Loyalty Pro and the Environment
Having read many worthy but dull environment policies, I’ve decided plain English is the way to go on this, here’s a snapshot of the measures we have taken in recent times:-
· We have cut our business journeys down dramatically for many years by using remote meeting technology. In the early days - last millennium it was a bit clunky (Microsoft NetMeeting anyone?) , and most people didn’t have the tech or bandwidth to get satisfactory results. But since Covid came along both the tech and the willingness to use it have moved on. Last year we made less than a dozen business trips. We will continue to use remote tech wherever possible.
· We’ve changed our technology to assist with this, moving away from on-site tablets which need to be installed and supported on site. We mostly supply browser based loyalty systems, which need no additional hardware or site visits, with training being actioned remotely via zoom/teams.
· We have migrated many customers to our app based loyalty card. Meaning a reduction in the numbers of physical plastic cards that we supply. However, we are advocates of hybrid loyalty systems which give customers choice and are much more inclusive across the demographic, hence some cards may still be part of the solution, in which case we now supply cards made of recyclable materials.
· We give our clients choices, and paper vouchers are one of them, but we advocate our email voucher system where practical, which does not require the recipient to print to redeem.
· We’ve changed our working practices to allow employees to work from home where practicable, and we also promote commuting by bicycle and e-Scooter.
· We’ve downsized our office to use less heating, we hot desk now, and have reduced our number of seats by 40%. The new office windows are shaded by real trees outside, so we’ve be able to ditch the portable air-con to reduce our energy consumption still further.
· The company vehicle (which doubles as my daily drive – we don’t need a dedicated van) now has solar power, so we work and run demonstrations from within it without plugging into the mains.
· Our community loyalty systems are designed to encourage people to “shop local” to reduce vehicle journeys as well as supporting local businesses, and this is an area we hope to see growth in over the coming years.
We’ll continue to work to reduce our own carbon footprint even further in the future…. and look for ways we can help our clients reduce theirs too.
In a nutshell - that’s our policy.
One planet, we don’t have a spare….
Rob Meakin.
M.D.
