At SimScale, we are convinced that companies play a fundamental role in the quest for a more sustainable world. Every action, no matter how small, is a grain of sand in the fight against global issues such as climate change and global warming.
For this reason, over the last two years, the ESG task force (i.e., a group of people from different departments who volunteer time during the quarter to work on environmental, social, and governance projects) has focused our efforts on raising awareness and taking small steps towards becoming a mature organization in terms of sustainability.
One example of this work was the focus group we held in September, led by Darren Lynch. In this meeting, we brought together different members of the SimScale team to discuss a very relevant topic: how does remote working impact our carbon footprint and what can we do to improve the situation?
Doing this type of activity is very important because while we know that remote working can be sustainable, we must identify potential pitfalls and act on them proactively. By understanding the environmental impact of our remote working practices, we can make informed decisions.
At the end of the session, we wanted to have a series of recommended actions to address the pitfalls we identified throughout our meeting… and we found them!
Some of the issues identified that negatively affect the environment when working remotely are:
- Central heating in home offices
- Travel to the head office for events
- Generation of plastic waste
Talking openly during the focus group helped us to share solutions that some of us were already implementing and to discover new ones during the brainstorming. Some points of agreement we came to were:
- Zoned heating will allow us to stay warm during working hours in our dedicated office/room. Instead of centrally heating rooms that are not in use, the heating can be turned on an hour before moving to those other rooms.
- Find and use more zero-waste shops. These places stock products but not in an individually packaged form. Encouraging shopping through these means would generate better consumption habits and a reduction in the use of unnecessary plastics.
- Purchasing energy-saving electronic devices would also help to reduce electricity consumption during the working day. During breaks or at the end of the working day, it is important to switch off or put equipment on standby to avoid unnecessary consumption.
- Encourage remote meetings and in case of travel, use the sustainability guidelines recommended by SimScale.
This was the first of many open talks SimScale employees will be holding on sustainability and what more we can do to care for our planet. We highly recommend that you take the time to talk about these issues with colleagues, family, and friends because while individual efforts are crucial, collective actions amplify the impact.
Stay tuned for more insights into SimScale and see what the team has been up to on our @lifeatsimscale Instagram feed. Want to start your own SimScale story? Make sure to keep an eye on our careers page for possible openings!
