THE PLANET: THE ONLY TRUE RESOURCE
The interviews are part of the European Best Workplaces Guide 2011
You can download the guide for free here The Work Style Magazine
WE HAVE SPENT THE PAST 60 YEARS FILLING OUT THE PLANET new cities, new factories, new buildings, new facilities. Now we are at a point where the planet should be reclaimed. We can (almost) all agree that companies will have to be more careful with environment preservation.
But what can companies positively do to respect our planet? At Tetrapak they really care for the environment, as Gianmaurizio Cazzarolli, HR Director explains: “We believe in responsible industry leadership, creating profitable growth in harmony with environmental sustainability and good corporate citizenship. Our strategy is to reduce CO2 emissions. We optimize our energy consumption thanks to our building automation system. We invest in renewable energies, installing solar and photovoltaic panels that produce green energy.” At Tetrapak they also work with mobility management, as Cazzarolli explains: “Today our bus shuttle is part of the urban transportation of Modena and an average of 50 employees use this service every day. Our ultimate goal is that all wood fibre in our packages shall come from certified forests, managed in accordance with principles of sustainable forest management. In 2010, 80% of our packages had the FSC Certification.”
At Eurofirms they believe that companies can do a lot by spreading a value of respect within their staff as manager Miguel Jordà says: “Companies can act as spearheads promoting solid values between staff, both in executive and non-executive profiles. One of these values is respect.” He adds: “This consists of very effective and very meticulous work at the same time. If we perform a very careful selection of every employee in the company, and we adopt a good behavior to instill some values, including respect, all employees will adopt a respectful attitude towards everything that surrounds them.”
At CB Richard Ellis environmental respect is taken very seriously as HR Director Deirdre Bodley tells us: ”CB Richard Ellis is the only company in our sector to achieve carbon neutrality, thanks to the collective efforts of individuals and teams across the globe. In EMEA, we have contributed to reducing our carbon footprint significantly: over 90% of our offices now have recycling programs in place and innovative local office initiatives are helping us become even more environmentally responsible.“ But according to Bodley there’s still a lot to be done.”
At Admiral Group they have put in place various initiatives to respect the planet. HR Director Ceri Assirattishares: “We have recycling plans – nobody has waste bins – we all have recycling points in every office. We are creating a new building and we want to make sure that is the most environmentally friendly building possible.” They also work with mobility as Assiratti reveals: “We have also started a bike plan so that people can avoid using their own transportation, and we are also promoting a carpool plan, which we try to fill a car instead of having people using many different cars when moving for business.”
”As a strategic goal for 2012, we will have all our factories where insulin is produced powered by wind energy,” says Patrizia Fogheri HR Directorat NovoNordisk. She continues: “We changed our ‘car policy.’ All our cars have CO2 emissions limits, so that not only does the lease payment make a difference but also the reduction of CO2 emissions does. We are also providing a policy to reduce travel costs and the impact of air travel.” She finishes: “We also have a campaign with zero CO2 which certifies all the materials that we produce.”
Simon Linares, Group HR Director at Telefonica states: “Telefonica recognizes that its business has an impact on the environment – hence, we offer business smart technology and flexible working which deliver significant carbon savings.“ He offers an example: “Our new Telefónica European HQ in the UK was built with sustainability at its heart. For example rainwater is captured and used for watering the plants and trees around the building. Pull printing will reduce the amount of paper and toner we use by at least 25 percent. It will also reduce our annual CO2 emissions by 113.5 tonnes.”
For other companies sustainability is at the heart of their mission as Danone’s HR Director Tanja Neuserexplains: “We have three main goals. The first one is reducing our CO2 footprint. We have two areas where CO2 has the biggest impact: logistics and PET. We want to replace trucks with trains. The other two ambitions are 1) water preservation with access to pure drinking water. We do this in collaboration with UNESCO and UNICEF; and 2) the protection of our core products; we work very closely with the local environment.“
For the nature of the business at Timothy James Consulting, the impact is less heavy, as Peter Bennet, owner of the company says: “We recognize that any small thing could make a difference, so we make sure that we do not waste paper printing documents. We make sure that all equipment and lights are turned off when we leave and we encourage employees to recycle.“ As for the future he reveals: “We try to cut down on travelling to reduce our emissions. We also encourage people to use public transportation instead of their own cars.“