Why Sustainability is at the Heart of PlacesWork
Following on from the news we have been shortlisted for the Sustainability Award at the IoD Scotland Director of the Year Awards 2023, we want to discuss why sustainability is at the heart of what we do.
Sustainability has been at the heart of our business since we began. Our members and clients care about the world that we inhabit. Director and founder of PlacesWork, Duncan Wallace has been a climate activist for over twenty years and currently serves on the board of Friends of the Earth. Whereas, our youngest team member took part in and promoted the first school climate strikes in Scotland.
We believe that hybrid working is about working globally, connecting with humans across our communities in a sustainable way.
Watch Duncan talk about how hybrid working supports sustainability in business or keep reading below.
Making a Sustainability Culture
One of the most valuable assets of hybrid working is that it can help support making a culture that is sustainable for all sizes and types of organisations. Sustainable culture is about connection, making sure things work and focuses on the human. It is ultimately about maintaining trust.
Trust is something that needs to be earned and kept in every organisation. During the pandemic we saw a loss of trust through becoming remote from one another, we were no longer in the office talking and connecting together. Our organisational cultures suffered as a consequence.
Culture must be well led and like a stick of rock we should see the values, rights and responsibilities, and trust going right through it. Hybrid working isn't just about some people turning up to the office and other people being remote, but with the right policies and implementation it can lead to a culture that sustains the organisation and is full of trust and innovation. This is our expertise and we can support you to get to where you need to be.
Net Zero Goals
On a practical level, remote and hybrid working can also help work towards net zero and sustainability goals, whilst also being good business practice.
Reducing Scope 2 Emissions: the energy purchased to power offices are included in a business's scope 2 emissions. Decreasing the amount of people in the office or closing it on Fridays, as many companies have done, will reduce both energy and costs.
Reducing Scope 3 Emissions: It is estimated that 5% of the UK’s carbon emissions or about 18 billion kg of CO2e a year is from commuting. By giving people the choice to work remotely, you are not only creating a valuable asset for employee retainment but you’re helping them to reduce their commuting footprint.
If you want to learn how to create a sustainable business through hybrid working then contact us for a strategic consultation.
Carnegie is a leading social research organisation, which aims to bring better collective wellbeing to everybody in the UK and Ireland. With the support of PlacesWork, they are now able to operate fully with hybrid working patterns and connect with people both nationally and locally through hybrid meetings.
Hybrid Working for Social Research Organisations
Going hybrid was a logical step for an organisation like Carnegie. They had already established policies and protocols for hybrid working as they are a very flexible employer with high skills around trust and enablement in their team.
As a social research organisation, Carnegie was already aware of the realities of inclusion, participation, involvement and development aspects of meetings. And hybrid working makes absolute sense for organisations like heirs, as outlined in our video with Lorraine Simpson of The Lines Between:
Going 100% Hybrid
After attending one of our public webinars, we were brought in to deliver a tailored 1-hour workshop on hybrid working to be attended by all members of staff.
Following this, we supported Carnegie with their offices in Dunfermline, helping them convert their rooms for hybrid meetings. We will also continue our support over a further six months to help them get used to planning, operating and running hybrid meetings.
Making Hybrid Work for Your Team & Organisation
The starting point for Carnegie was one where they already understood the hybrid working pattern desires and different configurations. They had also already bought the equipment needed for it.
It was about making hybrid work for their teams and organisation as a whole, as well as implementing hybrid work patterns with all their practicalities.
Carnegie not only asked their staff what they needed and wanted from hybrid working. But they also asked what makes a great day in the office for them. Unsurprisingly, there was a huge consensus among the staff with everyone responding the same way.
This helped a lot when implementing hybrid working patterns as Sarah Davidson, CEO of Carnegie, confirms:
“Our hybrid model is going well. You’ll recall that we centred the “what makes a great day in the office for you?” question and so far it seems that people are getting their version of that. It’s certainly working much better for me. I’ve not yet quite managed to implement the diary discipline to ensure that I am always doing the right things in the right places, but it’s a work in progress.”
Lasting Impact of Hybrid Working
One year later, we caught up with Carnegie and we were thrilled to see the lasting impact that going 100% hybrid has had for them.
They have:
Introduced a formal hybrid working policy with staff asked to come into the office for two days and the office open for the rest of the week.
Offered £100 per month to every employee, redeemable against the costs of co-working spaces if they choose not to come into the office or work from home.
Established a corporate membership at a co-working space in central Edinburgh.
Created a new flexi-time policy to allow staff members to work the hours that suit them, with core hours of 10:30am - 3:30pm.
Continued to look into ways to invest in technology to allow their board meetings to be more accessible for those joining via Zoom.
We were pleased to hear from the head of corporate services at Carnegie who said:
“Most of our meetings still tend to include a hybrid element, but I think we are so used to this now that it has become normal… All in all, I think we are all now settled into this new way of working and on the whole, it is working well.”
We have been proud to work with Carnegie and to have helped them implement hybrid work patterns and influence others in becoming 100% hybrid.
This is part of a series of case studies, showcasing how organisations regardless of sector or size can benefit from implementing hybrid work patterns. Read our Scottish Renewables case study on hybrid meetings as a membership organisation and our Care for Carers case study.