A "water balance" without PET

HUESKER Ltd.

Space2work Warrington
Winwick Quay
WA2 8LT Warrington
United Kingdom

Fábia tells

With our EcoHabitos project, we have proven that even entrenched patterns of behaviour can be changed sustainably — through persuasion, through an attention-grabbing campaign and through each individual employee.

EcoHabitos translates somewhat more freely as "environmentally conscious behaviour". First and foremost, this includes a considerate and intelligent use of our resources. We think that everyone should show a little more responsibility in this area. After all, waste avoidance and resource conservation starts on a small scale — in our company with a plastic water bottle.

The problem: 800 — even half-full — plastic bottles per month

Fresh and chilled drinking water is always freely available to our employees, and it should stay that way. Until now, however, the commercially available 550ml PET bottles have been taken out of the refrigerator without hesitation and often only half drunk. Waste generation was the main problem. This resulted in a monthly consumption of at least 800 bottles and a cost of the equivalent of 750 euros (R$ 4000.00). In addition, there was a large amount of plastic waste, because there is no deposit system in Brazil. It's high time to act and to act wisely. After all, it is not so easy to change entrenched patterns of behaviour from one day to the next. That's why it was our task to educate each and every one of our employees to the responsible use of water and PET. We have done a lot of educational work for this. The waste, the resulting plastic waste and the costs for the company were pointed out by us. We appealed for understanding, and we succeeded.

Our campaign: From water dispensers to T-shirts

The "Day of Change" was celebrated with a small ceremony in September 2019. That's why we all came together, and each employee received their own water bottle with their name on it. We positioned 20-litre dispensers with chilled, natural drinking water at various points so that the bottles could be refilled at any time. The PET bottle had had its day, and everyone should see that. For example, on our in-house TV channel or in our Whatsapp group. For a certain period of time, EcoHabitos, our campaign motto, was installed as a wallpaper on the computers, and on Fridays we proudly wore our campaign shirt. A variety of actions that strengthened our sense of togetherness and continue to this day. Not least because our marketing department did a great job and regularly communicated the results of our new "water balance".

Our track record is impressive: waste has been reduced by 60% and costs by 40%. We are proud of that, but we will not rest on our laurels. The next item is already on the agenda: paper consumption.

Overcoming the comfort zone

In the course of our internal campaign, we internalized one insight: In order to change habits in the long term, comfort zones must be overcome. This can only work if you do a lot of persuasion – for the good of the environment and the community.

Yours, Fábia