Team Green Year in Review 2024

Team Green is the Growth Company's colleague green group; we exist for the following purpose:

• Offer best practice for positive climate action for colleagues
• Awareness raising & education of the issues affecting the office, working from home and everyday life
• Principal purpose = a group that can hold GC to account over climate pledges

2024 has seen our membership increase to 85, covering a range of business units within GC.

This year has been a hive of activity with new members, new roles within the group, and lots of new ideas and initiatives.

With the rolling out of Carbon Literacy Training for GC colleagues, Team Green has particularly focussed on supporting the implementation of Carbon Literacy pledges and supporting activities this year.

We contributed to the World Environment Day webinar hosted by Mark Hughes on 5th June, highlighting our Team Green purpose and activities, and raising awareness of the Carbon Literacy pledges undertaken so far – with some common themes shown in our interactive Mentimeter.

We want to highlight that colleagues' pledges are often similar so we can share challenges and best practice with each other.

Another spin-out from the Carbon Literacy pledges was our ESG (environmental and social governance) Pensions working group. Several colleagues have made pledges around transitioning their pension investments to more ethical funds, noting 'UK pension schemes invest a staggering £88 billion in fossil fuel companies' (Source: Make My Money Matter).

The TG pensions sub-group arranged two pension webinars for colleagues. The first covering pensions basics, and then a follow-up session to understand more about our pension providers ESG offering and how to 'green' your pensions.

We introduced small yet visible changes, by making non-dairy milk available at the Lee House office. A small survey measured demand and considered everyone’s preferences.

In honour of Zero Waste Week, we hosted a Clothing Swap event on the 22nd September to shine a light on the fashion industry’s overproduction and textile waste problem. The textile and clothing industry is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, and is believed to be responsible for an estimated 10% of global carbon emissions – more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.

Around 5 million tonnes of clothing are believed to be discarded each year in the EU - around 12kg per person. Not only is it a waste of money for us to buy and discard so many clothes, but it’s a huge waste of natural resources, including water.

Clothing Swaps allow individuals to consider circularity prior to disposal, and therefore divert clothing going into landfills such as Accra’s Kantamonto Market.

Another positive change this year is Team Green and the GC Communications Team working more closely together. This includes input to the Small Changes, Big Impact campaign for colleagues. We have created content to provide colleagues with more insight into the benefits of Carbon Literacy training.

We have also produced Wellbeing Wednesday content, sent to colleagues by email in June 2024, on the topic of Eco Anxiety, which is something that can affect anyone interested in environmental issues, particularly colleagues who work in 'sustainability' related roles.

We want to encourage colleagues to be able to share suggestions to reduce the environmental impact of GC activities, so we have developed a Policy Review Request Form. This form can be completed and returned to Team Green for periodic review with the GC sustainability team.

Our members have been taking part in a wide range of green activities throughout the year – from volunteering to help support the green space of our business growth hub clients, to cycling skills training from TfGM and a cycling event in Salford.