From small actions to meaningful impact - sustainability in practice
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Sometimes, it’s the most unglamorous things that can make the biggest difference. That’s one of the messages from our Compliance & ESG Director, Sarah Griffin, in her latest blog, where she shares an example of how Unitrust is turning its commitment to sustainability into practical action
This week, members of the Unitrust team volunteered to spend an afternoon helping to clean up a section of the River Thames. It is the second year we have taken part in a river clean, and it is one of those activities that perhaps doesn’t sound particularly glamorous. There is no conference room, no presentation and no complicated strategy. It is just a group of people, some litter pickers, a few bin bags and a willingness to get stuck in.
We believe we have a responsibility to the communities in which we work and live and to the environment we all share. As a business, we are committed to reducing our environmental impact but we believe that this is about what we actually do and not simply what we say.
Sometimes the most practical actions can have the biggest impact. A piece of plastic removed from the river is one less piece of rubbish in the environment and an area left cleaner for wildlife and better for the people who enjoy the river.
There is also an impact on the team taking part. Giving up an afternoon to something positive together is a valuable experience in itself. It gets people away from their desks and usual routines, working alongside colleagues in a completely different environment and doing something that has a tangible outcome.
This is another reason why I value activities like this as they remind us that making a difference does not always require a large budget. This river clean is not costing us a significant amount of money, what it costs us is our time.
I recognise that time is something that every business has to manage carefully but giving a few hours to do something worthwhile is an investment well worth making.
ESG can sometimes feel like it has to be a big conversation with big targets, big initiatives and significant change, but ultimately progress is also made through lots of small practical actions.
Giving our time to picking something up that should not be there and leaving the place better than we found it is not glamourous, but it really matters.
At Unitrust we will continue to look for those opportunities which we know won’t make impressive headlines or win awards but because they are the right thing to do.
Sometimes the most unglamourous things have the biggest impact and are the most rewarding too.
