Fast growth at ILG means we have more clients, people and warehouses than ever before. We acknowledge that our day-to-day business practices impact the environment and are determined to do our bit to minimise these effects. By setting sustainability as one of our four strategic pillars, we’re underlining our business-wide commitment to operating more sustainably and protecting the environment.
Sustainable September aims to promote our understanding of sustainability issues and embed greener practices across all our staff and facilities. It is one of many ILG initiatives designed to drive change and deliver a more sustainable future.
What are we Doing for Sustainability Already?
In 2018, we set ourselves a target to reduce our carbon footprint by 35% by 2023. We are proud to announce that we achieved this earlier in 2022, eight months ahead of the deadline! Now we’re setting newer, more ambitious targets to cut emissions even further.
We’re working hard to reduce our environmental impact in other ways too. In 2021 we switched all our energy contracts to green electricity and gas tariffs. Today, 100% of our waste is either recycled or used to produce electricity, with none sent to landfill. All our paper and cardboard is made from recycled materials or is recyclable. We’re also making sure that as we open new facilities, we replace our older warehouses with modern, energy-efficient buildings equipped with eco-friendly features such as skylights, solar panels, EV charging points and low-energy LED lighting.
Take a look at some of our latest green statistics below:
Of course, there is always more to be done, so ILG is dedicating the month of September to promote sustainability across our business.
What’s on During the Month?
We are holding a series of events including Recycle Week, various competitions, educational sessions, Green Day and sales of old customer stock.
To kick off the month and engage our teams, we held Green Day on Friday 2nd September, when ILG staff across all facilities got involved by wearing green clothing or accessories to show their support. Take a look at some of our Green Teams below.
ILG Upcycles
One of the competitions running throughout the month is ‘ILG Upcycles’, where staff submit their repurposing tips and ideas, together with photos and videos of how they gave new life to items that no longer served a purpose. This could be anything from turning old jars into birdfeeders, to searching second-hand stores for clothing to create new outfits. We’ve had some great submissions so far, including turning old vinyl into wall art and repurposing used furniture into new, rustic pieces.
To top-off the ‘reuse and repurpose’ message, we are also holding an old stock sale where staff can buy old items of our customers’ stock such as high-end shoes, children’s’ and women’s’ clothing, handbags and more for just £10. All the money raised will be donated to our charity of the year, Rockinghorse Children’s Charity.
Getting Everyone Involved
As well as lots of fun initiatives, the aim of Sustainable September is to educate our staff and try to embed greener practices among us all. During ‘Recycle Week’ our waste disposal supplier, Grundon, will be visiting our sites, answering questions and providing interactive activities and information.
Towards the end of the month, we are holding ‘leftover lunch day’ to encourage people to bring in their leftover food for lunches the following day, share their leftover meal ideas, and encourage others to reduce food waste.
We are also keen to learn what we can do better as a business. So, we are asking all our staff to fill in a simple questionnaire to tell us what they think ILG is doing well in relation to sustainability and areas where we can improve. We will use this information to inform our sustainable strategy moving forward. We’ve also set up a committee of Green Champions at all our sites to encourage more sustainable behaviors during our working days.
To conclude activities, we will release results of the competitions and all our winners will receive sustainable prizes! So far, Sustainable September has been really engaging and we look forward to the rest of the exciting events to come.
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