Project Ceres Plastics Reduction, ISS with a Big Four Professional Services Firm
In response to the global plastics pollution problem and feedback from staff, a ‘Big Four’ professional services firm entered into a project partnership with ISS in 2018 to radically reduce plastic consumption across their twenty-three UK offices.
The ‘Project Ceres’ team was founded upon the principles of ISS’s Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy, ThinkForward@ISS, which commits to reducing carbon emissions, recycling and reducing waste and procuring sustainable products and services; and the Big Four firm’s UK Environmental Policy, which commits to ‘the prevention of pollution’ and ‘purchasing environmentally sustainable products’.
The Big Four firm no longer stocks branded plastic bags and now uses cardboard boxes for branded sweets and business cards as well as using stationary such as 100 per cent recycled fire padded envelopes instead of bubble wrap.
The project managed to cut 7.7 million items (57 tonnes) of single use plastic per year, delivering a 91% reduction in just eight months.
The judges were impressed by the success in such a short period of this potentially game changing project which is clearly right on the money in terms of current environmental issues
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