Earth Day 2024 – Planet vs. Plastics

22nd April is Earth Day and this year’s theme is Planet vs. Plastics. The Earthday.org President stated “The Planet vs. Plastics campaign is a call to arms, a demand that we act now to end the scrouge of plastics and safeguard the health of every living being upon our planet.” The goal is to achieve a 60% reduction in plastic production by 2040. People around the globe have been taking part in ‘Global Cleanups’ to help build a waste-free world. These are a fun and easy way to amplify your ability to make an impact on Earth Day. Take a look at their website to find a Global Cleanup Event near you.

GreenSeas Trust is an organisation that has been saving our oceans since 2003. Their projects are all about providing a solution-based approach to raise awareness about marine plastics. They currently have 17 bins around the country, each collecting between 3000 and 17,000 PET bottles per month! That equated to +0.5million bottles being collected annually.

These 1.5m high bins are made from around 450 recycled PET plastic bottles. Meaning it really is a full-circle moment for each BinForGreenSeas. This is one of the elements that go into creating a long-lasting plastic collector.

GreenSeas Projects

With over 11 counties in the UK now home to a BinForGreenSeas, the organisation’s vision of having a bin placed along 18 or more UK promenades is ever closer. There are even more bins coming out before June.

There are now 3 in London, the Bankside bin being the 17th Bin for the Trust. In London they sit Bankside by Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, The University of East London – Docklands Campus and Canary Wharf Pier. Their bins range all the way from Kent, to North Wales, to North Yorkshire to West Sussex.

Spread the word! The more people who find out about their projects, the more support the project will get. So post a link to the BinForGreenSeas project on your Facebook page or include it in your email signature. Print out the projects page and pin it to a noticeboard. Let’s all be part of the ripple effect to save our oceans.

The difference between Hybrid, Flexible and Agile working

With the new Flexible Working UK Law that came into enforcement in April, we provided a blog explaining these flexible working changes and what they mean for employees. We thought perhaps people may not understand the difference between the working types. There are three modern approaches to organising work and they all offer varying degrees of flexibility and adaptability. They do share similarities but do however have distinct characteristics.

It is interesting to see how much flexible working possibilities have changed the world of work. According to the CIPD in May 2024, around 4 million people have changed their careers due to lack of flexibility at their work. This in turn has meant that flexible, hybrid or agile working arrangements have begun to creep up to the top of people’s wish list when it comes to job searching. This demand can be seen by the fact that, according to the ONS, 58% of employers were offering remote/hybrid work to employees in 2023.

Flexible Working

Flexible working involves working arrangements that allow the employee to have greater control over when, where and how they work. This includes hours, remote working, part-time, job sharing and shorter working weeks. This allows employees the choice and autonomy to accommodate to their personal and professional needs while still meeting what is required of them.

This is about a work/life balance and allowing people the flexibility to cater their work life around their family, travel, and personal commitments. This depends massively on the company and culture and involves a large level of trust. However, this does in turn make your business more inclusive and a more desirable place to work. In turn, you can attract and retain talent, improve employee morale and satisfaction and all-round increase productivity and performance by allowing employees to align their work schedules and more.

It does go without saying that clear guidelines and policies are created to ensure fairness, consistency, and accountability with your flexible working arrangements.

An element of flexible working can involve fully remote workers as they are given the choice as to where and when they work. As of July 2023, according to the ONS, 16% of the UK workforce are full-time remote workers.

Hybrid Working

Hybrid working involves a combination of remote and in-office work. Employees have the flexibility to split their time between locations. It allows greater flexibility in terms of location and working hours as well as being accommodating for individual and organisational preferences.

This is all about promoting a healthy work/life balance, by giving employees the freedom but also control around where and when they work which in turn can optimise their performance and well-being. The traditional office space becomes a destination of choice, and it is vital to give the workplace a professional and personal appeal. It helps employees reduce commuting times and costs and enhances productivity by letting them create an environment and work life that best suits them.

Hybrid work doe require effective communication and collaboration tools to ensure seamless interaction between remote and in-office employees.

According to Forbes, as of April 2020, 46.6% of UK employees were following the hybrid work structure. As of June 2023, 29% of employees follow the hybrid working model. With another 10% having hybrid working as a choice but choose not to.

Agile Working

Agile working is less about when people work and more concerned about where they work. It prioritises adaptability and collaboration and is very much focused more on the outcomes rather than the processes. A usual set-up of agile working can be seen by open workspaces, flexible seating arrangements and many tools and technology and collaboration tools to facilitate communication and collaboration across teams.

This type of work is all about creating a productive and collaborative work environment. Allowing people to work together and communicate effectively but also giving them the freedom to move around and not feel tied down to a desk. It promotes creativity, cross-functional teams, rapid decision-making, and interactive processes that can, in turn, increase employees’ work productivity and outcomes in terms of reaching goals.

It allows employees to change their work settings and tasks, and this can be day-to-day or even hour-by-hour. Creating a multifunctional, adaptable, and integrated workspace to ensure an element of freedom in your work.