This year we are hosting our 6th annual Green Week (13th – 17th June), and following the success of last year’s Man vs Machine Race, we have a lot to live up to!
Our feature event is the launch of our ’52 Big Ideas for Bristol’ book, and although the launch itself is sold out, you can still watch the ideas being presented via a live-stream on our Twitter account from 9am on Monday 13th June. Digital copies will also be available for download from the same time.
For the rest of the week, we have focused our theme on a subject everybody is interested in… Food! We will be looking at how we can make our food choices more sustainable, the impact our meals have on climate, water, waste and wildlife, with various talks and events throughout the week (including insect tasting!).
As always, we will be running our events in conjunction with Big Green Week and #BusinessGreenWeek, the latter an initiative we helped devise with Low Carbon South West and Business West.
Our Green Week Schedule
The following schedule shows what we will be doing throughout the week across our offices. We hope it will inspire you to do set up similar events, so let us know what you think, and share your photos on Twitter using #BusinessGreenWeek.
Think Global Monday
Looking at the bigger picture and getting to grips with large issues – climate change, conservation and resource depletion
- ’52 Big Ideas for Bristol’ Book Launch – Live streamed on our Twitter feed from 9am and available for digital download
- How your sandwich can change the world – A presentation from our Sustainability team on how our food choices impact the planet
- #SustainableSupper – Create an online gallery of how we eat in the evening, and whether there is a regional difference between our office diets.
- Sustainable Energy CPD – Simon Bradbury of Plymouth Uni will be teaching us about sustainable energy and billing performance
Act & Eat Local Tuesday
Asking and understanding where our food comes from. Celebrating and championing the local
- From parking to park – Transforming our front-of-house into a people and plant friendly space, with a trial of prototype furniture designed by one of our landscape architects, Sarah Jones-Morris
- Good Food Map – Creating a map for staff to tag suggestions for all good local, sustainably sourced food – whether it be a cafe, market or vegbox supplier
- Pop-up sustainable cafe – Local food supplier will be letting us sample their produce while telling us about their sustainable approach to business
- Passivhaus CPD – Rachel Mitchell, PhD researcher at the University of Bath and head of Green Box Consulting will be presenting her research into the post occupancy evaluation of Passivhaus homes
- Prison Breakfast – Our London studio will be visiting ‘The Clink’ restaurant at HMS Brixton prison
Low Impact Wednesday
Everything we eat has an impact – from how far it has travelled, how it was grown, how it was packaged
- Meat-free day – For one day, can you go meat-free? Make a pledge at www.parttimecarnivore.org and see how this positively impacts the planet
- Insect lunch – Ok, we know these are meat too! However, they are relatively low impact and hugely abundant. But, are they tasty? We are going to find out with a tasting platter!
- Strides Champagne – With Bristol City Council having controversially banned foraging, we will be creating our home-foraged elderflower champagne from produce in our gardens
- Insect Hotel – Our Cardiff office are creating a hotel for insects using recycled wood and brick samples, with the aim of helping the local bee population.
Better Travel Thursday
We’ll be discussing food miles on Tuesday, so today we’ll be talking about sustainable travel
- Travel to work together – Our Plymouth office will travel to work sustainably, and hold a lunchtime get together, ‘Let’s Talk About Bikes’
- Sustainable commuting update – A review of our travelling habits, how have we improved since last year?
- Clifton Village Travel to Work Event – Stride Treglown will be one of the main speakers at this BID Clifton talk, roadshow, buffet and wine-tasting, sharing our experience of sustainable commuting. If you would like to attend, contact carrie@bidcliftonvillage.co.uk
- England v Wales Euro 2016 – Stop people travelling around, turn a few computers off and get people around one TV to watch the football. That’s energy saving, right?
Feel Good Friday
Celebrating the best about food today – shared/homemade/locally-sourced/healthy/seasonal
- Stride Treglown bottle pavilion – Earlier this year we held a competition to design a pavilion in our garden. It was won by Tomasz Jemiol with his proposal for a cube made out of plastic bottles. The pavilion will create a semi-outside space we can use for the summer and highlight how much plastic we consume in packaging what we drink
- Yoga – Our Cardiff office will be getting supple with a yoga session, followed by smoothies
- Plymouth’s Quest Results – Throughout the week the Plymouth team are holding a ‘sustainability quest’, with results and prizes given out on Friday. What the quest entails is currently a secret…
- Food festival and smoothie bike – We’ll be rounding off the week with some local ciders, beers and English wine in our offices and office garden, including our very own Strides champagne and a smoothie making bicycle. We’ll also be announcing the winner of #SustainableSupper