Month: October 2023

Here’s a helping of Hallowe’en environmental horrors; sustainability demons that lurk, unseen in the shadows. But, in true 100 Ways in 100 Days fashion, here are some quick and practical actions to drive a stake through their metaphorical hearts. Or at least brandish the garlic at them with gusto.

Ta-dah, a few ways to help save the planet – and save money too…

Vampire energy

… is the energy consumed by thermostats, clocks, dashboards, adaptors and more (including smart products), all on 24/7. They suck low levels of power, even on standby – and can account for 9-16% of electricity use.

Culprits include monitors, lights, water coolers, microwaves, phone chargers, TVs and games consoles.

Vampire energy accounts for around 1% of the world’s total carbon emissions. Cutting it in half (in the US alone) is equivalent to turning off the carbon emissions of Jordan or Lebanon.

It also costs individuals and businesses a lot of money.

Easy tips to get started:

Set up a team of vampire hunters today to check out the evils in your workplace. Work out what could – and should – be turned off or unplugged. A journalist from Wired magazine did just that – and found a 30% saving on his bills.

Dark data

Digital data is NOT carbon neutral, as often assumed. Data storage takes up space on servers, consumes significant electricity and has a sizeable & growing carbon footprint.

-The data industry is predicted to account for more carbon emissions than the automotive, aviation and energy sectors combined

-Up to 65% of data generated is never used

-One person creates 1.7mb of data a second. That equates to 10 full DVDs in a working day; monstrous!

It’s therefore crucial that organisations (and we as individuals) think about how to manage data so, together, we can minimize its digital carbon footprint.

Easy tips to get started:

Don’t just delete unwanted emails, unsubscribe – and don’t cc people into emails unless totally necessary.

Fighting the fiend that is food waste – and how to avoid a pumpkin graveyard

Uneaten and discarded food is one of the planet’s biggest offenders in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. If global food waste were a country, it would be THIRD LARGEST emitter after China and the US.

But there are plenty of quick and easy ways to avoid waste.

Easy tips to get started:

After you’ve pimped your pumpkin, download our recipe* for a scrumptious vegetarian, gluten-free, and dairy-free pumpkin pie, to share around the office or tuck in at home.

Why not dry out the seeds for a tasty, healthy snack too – and do compost the shell.

Let’s banish those Hallowe’en sustainability demons today!

*Credit and thanks: to BBC Good Food. This recipe is a mash-up of two different ones (pumpkin and pastry base).

The latest VETchat podcast from Anthony Chadwick, The Webinar Vet sees this tireless veterinary environmentalist and pioneer of online vet education chatting to 100 Ways in 100 Days founder Sue Skeats. Do grab a cuppa, sit back and settle in to this fascinating listen; it’s all about the vital importance of sustainability, especially within the veterinary profession.

Anthony and Sue have a lot in common; Sue reveals her previous regular involvement with the ‘pet and vet’ world’ and why she halted her previous successful career to champion sustainability.

They also talk about how 100 Ways educates employees through entertaining, memorable and thought-provoking, bite-sized ‘Ways’, empowering them to make small ‘green changes’ and improvements in their everyday lives.

‘Green’ practices: saving money and attracting employees

Anthony was surprised to learn about such simple eco-hacks as not using plastic pens. Then there were no-brainer fixes for such overlooked carbon ‘sucks’ such as ‘Vampire Energy’ (more of which later in this blog series!) Sue explains how a lot of the 100 Ways switches can also save money for organisations AND individuals, as well as helping the planet. And how having green credentials can make your company more attractive to employees. The pair also swap notes on her top three easy tips veterinary professionals can action straight away.

Sue’s ‘pet and vet’ background…

What’s only touched upon in the podcast is that Sue worked with numerous animal related clients in her previous life, owning and running a busy PR agency. From (eons ago) securing the front page of the Daily Mail for Petplan with Lucky Lulu the Labrador (who’d had a pioneering leg op) to more recently getting Digby, Britain’s first [miniature] guide horse for blind people onto national TV – to creating a village-wide hedgehog conservation project that was featured on Blue Peter, she’s done quite a lot.

Rather less cuddly were PR pushes for Boris and Carrie the tarantulas (to educate people on why crawlies aren’t creepy) and holding a photocall to promote an in-pack poop scoop for a dog food brand. The client’s thoroughbred canine models didn’t turn up so Sue had to race around Battersea Park until she found an understudy doggy to borrow. He turned out to be an ex-Battersea pooch and a gorgeous, tousle haired one at that; he melted the hearts of the hard-nosed media that were present.

She explains: “While I’ve well and truly had my sustainability hat on for a while now it’s been a total delight to dip back into the ‘pet and vet’ world; this time to talk about engaging employees through sustainability, in and out of the veterinary practice.

So, back to the podcast. Listen to the full episode now via the Webinar Vet website or simply search ‘VETchat’ on your preferred podcast platform.

Happy listening!

We are thrilled to announce our latest partnership with the University of Surrey, this time one that’s accelerating development of our 100 Ways in 100 Days™ e-learning modules, for international audiences.

They’re already designed to help people make small, everyday changes to reduce their environmental impact – and that’s a philosophy that makes deep sense wherever you are on planet Earth. However, what works in the UK won’t necessarily work overseas, for a myriad of reasons including: climate, religion, culture, maturity of sustainability thinking and infrastructure, governance and political will.

Local to global

So, with the support of the University, three exceptionally talented students have been feverishly researching and building additional layers of criteria and guiding principles into the foundations of the 100 Ways programme, to ensure module topics are relevant around the world. Crucially, these are now applied BEFORE module ideas are put into production. Then they’ll be turned into entertaining, informative and compelling videos, quizzes, games and more.

We’re hugely grateful for the University of Surrey’s support – and in particular to its IKEEP business support initiative, which has made everything possible.

Student Spotlight

So, ta-da! Let’s turn a spotlight on our superstar team. They came together, from different academic disciplines and different backgrounds to show what a combination of bright brains, diversity in thinking and unbridled enthusiasm can do…

**Mariam Abougabal** is a third year undergraduate student studying for a degree in economics and finance. She is the winner of the Top Academic Achiever award in the university’s School of Economics. Mariam, from Cairo, recently finished another assignment; helping refugees in Egypt as a voluntary Women’s Economic Empowerment Assistant (for the United Nations World Food Programme.

She is passionate about social impact and using her skills to help make a difference in the world.

**Anmol Thapa** from Basingstoke has an MsC in International Financial Management and a degree in business management, both from Surrey. Multi-skilled, highly efficient, a creative thinker and very driven, Anmol’s goal is to contribute meaningfully to organisational success and global improvement, combined with the highest ethical standards.

**Shabnam Fathima Basheer** is studying for a masters in Surrey’s highly competitive Artificial Intelligence course. Already a certified AI engineer with extensive business experience in digital marketing and programming Shabnam, from India, also has an MBA and a computer science degree. She feels it is never too late to start making positive changes to help the environment.

And all three are lovely, lovely people to boot.

Thank you Mariam, Anmol and Shabnam (and the University of Surrey) for your sterling work on 100 Ways in 100 Days, to help the programme resonate even more deeply with people, wherever they may be.

We’re just coming up for air from the third, excellent Blue Earth Summit in Bristol and are bursting with new learnings (and inspirational new contacts made.)

Our 10 [random] jaw dropping facts gleaned from two days there…

1. Storytelling is the way forward in empowering people to make positive change: 25% of The Blue Planet viewers took action after watching it (beach cleaning, litter picking etc.)
2. Digital is thirsty work: data centres are water cooled – they’re often sited in already-water-depleted areas such as Arizona or Santiago. Some drinking water in London is now being diverted for cooling & Chat GPT ‘drinks’ half a litre of water for every 20 prompts
3. 70% of all new beauty products launched into the market won’t be around in three years’ time, while some classics continue to sell, unchanged, like hot cakes – for decades. New isn’t always better.
4. There’s a call for a National Nature Service to be set up; a Government-sponsored employment & training programme, providing paid work in environmental improvement and conservation
5. To get people into nature create empathy: look for curious adaptations: the otherwise pedestrian looking bombadier beetle fascinates people. It shoots boiling acid out of its bottom at attackers
6. In some countries tourism is the ONLY real alternative to the extractive industries in terms of income, but many people are conflicted about flying there
7. A guy at the Soil Association has the best job title in the world: Head of Worms
8. In terms of commerce, if you still want to be around in 10 or 20 years you can’t have a winner or loser in the supplier-purchaser relationship. You need to work together so both benefit
9. Tie knots in empty orange nets in case they somehow end up in the environment: it’ll avoid hedgehogs getting tangled in them
10. The UK Government is a beacon in terms of measuring emissions from its www.gov.uk website: it’s been monitoring it for 12 years – far ahead of most organisations

These and many other facts have fuelled a million thoughts for future 100 Ways in 100 Days modules.

So we’re back to storytelling. It runs like a golden thread through everything we do here at 100 Ways; helping people green up their lives by making quick, easily achievable, planet friendly choices. All in the spirit of marginal gains where, many people making many small changes really can have major impact.
 
Interested in firing up your workforce with green goodness and driving employee engagement? Do drop us a line. Our new ‘100 Ways Express’ programme (for individuals) is now live as well!