Here at Wavelength, we complement our communication skills training for business professionals with social and environmental action. Here’s how.
We take social responsibility seriously
Within our own communities, we’ve seen the ways the pandemic has hit hard. A recent poll of our staff and associates revealed donations to Community Fridges (“leave what you can, take what you need”), food banks, and homelessness organizations. One staff member “adopted” a local family at holiday time through a community organization to help them with holiday bills and another helps organize a grassroots chili project to get food out to people experiencing homelessness. Yet another has been helping grant wishes through the Make-A-Wish Foundation for 15 years.
As a company, we donate to food banks and help raise funds for community organizations. We know we can do better and continue to look for ways.
Environmental sustainability is top of mind
With forest fire smoke in the news and in the air, environmental sustainability is top of mind for us. How can we create a sustainable future? How can we help mitigate the effects of climate change? Because we’re often asked about our sustainability policy, we know our clients care about these issues, too.
Here’s what we’re doing right now:
Carbon offsets
Before the pandemic, we delivered on-site training sessions for our clients and bought carbon offsets from less.ca when that meant air travel. What’s a carbon offset? In short, it’s payment in lieu of undertaking planet-saving projects ourselves: groups like less.ca apply our offsets to fund projects like planting trees, installing wind farms, and protecting old-growth forests. Those projects help offset the emissions produced by air travel with funds earmarked for climate-saving action.
These days, we’re also members of the Carbon Neutral Club, which helps us continue to offset our carbon footprint even when we’re not travelling to help continue funding planet-saving projects. The current suite of projects they support include low-carbon concrete production in Canada, Amazon forest preservation in Brazil, water filter distribution in Indonesia, wind-power production in China, and high-efficiency cookstoves in Rwanda. Membership also includes education on this subject and discounts on sustainable products and services.
Virtual office
Over the pandemic period, we transitioned to a remote company: with virtual headquarters, we’re now a fully carbon-neutral company. Rather than commuting to office space, we now meet at a central location in person once a month.
Virtual training
The pandemic also accelerated our plan to offer clients virtual business communication training sessions as well as in-person sessions. During the pandemic lockdown, we held sessions over Zoom and WebEx with international clients as far away as Europe, India, and Asia. Going forward, it’s a training model that means our participants have the choice of meeting virtually rather than flying to a central meeting place to attend multi-site training sessions. It’s a less expensive option for the clients and for the planet. Win-win!
Digital materials
We now offer fully interactive digital materials for participants who prefer to access them that way (quite a few do!) It’s an option that costs less and reduces the environmental toll of printing and shipping by land. Clients can still request paper manuals for an extra cost if they prefer to read and work that way.
Final words
Environmental stewardship continues to be a topic for discussion when we talk about sustainability and we’re committed to finding more and better ways to make sure our business practices contribute to a sustainable world.
We’d love to hear from you. What kind of changes would you like to see in the corporate world, or from us? How can we do better? We’re all ears.
