EnviroSustain’s overriding mission is to support our clients in the pursuit of their ESG and decarbonisation goals. Naturally then, we take our own ESG performance incredibly seriously and try to make improvements wherever possible.
Here are some of the things we do to reduce our impact on the planet, make EnviroSustain a great place to work, and give back to our community:
Travel:
We avoid air travel, especially within Germany, where possible and use trains for business travel. Where necessary, we will use cars/hire cars, with preference given to electric vehicles. As of 2021, we have four company cars, three of which are electric and the other, a conventional engine, due to the limited EV infrastructure in our colleague’s region.
We have also recently introduced JobRad, a bicycle leasing scheme, which allows our employees to lease a bike from the company and purchase it at a discounted rate after the lease ends. By encouraging an active lifestyle like cycling and walking for commuting and leisure, we aim to reduce our emissions as a business and to encourage a healthier and happier team.
We support remote working – we have 6 nationalities in the team (German, British, French, Belgian, Polish, Chilean). Working remotely while visiting family is also an option and is often taken up by staff. With our team spread across 9 locations, in Germany and the UK. This allows for a flexible approach to work and reduces the need for long commutes.
Our offices:
In 2021 we switched our facilities management to an environmentally friendly cleaning company – Die Bioputzer – who use natural/biodegradable solutions, and who make sustainability a priority in all their operations.
Our Berlin offices also use a green energy supplier for our electricity. We provide education and training to all staff about the importance of energy conservation – turning off lights and electronic devices when not in use – particularly at the end of the day and at the weekend.
We use a sustainable supplier for all office materials, and source our office furniture from a local second-hand business. We have opted for the most durable electronic equipment with our IT service provider and try to avoid replacing devices unless absolutely necessary. We have set Ecosia, the green search engine, as our default and encourage all employees to use it.
Food:
We encourage vegetarian and vegan options when catering for meetings and staff gatherings, meat options, if available, tend to be chicken rather than beef or pork, which are more carbon intensive. When working with external catering services, we focus on local and organic produce and support local, independent businesses where possible.
We provide lunch reimbursements to employees who use the office crockery instead of single use containers when buying lunch on the go.
Support and donations:
Giving back to our community where we can is really important to us, and we try to give both our time and money generously. Here are some of the causes we support:
Monthly donations:
Rettet den Regenwald e.V.: The German NPO Rainforest Rescue is dedicated to rainforest protection. With our monthly contribution, we support their purchases of plots of rainforest land in Peru, so they are protected from illegal logging and recognised as protected areas.
Plant-for-the-Planet: Prompted in 2007 by a nine-year-old boy’s call to all children to plant a million trees in each country, Plant-for-the-Planet was born. Since then, more than 91,666 children have educated each other in over 1,608 academies in 75 countries to become ambassadors for climate equality. They fight for their future by planting trees, holding talks, protests and much more. We support their work with a monthly donation.
Atmosfair: Atmosfair is an independent, non-profit climate protection organisation that promotes the offsetting of greenhouse gases caused by air travel through renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. We support Atmosfair with a regular monthly donation.
Fundraisers:
German Children’s Fund: The German Children’s Fund has been campaigning for the rights of children in Germany for more than 45 years. Overcoming child poverty and the participation of children and young people in all matters affecting them are at the heart of their work as a children’s rights organisation. Our monthly donation supports the organisation’s work to contribute to a warm and festive season for children in need.
NABU Berlin e.V: The local branch of the Nature & Biodiversity Conservation Union runs a range of important environmental conservation projects in Germany’s capital. Our donation last year supported the wild bird station, which rehabilitates injured wild birds and the Biesenhorster outwash plain, which is home to a large number of endangered animal and plant species.
Other support:
Ecologi: We signed up as a Climate Positive Workforce with Ecologi, which has enabled us to offset the emissions from our team’s personal and professional lives by planting tree and funding climate projects. For our 20th anniversary celebrations in November 2021, we also planted 20,000 trees with Ecologi. You can read more about this here.
More City Trees for Berlin Campaign: In 2020, we contributed trees to the campaign, whose mission, led by the Berlin Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, is to plant many more trees in the city with the help of corporate and private donations to improve urban well-being and environmental quality as well as increase urban liveability for its residents.
Stadtradeln: Our team got involved in the international wide City Cycling campaign by cycling 600km collectively. The aim of the campaign is to encourage as many people as possible to switch to riding their bicycle in their everyday lives. With their campaign, Stadtradeln raises awareness of the multiple benefits of cycling, including climate protection and improved health.
Fridays for Future: We support the youth-led global climate strike movement and regularly attend climate strike marches in Berlin.
Since our 20th anniversary last year, we have pledged to have more of a positive impact as a business and to support our clients with the same goal. We have more plans for 2022 including a staff health and wellbeing survey, increased staff benefits, volunteering opportunities, to name a few. We look forward to keeping you updated on these throughout the year.
