World Earth Day

Celebrating World Earth Day on 22nd April, the Brightstar Group has planned a day of education, action and fun; building on its certification as Carbon Neutral Business in 2023 by Carbon Neutral Britain.

Having partnered with Carbon Neutral Britain to calculate carbon emissions across the group, the emissions were calculated and offset via the Woodland Fund Portfolio of carbon offsetting projects around the world. The Brightstar Group also received a Carbon Reduction Plan (CRP) to help it to reduce future emissions.

Carbon Neutral Britain is the UK’s Carbon Offsetting initiative, set up to help British individuals and businesses make an impact on climate change. Founded in 2020, the organisation has rapidly expanded and its projects have already offset more than 500,000 Tonnes of CO₂ and planted over 3 million trees, helping to stop climate change and providing essential forest habitats for endangered wildlife.

One year on from achieving carbon neutral status, The Brightstar Group is delighted with the progress that it has made in implementing change that will help to stop climate change. As a team, this has involved working together, widening thinking and engaging in activities and practices so as to make a real and genuine positive impact on the environment. Changes include a successful car sharing project, paperless meetings and strategies to reduce energy consumption within the offices.  All teams across the Group have been asked to identify ways that they can make a difference and are finding ways to reduce harm to the environment. For example, the People Development Team in the business has recently overhauled its practices; drastically reducing the use of consumables and paper-based training materials and has introduced ‘e portfolio’ to replace a previous system which has always been an integral part of the People Development Programme. E Portfolio now relies on electronic storage, submission and assessment rather than the use of folders and paper evidence.

The 2024 celebration of World Earth Day is being led by the Group’s Carbon Neutral Team and will involve education and fun whilst encouraging practical actions that will genuinely make a difference to our world. The day’s events include a team-wide competition entitled ‘Make a Meal for Earth Day’ where seeds and small plants will be allocated to teams with the aim of growing vegetables, fruits and herbs that will be incorporated into recipes for a Grand Picnic Lunch that is being planned in the late summer. Prizes will be awarded for the largest vegetable and the best recipes, and the Carbon Neutral Team will aim to build awareness about the importance of growing and/or buying produce locally and organically so as to reduce our carbon footprint and be kinder to the environment.

The Group’s Carbon Neutral Team will also be leading the charge in moving across the business from using Google and other search engines to Ecosia. Indeed, rather than using all of their advertising to boost their profit, Ecosia invests 80% in eco-friendly projects. It is free to use and you can even search Google using it to access maps etc. Most importantly,  for every 50 searches, it is the equivalent of a tree being planted.

The Brightstar Group’s Chief Operating Officer, Will Lloyd Hayward commented,

“The Brightstar Group takes its corporate and social responsibility very seriously indeed, leading by example to promote positive change within our industry and our wider society. Whilst achieving carbon neutral certification was important to us, it was only the first step of our ongoing commitment to monitoring and minimising the impact of our business and we have thought of practical and inventive ways to achieve this. We hope that the actions that we have taken for Earth Day 2024 will not only help to raise awareness and bring about positive change, but will also encourage other businesses across the sector to follow suit.”