My Guest Blogger - Mike Pickering!

As Co-operative Social Responsibility Manager, helping drive forward responsible business practice is something that I’m passionate about. I really enjoy working with Colleagues from across our businesses to help defend the environment and support the community. Here is a flavour of the types of activities I have been involved with this week!

1Change and tackling single-use plastics: we met with McCann’s marketing agency on Tuesday to discuss some future exciting opportunities to drive forward our 1Change campaign.  With 870 pledges already made to tackle single-use plastics, we discussed follow on opportunities to further engage members, including regular hints and tips and vlogger opportunities.  As a result of 1Change, we have reduced over 2 tonnes of plastic per annum through our day to day operational activity. We will build on these achievements so keep an eye out for some exciting developments in this area very soon.

Energy Saving best practice: On Wednesday I attended an event at Central England Co-op with a range of other Co-op Societies to discuss energy saving and reducing carbon emissions.  As a Society we have reduced our energy usage by 15% since 2010, saving over 7,000 tonnes of Co2.  I learnt about a range of activities other Societies are doing including advancements in energy usage reporting to help further reduce carbon emissions.

Talking Energy Saving with Southern, Central, East of England and Co-op Group at the Central England Co-op offices

Modern Slavery: This week I have been working with Dawn Green, HR Operations Coordinator, to update the Society’s annual Modern Slavery Statement. Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour, and we issued our first statement two years ago.  The Society has made some great progress in helping to raise awareness of this important issue, including our support of the innovative Bright Future programme providing employment opportunities for survivors of modern slavery, and educating our supply chain on spotting the signs of modern slavery.

Making a difference...

We all hear about a range of environmental horror stories in the media from climate change to plastic pollution.

I am proud to work for a co-operative business that is truly making a difference to help address these issues. To ensure that we are playing our part to help tackle these global issues we are supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including Sustainable Communities and Climate action. You can learn more about these global goals by clicking here.

A recent example is our support for the eco brick development through the Cotswolds Regional Community, Phil reported on this important milestone a few weeks ago in his blog. This video shows how we have enabled 1,000 eco-bricks to be created and turned into a turkey shed at Fairy Tale Farm near Chipping Norton.  Thank you to a range of Colleagues for enabling this to take place, but particularly to Adam Quinton, Premium Supermarket Operational Support, for driving this forward in the Chipping Norton area.

Get involved...

Our Society Fun Days are taking place this August with a range of fun activities for all ages, raising money for our local charity partners.  You can learn more about these events by clicking here.

On September 29^th we have our celebrity charity football match at Rushall Olympic Football Club in Walsall, providing a great day out whilst raising money for local charities. 

To continue tackling single-use plastics through our 1Change campaign we have some waterway community tidy up activities taking place the week of the 23^rd September, and we plan to expand our eco brick concept into other areas to turn waste into something useful.

Keep an eye out for further communications on these events and if any Colleagues would be interested in taking a lead on any community tidy up or eco brick projects through your volunteering hours please email us here.

Take our quick poll!

As part of our ongoing programme to support communities and help develop self-help skills, we would like to hear from any Colleagues who take part in a community group outside of work.

It’s been a pleasure to cover the blog this week and I look forward to sharing more with you all very soon. Finally, why not make your 1Change pledge today? Please visit our dedicated page to reduce single-use plastics here.