What we do as a business to reduce our carbon footprint

Following World Earth Day, at Training Qualifications UK, we have been reflecting on what we currently do as a business and what more we can do to reduce our carbon footprint.  

For those who may not know, World Earth Day was on 22nd April and is an annual event to demonstrate support for environmental protection. With this year’s theme being ‘Invest in Our Planet’, we couldn’t think of a more crucial reason to emphasise the importance of looking after our environment. 

The more we cut down on our carbon emissions, the more we ensure we have clearer air, water and food for our generation and future generations to come. 

There are dozens of little changes we have made in the past few years at TQUK to make sure our lifestyle at work makes a real difference to help conserve energy, reduce waste and save water. Here are just a few: 

• Our Cycle 2 Work scheme – We offer our employees the option to cycle to work, this includes a 20% discount on any bike to encourage this way of transport. It has been proven that cycling to work can save at least 90% of CO2 emissions compared to if you drove. It is also great for your mental health as you get your blood pumping! 
• Our Hub, Home and Roam policy – This allows our staff to work remotely, meaning they’re not commuting and therefore reducing their carbon footprints.  
• Reducing our electricity bill in the office – We try to keep our lights low or even off in the summer to reduce our electricity. This energy saving is both good for the environment and good for the bottom line! 
• We try to be paperless when possible – For example, we offer e-certificates and recommend these to our centres as this helps reduce our environmental impact by decreasing the amount of paper we use. 
• Encouraging employees to use less plastic – A few months ago, we encouraged our employees to bring their lunch into the office in something that wasn’t plastic. This was a bit of a challenge, but it brought awareness of how often we use plastic in our day to day lives.  

Even though these things are small, they make a BIG difference. However, we also recognise that we should and could be doing more. With this in mind, our Head of Regulatory Compliance, Patrick Giles and our Compliance Manager, Chris Clark, attended the AELP Green Skills Summit in Birmingham. They listened to all the challenges facing our Centres, Training Providers, and local government in achieving sustainability goals and developing green skills. This gave us plenty of inspiration for things we want to achieve in the upcoming year. For example, we are currently undertaking a review of our carbon emissions and footprint, developing a carbon reduction plan and working towards setting a date to be net zero.  

Patrick Giles, our Head of Regulatory Compliance, when asked about plans to reduce our carbon footprint here at TQUK, said, ‘‘As a company that not only works in the education sector but prides itself on its willingness to learn, it would be remiss not to look at what we can teach others and learn for ourselves. We will be ensuring that our staff have the green skills they need to be responsible members of our global society. We’ll be reflecting on our qualifications, both those in review and in development, to ensure that applicable green skills form part of them. In the same way there is a continued push to ensure that people have digital skills in order not only to survive but thrive, the same must be done for green skills.’’