Our responsible business strategy has in the last six months become more integrated into life in Acacia. Sustainability affects everyone and there is very little in an organisation that is not touched by our efforts to be more sustainable. Consequently, we discuss below how it has affected three groups of stakeholders in Acacia – employees, clients, and suppliers.
Employees – We have focused our sustainability efforts on increasing our employee’s knowledge and awareness of the importance of sustainability. We rolled out training for all employees to make sure that everyone understands the core parts of sustainability and why it is important. Among our staff we now have sustainability champions. We take their suggestions on board for ways to improve our sustainability efforts in small ways across the company which work towards a cumulative effect. The last three months have included the launch of the Employee Wellbeing Strategy. It recognises that the pandemic has affected everyone’s wellbeing. Some of the features of our strategy have included actively discouraging our employees working outside of normal working hours. We also encourage employees to take care of their mental health by assisting them in gaining access to free and confidential assessments, referrals, and short-term counselling.
Clients – In speaking to our facilities managers, our clients value our new initiative and have become interested in what we are doing to become more sustainable such as our improvements in energy efficiency for our head office through sensor technology and purchasing renewable energy. It means that we are aligned with our clients as they value sustainability too. Our onsite teams are becoming more involved in day-to-day sustainability activities and are now finding ways to incorporate it into everyday activities within our client’s premises. The increase of sensor technology means that on demand cleaning is requested more. Our teams are also responding to client requests for more sustainable practices like the removal of single use plastics from coffee docks and canteens. These are only some of the ways that we are helping our clients.
Suppliers – Our sustainability efforts have been recognised with a silver medal awarded by the global sustainability rating body, Eco Vadis. Part of the sustainability rating involves inviting some of our suppliers to participate in this too. This means that sustainability has become a point of discussion with our key suppliers and is not relegated to something that we do once but is consistently being incorporated into our business. Benefits of our suppliers joining Eco Vadis means that it increases our confidence that our suppliers meet our standards for ethical practices, environmental processes and aligns with one of our chosen SDGs of practicing responsible consumption and production (SDG 12).
Sustainability has become an integral part of how we work in Acacia and touches every aspect of our business. We continue to work towards our sustainability goals for 2022 and continue to contribute to our client’s sustainability efforts. Contact us here to discuss how our facilities management services can help your business achieve its sustainability goals and improve your workplace.
