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OMG. We only went and WON!!!

100 Ways in 100 Days™ has just scooped the ‘Newcomer Employer of the Year’ at the Brunel University Summer Internship Programme Awards (BSIP), beating, among others, Innocent Drinks.

At the ceremony, Brunel praised 100 Ways for going above and beyond to provide the best internship experience for the two students we engaged. It said they were helped with tasks not previously undertaken with an approachable, kind and easy-going manner and that we ensured everyone was comfortable with the projects assigned to them. The nomination said that any issues, work or non-work-related could easily be raised and that our founder Sue Skeats was a great mentor.

The BSIP programme is a superb initiative that works with Level 1 students across all academic cohorts who meet a set of under-represented criteria.

It offers eligible students the opportunity to gain eight weeks of relevant paid work experience over their first summer break. The internships are aimed at building students’ skills, knowledge and personal attributes and increasing their self confidence. They also build their knowledge of graduate recruitment and explore more about a particular industry, while adding to their CVs.

Participating students get a chance to start building their professional (and often social) networks too, make valuable contacts and potentially even get to know their future employer!

Huge thanks to Shamai Monnaie and Airin Alexandre (Reen to us) for being Grade A placement students (we miss you!). Shamai, a psychology student helped research, plan, brainstorm and build our social media schedule. Reen, who’s studying film production and theatre developed some amazing videos for the 100 Ways syllabus, even teaching herself brand new animation software into the bargain.

Thanks too to Jenny Manzi at the University for her supreme efficiency and her help in making it all happen.

Reen was also shortlisted for ‘Intern of the Year’ for her inspired production work for us.

The BSIP programme has been a real business asset for 100 Ways in 100 Days and we’d highly recommend it to other employers. For anyone interested in hearing more about our own experience, do drop Sue a line at sue.skeats@100ways.eco.

Save money while saving the planet

When our founder Sue Skeats conceived 100 Ways in 100 Days™, it was all about doing good for the planet.

But, together with our PhD researchers at the University of Surrey, who’ve been assisting in its development, we found that many of our ‘Ways’ (easy and achievable bite-sized modules that help people live more ‘greenly’), are actually money saving as well. In fact it turned out the majority are.

Some in little ways, but others are truly jawdropping. The Theory of Marginal Gains (which sits at the core of 100 Ways in 100 Days), shows that every little really does help.  Both for sustainability AND for the wallet.  If we ALL make small changes, many times over, it can have significant impact.

The energy and cost of living crisis is affecting us all, right across the public, private and third sectors, or simply in our personal lives. So Sue has just launched a regular new personal LinkedIn newsletter (you can subscribe here). Entitled: Save Money; Save the Planet, she’s keen to share some of the savvy tips and thoughts we’ve unearthed while producing 100 Ways. Or heard from wise heads or innovative organisations around the globe. Or even mental ‘AHA!’ moments that’ve jolted us out of slumber at three o’clock in the morning.  All have positive impact, not only on our precious earth, but on the bottom line too.

Here we reprint the rest of the content…

Get green and start cost-cutting today!

Here are three tips, chosen at random, to get you started:

Singing the praises of carpool karaoke

A University of California, Berkeley study proves that carpooling reduces energy consumption, emissions, pollution, congestion AND demand for parking. Plus obliterating fares of course (but that’s a debate for another day). Whether a daily commute or seeing granny for the weekend, it can be a gamechanger. One regular Edinburgh-Glasgow traveller saves £2,500 a year. PLUS ride-sharers often become firm friends and form new communities.

Try out apps such as www.liftshare.com or your neighbourhood, or workplace WhatsApp group to get started.

Love your leftovers

In the UK we needlessly waste enough food every year to fill 38 MILLION wheelie bins, or 90 Royal Albert Halls. Various surveys have found that bagged salads are a top victim, so here’s one canny hack to help.

Don’t bin slightly wilty salad. Peel off any brown leaves and refresh the rest in a bowl of very cold water for five to 20 minutes. They’ll bounce back through osmosis.  Drain on the draining board or a clean tea towel. Eat straight away or store back in the fridge (but don’t pack the leaves too tightly, as this encourages the decomposing process).

Bring Your Coffee to Work Day

Despite many of us now working from home, the high street café culture boom continues. 80% of people who visit coffee shops do so at least once a week, whilst 16% of us visit on a daily basis.  Shockingly, around 5 billion disposable coffee cups are used around the world every year, yet less than 1% are recycled.

A recent study suggested the average cost of a latté was £2.76. So, a visit three times a week, excluding holidays, would cost you almost £400. Soooo much cheaper to just bring your own from home, in an insulated, reusable travel mug.

Alternatively some cafés offer discounts if you bring your own cup. At Starbucks and Costa, for example, you’ll save 25p. Some don’t advertise this discount though, so don’t be afraid to ask.

Still sceptical about how small steps can make a difference?

If you’re still sceptical about how small steps can make a difference, take a listen to Professor David Halpern, CEO at the influential The Behavioural Insights Team (AKA The Nudge Unit). His witty interview on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme this week (listen from 2:44:17) is packed with great money saving ideas that are eco-friendly too. He even claims that if we ALL reduce our energy consumption it would actually reduce wholesale prices too. Now, there’s something!

As a valued reader of this blog we have a couple of questions for you, to help in further editions…

We’d love to hear your thoughts about great ways to illustrate the Save Money; Save the Planet newsletter. Pictures of piggy banks and piles of cash can be so clichéd. We’d love your suggestions on fun and inspiring imagery and wordage combining money saving and planet saving (submit here). There’s nothing like diversity of thought. In fact some of the ‘Ways’ were initially going to be sub-branded Pennywise until our psychology colleague Claire Gregory, MBPsS pointed out that it’s also the moniker of the murderous clown. Whoops!

Thanks in advance for your inspired ideas.

Happy reading – and happy cost-cutting!

A lightning quick post today…

There’s nothing like a cup of something steaming hot to get you going… on a steamingly hot September morning. And there’s nothing like a brand new, branded 100 Ways in 100 Days team cup to drink it out of.

Thanks to the team for the mugshots and thanks to DragoninaDress on Etsy for the short run #reusable mugs.

Cheers!

We are excited and proud to announce that 100 Ways in 100 Days™ has just been selected, against tough competition, to be part of the prestigious 2022/23 Inc. social incubator. The brainchild of the charitable Aster Foundation, Inc.’s raison d’etre is to build businesses that can change the world.

The Foundation’s wider purpose is to invest in communities and their future. Its mission is to enable better lives for at least 40,000 people by 2030, through its impact programmes and proactive approach to tackling social challenges. The Inc. accelerator is an extension of that collaborative, social vision.

Being a part of Inc. will give us extra, rich opportunities to shape 100 Ways and gain insights for projects run within the foundation’s parent organisation, the Aster Group and its communities. Plus, in order to help develop ideas, there’ll be a doorway to its 100,000 diverse customers.

This equates to a potentially massive new audience for 100 Ways; both to enable people to live more sustainably, fast (with a spin-off benefit that many ‘Ways’ help save money) and as a enviable research base.

The Inc. programme offers access to funding and investment too – and introductions to Aster partners and networks.

100 Ways is based on psychology – and also the theory of marginal gains, where, many, many small actions, enacted en masse, can bring about significant change. So the wider we can spread the programme, the greater an impact it can make. 100 Ways brings people together, empowering them to make bite-sized, achievable changes, in fun, positive ways, to help save the planet. It’s therefore a perfect fit with Aster.

We can’t wait to work with the rest of the cohort and the wider Aster Group family to start helping to make a difference. 

See more here very soon!

We’re thrilled that 100 Ways in 100 Days™ is now in beta – and we’re ready to start partnering with selected organisations. 100 Ways in 100 Days helps employees learn how to live more sustainability at work, at home and at play.

Rather than being doomy or preachy (to which people don’t respond well), our vision for 100 Ways is to do the opposite. To bring colleagues together in the battle against climate change through positive and colourful social interactions. It’s one of the most effective techniques for changing habits.

To ensure the programme deploys the most believable and motivating planet-friendly messages we decided collaboration was the way forward.

Partnership with University of Surrey

We’d felt the world is entering a ‘new age of scepticism’, especially considering the Wild West of social media and fake news, so we called in expert help to get to the bottom of it. We’re extremely proud therefore, to publish a brand new academic study, ‘The Psychological Underpinnings of Believability’. Commissioned specially by us, it informs all the ‘Ways’.

This fascinating and insightful report was written by Claire Gregory, psychology PhD researcher at the University of Surrey and Emeritus Professor Karen Pine. It sets a framework for great climate change communication and it’s available to download free here.

Claire explains: “The study examines how the human mind goes about finding information believable nowadays. In cognitive psychology for instance there are two routes to believability, with intuition and analytics both having a role, but effective persuasion involves a combination of both, so we looked at these and much, much more, including how we use ‘heuristics (mental shortcuts), the role of emotion and how to replace old beliefs with new ones.

“All findings have been harnessed to encourage incremental positive daily behaviour changes in individuals to help promote sustainability.”

The research advises that tactics such as using plain English, rather than jargon or long words, using case studies with real people rather than statistics, and affirming an individual’s self esteem can all positively impact on how messages are absorbed and acted upon.

All ‘Ways’ are checked against the 100 Ways 15 point ‘Believability Index’, an instrument for the measurement of believability in communications, devised by Pine and Gregory.

At 100 Ways, we instinctively knew, but academics in the report confirmed that people tend to avoid information that makes them feel uncomfortable. Or where it’s complicated and they feel they have little control over it. The climate emergency falls into that category.  Overwhelming messages can lead to paralysis and demoralisation, so it’s vital that the 100 Ways messaging focuses on hope, empowerment – and personal responsibility.

The Believability report helps guide us along just the right lines. Thanks so much to Claire and to Karen for their amazingly intelligent yet practical work.

If that wasn’t enough, each ‘Way’ on the 100 Ways programme is also underpinned by evidence from highly credible, trusted and knowledgeable organisations, such as NGOs, academics, charities and other reputable sources. They’re all evidence checked by our wonderful Gilang Majid, also a PhD researcher at the University of Surrey.

And each helps towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (the SDGs: its blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all).

Alex Teng is the latest recruit to the wider 100 Ways in 100 Days team. 

A PhD researcher at the University of Surrey, Alex will support 100 Ways throughout 2022 as business operations and strategy consultant. 

He is a man of many, many talents. Having previously secured a first class degree at the University in electronic engineering he’s now doing his PhD.

He’s immensely creative too. His eclectic kaleidoscope of experiences also spans a production role at The National Gallery and as a costume supervisor at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

We’re so excited to have him on board to help power 100 Ways’ employee engagement sustainability training programme forward.

Some sobering news from The Big Plastic Count (an initiative from Everyday Plastic and Greenpeace). Nearly 100 billion pieces of plastic packaging are thrown away by UK households every year, with just 12% recycled in the UK. The research revealed that 88% our household waste is being burnt, buried and dumped overseas.

We were shocked when we counted our own plastic waste during the survey, back in May. So much is hard to avoid, even for people who intrinsically care for environment. Sometimes it really can be hard to be green.

Recycling issues notwithstanding, every little helps in terms of changing our behaviours more widely. For instance, in our 100 Ways employee engagement sustainability training programme we look at ways of forgoing use of the gazillions of [mainly unrecyclable] plastic pens that head for landfill every year.

Yep, we all have them don’t we :-(? Drying out in our desks, going blobby in the kitchen drawer, gathering dusk in our cars. Within the programme we present a host of easily achievable, everyday ideas of channelling your inner Hemingway, that are kinder to the planet – and much, much more. Plastic waste begone.

Please get in touch if you’d like to find out more.

What do you get when you cross sustainability with employee engagement? It is estimated that disengaged employees are costing the UK economy £340 billion every year. The reasons? Lost training and recruitment costs, sick days, productivity, creativity and innovation.

Even pre-Covid, the average employer was spending £3,000 and 27.5 days to hire a new worker. Since then we’ve witnessed the ‘Great Resignation’. Almost one in five employees globally say they are likely to switch to a new employer in the next 12 months. Research suggests this stampede for something better is showing no signs of abating.

In stark relief, engaged employees are much more likely to collaborate and work together as a team and overall, companies with high employee engagement are 21% more profitable.

Just as well then, that, as part of its sustainability behaviour change programme, 100 Ways in 100 Days truly brings people together. It’s predicated on positive social interactions.

One pilot reported: “It really brought teams cross functionally together, debating ways to both make their own personal contribution to protecting our planet but also engaging in business practice improvements.” 

Another declared: “As we continue to work remotely employee engagement and aligning our teams to our business objectives is harder and yet more important than ever, 100 Ways in 100 Days has been a really fun way to do this.”

Employee engagement? Slam dunk!

Please get in touch if you’d like to hear more.

Carrying on the good news from our previous post… They say collaboration in sustainability is the way forward. Here at 100 Ways in 100 Days™ we couldn’t agree more. We’re celebrating teaming up with Brunel University London where the wonderful Airin Alexandre and Shamai Monnaie are supporting.

Airin (Reen to us) is studying filmmaking and theatre and is helping develop 100 Ways’ innovative creative content. Shamai is studying psychology (a golden thread that runs through the programme) and is helping develop marketing and social media.

Welcome both – what a super-talented duo!