HUC colleagues celebrate a “Green Clean Week”
As a social enterprise with a strong community focus, HUC is dedicated to increasing awareness of sustainability amongst colleagues as part of its Green Plan.
Starting on Monday 17 April, over the course of the week, a team of committed Green Ambassadors within the organisation organised and ran a “Green Clean Week” ahead of Earth Day to get colleagues involved in this commitment. The week was packed with a range of different activities locally including litter picking, charity clothes donations, stationery swap and walk-to-work days. The Green Ambassadors and like-minded volunteers focused their efforts on HUC’s NHS 111 contact centres in Peterborough, Welwyn Garden City, Bedford and Taunton as well as the Town Centre Surgery in Luton. In many conversations as part of the activities, they also encouraged colleagues to swap ideas on how to save energy and what they are doing to protect the environment.
A successful week at HUC
The week was a great success and the Green Ambassadors collected a total of 53 bags of clothes for reuse by HUC staff, more than doubling the target of 25 bags they set for the campaign. All clothes for reuse were to support Bags2School and the projects they run across the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia and funds raised will be used to plant trees.
One Green Ambassador made an interesting discovery whilst litter picking along the boundaries of Ascots Lane in Welwyn Garden City. Vicki Bean, Head of Market Development at HUC says, “I was picking up rubbish in the hedges that surround the estate where our contact centre is based and along with a flower pot, the top of a casserole dish and a toothbrush, I came across two air rifle guns deep in the undergrowth! They looked they had been there a while as they were really very rusty with various parts missing, but nonetheless, my inner detective was quite excited about the discovery.”
“I phoned the police and reported my find and later that day Hertfordshire Constabulary took the rifles back to the police station and they were made safe by Firearms Officers. I told them if they ever needed a hand in the future DI Bean was always available!”
Jamie Murray, Governance Manager at HUC says
“The Green Ambassador group really started as part of our commitment to sustainability and the launch of our Green Plan last year. It has been brilliant working with so many like-minded people and the amount of engagement we have seen over the past week, especially the clothes donations were a huge success.
It was really positive to see the local initiatives being taken at every site involved in the Green Clean, as well as tying in with the delivery of our new hybrid fleet vehicles which will significantly reduce our environmental emissions. We are now considering the tips and feedback colleagues shared with us during the week, and will be planning our next campaigns to share ideas and get even more people involved.”
