COP28, Collaborating in Childcare & Remarkable colleagues
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Published 8 Dec 2023 in Phil's blog
COP28 – tackling climate change
As we continue to collectively tackle climate change, you may have seen the start of COP28 in Dubai last Thursday in which world leaders are meeting to discuss key issues associated with climate change. Standing for the United Nations Conference of the Parties, it is hoped the 28th edition of COP will help keep alive the goal of limiting long-term global temperature rises to 1.5C. Issues being discussed include the move to clean energy sources and delivering money for climate action from richer to poorer countries.
The Younity team - Amelia Crews- Community Renewables Engagement Lead, Michaela Cryar - Director of Younity, Connie Duxbury - Community Renewables Manager, Ewan Corley – Social Media and Content Executive
Your Co-op continues to do our bit to help tackle climate change both through our direct operations and working with community energy groups across the UK. Year to date we have reduced energy usage by 11% compared to last year across like-for-like sites, equivalent to saving over 700 tonnes of CO2. Through Younity, our joint venture with Octopus Energy we are now supporting over 250 community energy projects, and we are helping to plug the skills gap within the community energy sector by streamlining skilled individuals to groups through a dedicated volunteering platform, Community Energy Connect.
A few weeks ago, I held a dedicated colleague Q&A video on the subject, so if you missed it click here.
Thought-Leading Pioneers – a childcare collaboration in Barcelona
As mentioned before, our co-operative sector presents a distinctive avenue for learning and exchanging best practices with fellow co-operatives across various trading areas.
Recently, our childcare colleagues, Bethany Patrick (Head of Educational Excellence) and Nicole Jones (Head of Operations), exemplified this ethos by embarking on an exchange trip to childcare facilities in Barcelona, Spain.
A great example of being a thought-leading pioneer, during their visit, Bethany and Nicole had the opportunity to connect with and gain valuable insights into Suara Co-operative’s childcare practices. With visits to two nurseries catering to ages 0-3, a children's home accommodating youths aged 6 to 18, and exploration of two youth clubs providing support to individuals aged 6 to 29, they attended Nursery Liliana, Nursery Maricel, Crae Travertit & Centre Obert De Girona.
Colleagues Nicole and Bethany [fourth and fifth from back left] from Childcare visiting childcare practices in Barcelona
Following some positive feedback, I would like to say thank you to Bethany and Nicole for representing us during the exchange visit while being in this unique learning environment. I look forward to hearing more about these types of visits and hope they will become a regular part of the calendar for childcare colleagues as we continually improve our business.
New Chief People Officer – Michelle Cemm
I am really pleased to share that Michelle Cemm has now joined Your Co-op as Chief People Officer and has completed her first week. Michelle is part of our Executive team with accountability for the Human Resources function and will play a key role in developing and supporting our 6,500 plus colleagues as we seek to grow our Food and National Businesses and return value to our members and the communities we serve.
Michelle, who lives locally to Warwick, joins us from Simplify where she has held the role of Chief People Officer since 2020. Michelle’s HR career, which spans over 20 years, includes experience in both Retail and Service industries. She is passionate about our co-operative values and in seeing the value in people and I am delighted that she is now here and looking forward to seeing her develop our people strategies in support of our Board’s purpose and objectives.
I am sure colleagues will join me in welcoming Michelle to Your Co-op.
Our remarkable colleagues and festive colleague updates
We have so many remarkable colleagues across our business and it’s always fantastic to read how they make such a difference to Your Co-op. A strength to everything we do; they exemplify doing good together. So, it was great to watch last week’s deaf awareness story from colleagues Simon Walker and Matthew Mitchell from Bicton Heath Food store. Please continue to keep sharing your stories via our ‘Count me in’ colleague campaign, and look out for more remarkable colleagues in the coming months. Well done to December’s winner, Laura Hawker from Moreton-in-Marsh, who donates a full trolley shop each year to her local food bank – lovely to hear.
Watch the Remarkable colleague story of Simon Walker from Bicton Heath Food store
In other colleague news, keep an eye out for my special colleague's Christmas message going live next Friday and the start of our exclusive colleague giveaway entitled ‘Tis the Season of Giving from 16th - 22nd December – good luck!
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