Environment
Ever since we started researching the impact of businesses on the environment we have become obsessed. Luckily our Facilities team is excellent and already had most of it covered with a programme of work underway that builds on previous work of investigations into everything from our energy suppliers to measuring the length of run-time in the taps to minimise water waste. Although, we have been largely remote from the buildings in Dublin or Belfast since March 2020, work progresses regardless.
Lights
The lights in the office come on automatically when movement is sensed. This is a little nerve-wracking when you first walk into a pitch-black bathroom but the lights do come on after a second or two. Most of the time. Ok, always.
Water
We replaced battery-operated sensor-triggered taps in the bathrooms with the push-down variety, thereby reducing the run time from 23 seconds to 16 seconds per use. In a recent bathroom refurbishment we fitted sensors in the urinals to reduce automatic flushing, particularly overnight and when not in use.
Waste management
We separate dry recyclables from non-recyclable waste.
Heating and air-conditioning
Our heating and air-conditioning is centrally controlled by Facilities' BMS (Business Management System), to ensure an ambient temperature of 16 degrees. If the air outside the building changes our BMS adjusts accordingly. Despite the best efforts of our Facilities team, there has never been a single recorded instance of everyone being happy with the temperature at their desk at the same time.
Christmas tree
We buy our Christmas tree from a member of the Irish Christmas Tree Growers. The Irish Christmas Tree Growers represents those growers who are committed to producing trees to the highest standards and in an environmentally sustainable and professional manner. We choose a real tree instead of an artificial one, because Conifer trees remove carbon from the atmosphere and release oxygen. Between 'oil' or 'soil', i.e. plastic (non-renewable resource) or real (beneficial to the environment), we choose the latter. Once Christmas is over, and we are miserably wondering why we ate so much chocolate, the tree is collected and mulched for compost.
Cleaning supplies
We examine the CSR charters of our suppliers, and pay particular attention to chemicals in products and request alternatives to be used instead.
Single-use plastic
We introduced 7oz compostable water cups to accompany the water coolers on all floors. In 2020 we purchases branded bottles and cups, as well as compostable single-use cups for water and hot drinks.
Paper
While we moved to digital-only for most communications in 2020, we still produce textbooks for students and other printed materials for members, and we are actively investigating the sourcing and use of all paper used. The tax textbooks are now available on Kindle and CharteredTextbooksOnline, piloted in 2019, with many more books which students can read online or on tablets. Accountancy Ireland is actively promoting digital alternatives to print, and Briefly, Extra, The Career Guide, Abroad, Vision and the upcoming financial services magazine are online only. The magazine now uses heavier paper stock and the paper used is sourced from sustainable, ecologically managed forests and is 100% recyclable. It is delivered in Dublin by An Post, whose fleet is now zero-emissions in Dublin City.
The CPD brochure printing was reduced by 75% in 2020 and sent to targeted recipients only. During 2020, we migrated our CPD programme online, building a portal for live webinars and redirecting staff to support it.
In addition to hosting all exams online, we also launched a Learning Hub in 2020, a new online portal to host all the course materials, recorded lectures, notes and links to live webinars.
The roof
We have two families of seagulls living on the roof of Chartered Accountants Ireland in Pearse Street. We’re not friends with them, as they try to steal our lunches (and they are unbelievably noisy), but we love them and like to think that they love us. For this reason, we have abandoned our plans to install a beehive on the roof or plant a roof garden (Also, our roof is inaccessible to all but the most harnessed-in specially qualified staff, who can look a seagull in the eye and continue with their work.) We leave the roof to them. If only they would leave the street and our sandwiches to us, but there you go. Can’t win them all.
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