Fat Beehive acknowledges the place that companies have in helping to reduce the impact that human society has on our environment, both in terms of the direct impact of their activities, but further to that, our secondary impacts through our purchasing of products and services, and the influence we can have on the environmental impacts of our employees.
This sustainability action plan aims to capture the impacts of the company, looking at environmental, social and economic impacts. We aim to set a baseline of impacts, then set actions for year-on-year improvements.
We have used a model based on One Planet Living, a model which uses ecological footprinting as its foundation. Ecological footprinting measures the impacts of resource use, pollution and waste and converts that into a land-based metric of our relative impact on the planet.
We have structured the plan around the ten key principles of One Planet Living.
Zero Carbon – Making buildings energy efficient and delivering all energy with renewable technologies
Zero Waste – Reducing waste, reusing where possible, and ultimately sending zero waste to landfill
Sustainable Transport – Reducing the need to travel, and encouraging low and zero-carbon modes of transport to reduce emissions
Sustainable Materials – Using sustainable and healthy products, such as those with low embodied energy, sourced locally, made from renewable or waste resources
Local and Sustainable Food – Supporting sustainable and humane farming, promoting access to healthy, low impact, local, seasonal and organic diets and reducing food waste
Sustainable Water – Using water efficiently in buildings, farming and manufacturing. Designing to avoid local issues such as flooding, drought and watercourse pollution
Landuse and Wildlife – Protecting and restoring biodiversity and creating new natural habitats through good land use and integration into the built environment
Culture and community – Respecting and reviving local identity, wisdom and culture; encouraging the involvement of people in shaping their community and creating a new culture of sustainability
Equity and local economy – Creating bioregional economies that support equity and diverse local employment and international fair trade
Health and Happiness – Encouraging active, sociable, meaningful lives to promote good health and well being.
Sustainability champions
We have a nominated team of sustainability champions who help to monitor our activities and run one-off actions.
The team meets on a quarterly basis to review our progress against the plan. There is also a dedicated Slack channel to share learning.
2020 – 2021 Sustainability Action Plan
Zero carbon
Energy source
- Fat Beehive uses Ecotricity for our gas and electricity, they have the lowest carbon output per kW of any supplier in the UK.
Energy efficiency
- All our light bulbs are energy efficient
- When sourcing appliances we choose triple A+ rating.
Actions for this year
- Install smart Nest thermostat that will allow users to turn on gas central heating through an app if they are going in to the office
- Powerflush radiators to improve performance
Zero Waste
Reduce
- Fat Beehive operates a low-paper use environment, choosing to use computers for accessing documents and sending documents via email rather than post
- We aim to buy quality products that last
- For our Secret Santa, we request that staff buy quality items that are not “throwaway” one-time joke gifts!
- We do not give away novelty items at trade shows
- We purchase electronic equipment with an upgrade path in mind that is based on new software and upgrading memory rather than replacing entire devices
- We buy cleaning products in bulk to reduce packaging waste.
Reuse
- We keep a store of plastic bags that staff can take when they shop
- We use rechargeable batteries in our appliances.
Recycle
- We recycle paper, card, cans, tins, plastic
- We send our toner cartridges to be recycled
- Waste Electronic and Electrical goods are sent to a plant where they are refurbished and reused where possible, if not then the materials are recycled.
Actions for this year
- Target to increase our recycling rate
- Investigate composting our food waste
Sustainable transport
Business travel
- Fat Beehive uses public transport for 100% of the business travel
- We provide Oyster cards for transport by TFL within the London region
- We reduce the need for travel by making use of video conferencing and cloud communication services
- We provide details of how to get to the office via public transport to our clients and suppliers.
Staff travel for commuting to work
- We allow home-working to reduce the need to travel providing cloud services to aid communication
- There is no car parking provided for staff or clients
- There is no mileage refund scheme provided for car travel
- There is no scheme for company cars.
Actions for this year
- Encourage take up of cycle scheme
Sustainable materials
- We purchase second-hand items where possible such as our office chairs
- We opt for low embodied-energy materials with a good path for disposal – for example, the promotional pens we purchase are made from 100% plant materials and are biodegradable
- We purchase 100% recycled paper for printing, recycled notebooks and tissues.
Actions for this year
- Review list of suppliers and asses them for meeting sustainability criteria
Local and Sustainable Food
- We purchase organic / Fairtrade teas and coffees
- When catering for events for clients, where possible we purchase local, organic and low meat menus.
Actions for this year
- For staff meals investigate choosing restaurants with a strong focus on local, seasonal ingredients
Sustainable Water
- We use filtered tap water for clients, reducing the need to transport water from other locations using road vehicles
- We use cleaning products that are low in pollutants.
Land use and wildlife
Actions for this year
- Investigate the possibility of planting bee-friendly window boxes
Culture and Community
Actions for this year
- Investigate participation in local business forums
Equity and local economy
Fair wages
- Fat Beehive aims to set wages according to at least the local living wage, as defined by the Living Wage Foundation, of which we are a member
- When outsourcing to locations outside the UK we have taken advice from the Business Human Rights Resource Centre on paying a local living wage that compensates freelancers fairly while preventing skewing the market in favour of foreign companies
- For our cleaning contract, we request that the cleaners are paid the London living wage
- We buy fairtrade coffee and tea.
Equality and Diversity
- We have a written equality and diversity policy that states the protected characteristics – age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation
- Fat Beehive actively promotes and welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates. As a Disability Confident Employer, we advertise all roles through this network
- We actively seek requests for workplace adaptations to enable people with a disability to work to the best of their ability
- We actively promote a culture in which discrimination on the grounds of the protected characteristics is not tolerated
- We refuse to work with any client who shows evidence of discriminating on the grounds of the protected characteristics.
Local businesses
- We actively seek out suppliers which are local to Fat Beehive which we know improves the local economy and reduces transport emissions.
Actions for this year
- Review other suppliers and ask about living wage status
Health and Happiness
- We recognise the large effect that employment practices can have on the stress levels of employees – we aim to take steps to set up a culture where people have the right tools, time, knowledge and support to do their job effectively
- Fat Beehive actively promote a culture of finishing work on time and we provide holiday allowance above the statutory minimum, with the purpose of allowing a good work-life balance
- We provide access to a fortnightly neck and shoulder massage to prevent RSI
- We provide good quality, adjustable chairs to prevent poor posture.
Actions for this year
- Introduce Health and Wellbeing budgets to support staff health and wellbeing
- Review staff development / support processes