planet to look after and that might seem daunting, so we focused on celebrating our local environment. We shared pictures of our gardens, the plants we have that are best for bees, and lots of fun activities to get our children involved in.
Thursday – Focus was on building sustainable fashion. Our people shared information on what fast fashion is, why it’s bad for our planet and how to create a more sustainable wardrobe.
Friday – We looked back at our pledges from last year and asked our people to make a 2023 Green Pledge.
Video Panel
ESG vs Budgets
In this Future Insight Technology exclusive panel the leaders in the technology industry will talk about how technology can help you build a sustainable, resilient organisation, while driving operational costs down.
Watch Now >
Our People’s Pledges
As part of Earth Day in 2022, we launched a Green Pledge. Our people could pledge to make changes to improve their environmental impact and reduce their carbon footprints. Over 50 people made a pledge last year, and we’ve caught up with a few of them:
Martin Bacon, Consultants Team Leader
I pledge to start growing my own vegetables (and chillies!), build a bee house & reduce heating and energy usage.
The chillies worked out well and used on a regular basis but no luck with the vegetables, I need to build a dedicated patch which I am planning for when the weather gets better (plus having 3 dogs means not having raised beds was a bit risky!)
Our Bee house is in situ and although a slow start has been used, have some pupae in there so hopefully will start seeing some soon. I’ve also invested in a wild garden seed pack that I’m going to put in the corner of the garden to attract more butterflies and bees.
Heating and Energy usage although it now costs more, I did use less which is good. Having a smart meter installed really help keep an eye on usage and budget better.
Laura Gagon, Operational Change Manager
My pledge is to reduce my car weekly car journeys by 4 school runs per week - this means walking to school on my days off and working from home rather than jumping in the car. I also pledge to reduce my meat intake by having 1 meat-free day per week.
I have reduced my car journey’s on the school run 50%, working from home has helped hugely with this. Rather than meat free days – I have been switching meals including meat to meat alternatives or just not adding the meat at all!
Saqib Ali, Financial Accountant
I pledge to have one meat free day a week, reducing food waste, ride bike or walk more for short journeys instead of driving and continue with growing our own.
I am sticking to one meat free day a week and also fasting for a month with little meat intake during that time. My car millage has reduced by 30% as I started to drive less and walking more where I can. Food waste reduction is still work in progress and looking to restart growing own produce in the new house this year.
We provide consultancy, delivery, adoption and support for a wide range of products and services that make it easy to work securely anywhere, anytime. If you would like to discuss any of these solutions or simply understand how we can help you, contact our expert team and book your FREE technology consultation today.
