Pro Motion Hire’s Sustainability Story
You may or may not know that Pro Motion Hire has been on a journey towards sustainability since the beginning of 2021. Pro Motion’s Directors are passionate about the environment and realise with all the issues facing the planet, that the biggest contribution we could make to reduce our collective impact would be at work. Initially, we were looking at recycling and plastics – brainstorming how to be more environmentally friendly this led to looking for support and then, in turn, a more sustainable approach that touches every aspect of the business.
What started with a will to become carbon neutral quickly developed into investing in our business and our team by working with a specialist consultant to help us ensure we were prioritising more than just carbon neutrality and net zero as our “sustainability objectives” and instead focusing on building a resilient business that is prepared for the future, while also actively reducing our environmental impact.
As we know, the impacts of Climate Change will have a real and direct impact on our communities and our company, so naturally, reducing our GHG emissions is very high on our propriety list.
Surveying the (emissions) situation
We are in the process of completing our first ever CO2e Footprint for 2021 – aka our baseline – so that we can ensure we have a clear starting point to work from to ensure we reduce our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions year on year in line with global targets while continuing to offer a safe, enjoyable working environment to our team and top quality services to our valued clients.
We will be sharing our numbers on our social media channels (and in our sustainability report at the end of the year) so we have nowhere to hide if we don’t meet our targets in the coming years.
It turns out that gathering all the right data for a baseline footprint is a time-consuming and, at times, arduous task and because of this is taking a lot longer than we had hoped to be able to get going with our reduction strategy.
Ecologi
While we know offsetting is not the solution to our Net Zero ambitions, we also believe that it has its time and place. To help us on our journey (while working out a reduction strategy) we have been working with Ecologi since April 2021 to offset our company and staff emissions.
We decided to work with Ecologi because their approach to ‘offsetting’ is not just planting trees (they do that too, of course – but as a future solution) but investing in emission reduction solutions – in collaboration with the Indigenous communities in which these projects operate.
Since April 2021, we have saved 620.43 tonnes of GHG emissions from entering the atmosphere through verified and certified offsetting projects and planted 9,862 trees across global reforestation projects from mangroves in Madagascar to restoring Polylepis forests in Argentina!
Collaboration for our goals
As with most companies, the largest portion of our emissions come from our supply chain. In order to reduce our supply chain (scope 3) emissions in line with science-based targets and the GHG Protocol, we are actively prioritising choosing suppliers that share our values and commitment to a fairer, greener and more socially just world.
The beauty of sustainable procurement is that it encourages other businesses to take action towards better social and environmental practices, so collectively we can have a greater positive impact.
We also share ideas and best practices with other hire companies to help the wider industry transition more quickly. Barry Bassett at VMI has led the way with the Rental Industry Sustainability Group, and it’s a pleasure to take part in the quarterly meetings and share all our small and big wins as a group. I don’t know any rental houses not taking this seriously and making strides.
We also know that we couldn’t possibly achieve our goals if our team weren’t on the same journey; that is why their involvement and participation are essential to our plan. We have a system in place whereby they can contribute ideas and have agency in how we approach these complex issues.
An Environmentally Responsible Business
Over and above just looking at our GHG emissions, we have proactively integrated an Environmental Management System into our everyday practices and procedures. We believe that being aware of our potential impacts before they are a problem can not only saves us money (and face) but demonstrates to our team and clients that we are taking our environmental stewardship seriously.
While we have chosen not to go for any kind of 3rd party certification at this time, we are acting as if we were. Even having a dedicated (external) Environmental Advisor on our team to ensure we are taking the right action at the right time and using our resources responsibly.
Positive Steps:
- Turning off lights, computers, and other equipment when not in use – helping us reduce costs and emissions
- Replaced cable ties with Velcro ones.
- Removed plastic bagging materials for lenses and filters, and replacing them with reusable glassine pouches – reducing single-use plastic waste, and avoiding the pitfalls of “biodegradable plastic.”
- Using Rework for recycling PPE and other hard to recycle plastics.
- Using Staze to book hotels, and reduce travel-related GHG emissions through hotels that are actively reducing their own emissions!
- Using Ecosia as our standardised search engine, which partners with communities to restore and protect biodiversity hotspots through their ad-revenue.
Work In Progress:
- Removing tungsten lighting from our inventory – this is 90% complete.
- Solar power for our Manchester office.
- Composting food options for both North and South – in talks with our suppliers and building.
- Removing polyboard from our inventory.
If you have an idea to help us improve Pro Motion’s eco-ethical journey, you can share it with us here.
Read our Environmental and Human Rights pledges to learn more.
