Green Week 2019

01.11.2019 2 min read

Temple gets green (er)

Last week (W/C commencing 21/10/2019) was the 4th annual Green Week supported by Temple, a week designed to demonstrate Temple’s commitment to the wider environmental issues and to get staff discussing and learning about further problems we are facing in a formalised manner than day to day working activities.

The weeks theme was food waste and the impact that it has on the local and global environment. The activities organised were aimed to stimulate thought, but also alter behaviour both in and out of the office and go beyond Green Week that would have a lasting positive impact, demonstrating the ethical nature of Temple as a company and their staff.

Temple invited guest speakers from City Harvest and OLIO to provide an insight into the importance of dealing with the ongoing problem of food waste. City Harvest showcased their efforts to tackle food waste by collecting surplus food from supermarkets, suppliers and events and distributing it to charities and people who need it the most. Our donations to this charity was equivalent to 8 meals. On Thursday innovative food-sharing app Olio, presented us issues surrounding global and local food waste, and how they are tackling such a widespread problem with their app. The app was designed to reduce surplus food by enabling individuals to share the surplus food they don’t want with their neighbours and wider community for free. On Friday Michael from Toast Ale brought the curtain down on Green Week 2019 by holding a talk in the Woolyard Kitchen about the important work they do by turning food waste into sustainable beer and we tired a few of them as well.

One of the main aspects of Green Week 2019 is legacy. The weeklong initiatives saw Temple employees across the UK attempt to reduce their carbon footprint by cutting out takeaway coffee cups that plague landfills every year. There was also a green walk where members of all offices took a walk into the green spaces near the offices to boost mental health and enjoy the local green spaces. We also encouraged the use of ‘Ecosia’, a green alternative to the more conventional search engines which plants trees for every 45 searches. All of these campaigns will be continued long after Green Week comes to an end

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