In recognition of Earth Day, Selina Donald, Global Sustainability Director at Momentum Worldwide discusses the topic ‘Investing in Ourselves and Our Collective Future with Sustainability’.
“Every April 22, Earth Day is a chance to focus on raising “awareness of the need to protect Earth’s natural resources for future generations.”*
This year’s theme was “Invest in our Planet” – a theme that we have been embedding into our operations for some time.
Over the past three years, we’ve laid strong foundations for our global strategic approach to the climate crisis. In 2021, we launched “Make Sustainability Matter,” an operational plan for climate action that includes key considerations, milestones and goals. We had it certified by a third party to ensure it meets the global best-practice standards of ISO 14001 and ISO 20121, and we’re audited annually to ensure we’re being held to account and are transparent on our progress.
Greenskilling our Workforce
Greenskills are the technical skills, knowledge, behaviors and capabilities needed to address the environmental challenges we face. It’s not even the skillset of the future, it’s the skillset we need now to address the challenges we face as an industry and as a planet.
So, we’ve invested in creating a bespoke “Make Sustainability Matter” training program that speaks to the services we provide. To achieve this, our training program is supported by a toolbox of resources and guides to support the immense creativity of our people and direct it toward sustainable impact. Our people learn circular economy principles and how to measure the carbon footprint of our experiences using TRACE. We are especially proud that we were the first global experiential agency to launch TRACE, a groundbreaking software used to track carbon footprint, wastage and materials used, which allows us to report back to our clients on their experiential environmental footprint for the first time ever.
We’ve already delivered over sixty hours of specialized training across our global network, with more scheduled to take place throughout 2023 and beyond.
Showcasing our greenskills for the Verizon London Hub
“The proof is in the pudding,” and we are proud of our work with Verizon for their London Hub, a great example of what “Making Sustainability Matter” looks like in practice.
Verizon directed our team to design an immersive experience for their customers in the UK while ensuring sustainability was “baked into” the build and approach from the start.
We wove circular design thinking and considerations for social and environmental impact into everything from the start.We worked with local award-winning London artist Tom Robinson, who built the “Nucleus Table” in the main meeting room from discarded e-waste. As a result, we diverted 334kg of plastic pollution from landfill.
Stitched, a female-owned, zero-waste company based in Yorkshire, made all the curtains. The Centre’s coffee tables were made from cork, one of the most renewable and eco-friendly materials on the market. Sofas were upholstered with material from SEAQUAL Yarn, made of post-consumer waste from plastics plucked from the ocean and water bottles harvested from landfills.
100% of the assets that were left from the previous Innovation Centre and were not used in the new Centre were donated to local charities. At the end, a Sustainability Impact Report was produced using innovative materials, including a cover woven from 100%-recycled ocean plastic and coated with water-based acrylic and contents printed using specialized paper that contains upcycled coffee cups and post-consumer waste.
Our Partners
When it comes to supply chains in our interconnected world, we rise or fall together. So it was clear that we needed to invite our vendors on this journey with us in order to deliver our strategy. We see them as our partners as we work toward a set of common goals, and alignment is invaluable.
We’ve created a global engagement strategy for our most frequently used vendors, and we’ve carried out workshops across the UK and Canada with our top suppliers – with more sessions planned across the US in 2023.
We’re truly collaborating with our vendors to deliver “Make Sustainability Matter” by educating and engaging with them on our sustainability goals, our expectations of them and how they can adopt TRACE.
Why We Feel Optimistic
Climate change news can be grim. But our work keeps us focused and optimistic. And others are taking notice.
We love a challenge, and we love to be strategic and creative. The work we do helps us look forward to the future. We’re investing in our workforce and our partnerships because we know that it’s only together that we can create a more sustainable future.”
(Source: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/earth-day/)