Cumbria CVS Green – No 10 December 2024
December 13, 2024
Welcome back to Cumbria CVS Green!
In our tenth blog post, Sarah Pearce, Administration Officer (HR & Volunteering) at Cumbria CVS, provides some handy tips for reducing your environmental impact at work… without even leaving your desk!
If you have any suggestions about what you’d like to see in our regular updates, let us know! Contact us by emailing info@cumbriacvs.org.uk
You can find our what we’re doing to minimise our environmental impact and find details of organisations supporting positive environmental action in Cumbria on our Climate Commitment page here
Catch up on our other blog posts here
How to get Greener at work without leaving your desk
In my personal life I try to do my best to minimise my environmental impact by choosing products that have a smaller impact than others or buying second hand. Feeling helpless about the bigger picture, that’s what I feel I can do to try and reduce my family’s impact. But my job involves me typing away on a computer most days sending lots of emails, newsletters and working on portals all day every day. I have always thought my job has a minimal environmental impact.
This is until we had a staff meeting that told me otherwise. We were lucky enough to be joined by Capgemini who enlightened us all on the impact we were having every day at work.
Here are the top five things I learnt so you can reduce your impact too:
1. Send fewer emails
1.2m tonnes of Co2 is consumed in order to send and receive all the emails globally in ONE day. That’s the average emission generated for one passenger on a return flight from Paris to new York! That’s every day!!
So, let’s stop sending unnecessary emails – we used to say ‘think before you print’ now it should be ‘think before you say thank you’. Teams messages are a great alternative way to communicate internally and have less of an impact.
On the same note the dreaded Reply to All, not only do most people not need to see your response but now you have just sent an additional copy of the email to all (let’s say 50) recipients.
2. Reduce your screen brightness
Have you ever considered that powering your screen is having an impact? Personally, I struggle with bright screens so already have mine on as low as possible. But reducing your brightness by 30% can save you up to 20% of energy to power the computer screen. Using dark Themes helps too – but that’s not for everyone and as a dyslexic makes it impossible for me to read!
3. Bookmarks
I am guilty of googling the same websites every day. I have some as Favourites, but often find myself googling Cumbria CVS multiple times a day – what a waste of carbon. Bookmarking can reduce your impact. A google search produces 0.2g of CO2, by bookmarking you can eliminate that.
4. Reduce your email storage
As an administrator, I love to have a copy of everything I have ever sent and received. Emails are my memory, what if I forget something! But by keeping all my emails in folders (or as deleted items) I am having an impact on the amount of storage the organisation needs for their emails. So, let’s trust our memory and permanently delete our deleted emails periodically to reduce our impact.
5. Attachments
We all send attachments back and forward. But have you thought about how much storage is required to keep sending and receiving them? Using central systems and sharing links reducing the environmental impact of sending stuff back and forward.
So, if I don’t send the email saying thanks any more…. Please know that I am squirming in my seat wishing I could… but we’d better try and do what we can to reduce our impact.
Training and Events
Climate and Carbon Literacy Training
23 January 2025, online.
Equip your staff with climate knowledge and actionable strategies to cut emissions.
CAfS also offer bespoke courses tailored to your organisation or community, the impact it has on the climate, and how to make a positive change.
News and Information
Free advice from CAfS’ Cold to Cosy Homes team
If you could do with some advice on making your home warmer and cheaper to heat, all Cumbrian residents can get a free telephone advice call and many are eligible for a free home visit.
Catalysing change: Six key takeaways from Green Careers Week
4-11 November was ‘green careers week’. A week which throws a spotlight on the growing opportunities for careers with sustainability at their core, and the emerging training demands required.
The definition of a ‘green job’ is also beginning to change.
Inside the Westmorland and Furness Green Enterprise Hub
The Westmorland and Furness Green Enterprise Hub has reflected on its efforts to help more than 150 businesses in the region to become more sustainable.
With funding from Westmorland and Furness Council, and the support of partners, the Hub seeks to help small businesses to reduce their carbon emissions, cut high energy bills, and increase efficiency.
Sarah Mann: Charities must stop seeing climate change as a separate issue
Friends, Families and Travellers’ CEO discusses why social charities should act on environmental crises…
“With hotter summers and colder winters, and everything in between, the environmental crisis is closer to home than some of us may think – just in the last week of October, Spain witnessed over 200 deaths due to heavy rain and flooding.
But the environmental crises do not affect all people in the same way. Some of the most disadvantaged and marginalised people in the UK will also be most affected by the climate and nature crises.”
The climate crisis – a critical threat to mental health
In this blog Emma Wills, researcher at The King’s Fund, considers the impact of the climate crisis on mental health, and calls for a holistic response that brings together mental health, environmental sustainability, economic security and societal resilience.
