Towards a more ecological future, one chopstick at a time
26.9.2019 • Frantic • Reading time 2 min
The technology industry is one of the bigger energy consumers. This means that environmental actions, big and small, are needed now. All of us are responsible for creating a more sustainable future on every scale.
Change requires both political action, as well as decisions made by companies and individuals. In order to make these changes in an agile and effective way, we created an environmental sustainability team at Frantic.
When it comes to sustainability, we believe in the so-called snowball effect: that small actions make it easier to tackle big challenges. We analyzed our operations and created an action plan based on them. Our employees have played a great role in this. We asked everyone to contribute and pitch in with their ideas on how to make our everyday life at the office more sustainable.
One example of the grassroots level actions we’ve conducted was to say goodbye to disposable cutlery. We noticed that many of our employees grab takeaway sushi lunches from the local supermarket, and we had a lot of disposable chopsticks in our food waste container. We bought some reusable chopsticks for our kitchen, as well as bottles of soy sauce to eliminate the need for single-use sauce packages. With this simple step, we were able to get rid of a lot of unnecessary waste and quickly put into practice the suggestion that came from our employees.
When changes can be executed quickly, it encourages people to think up new ways of improving our sustainability. We want to take environmental issues from abstractions to everyday actions. This helps them become a part of a much bigger change, both at home and around the office.
Keeping the big picture in sight
Sustainability in the IT sector requires big changes most of all. These changes include reducing energy consumption and switching to renewable energy sources. We encourage our office property owner to move towards renewable energy. This is a crucial step. We aim to reduce work-related car travel by favoring public transport and encouraging remote working, which has been a part of our culture for a long time anyway. We are carefully considering the need for flying for business and we offset the emissions from our employees’ business travel yearly.
We also recycle all our waste and opt for certified organic products, and meals at the office always include inviting vegetarian options. We hope that through our sustainability team we can put together and participate in different events and take sustainability into consideration with new operations.
The climate strike today, 27 September, is a good reminder for businesses that we are all responsible for the environment. We encourage everyone to take on the challenge and make sustainability a part of their everyday operations.
