It’s the Great Big Green Week! The UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature – and everyone’s invited.

At Elmhurst we’re always reviewing how we can be more environmentally friendly, starting with appointing our own ‘Green Champion’ to getting involved with local conservation projects and completing an energy audit of our own premises and processes.

As part of Elmhurst’s ongoing commitment to both the environment and the local community, a select number of Elmhurst employees took time out of their normal work duties to volunteer their services.

Into the woods…

We swapped our office work space for a local nature reserve in the Outwoods in the national forest, spending the day working together to restore a woodland path for the enjoyment of the local community, as well as ensuring the maintenance of local habitats and biodiversity.

This was our way as a business to give back to the community and local habitat, as part of Elmhurst’s ongoing pledge to be more environmentally conscious and subsequently more environmentally friendly as a business.

The day started in typical ‘away day’ fashion by getting lost in the forest, but after spending several hours running up and down with wheelbarrows, suffice to say we knew a particular area of the woods very well! It was nice to see the work appreciated by several passersby who frequently use the route, and it was humbling to see how much work goes into maintaining our woods and nature reserves by council employees and volunteers alike.

Looking ahead

In the post-COVID environment, Elmhurst intend to be at the forefront of corporate environmental awareness, with hopes that our volunteering will raise awareness and encourage other businesses and the public to take action to tackle climate change and protect biodiversity.

The event itself was a great success, with further events planned in the future as part of our ongoing pledge to give back to our local community and green spaces.

With this in mind, we encourage all individuals to make their own pledges to improve their carbon footprint. Examples of methods that each individual can use to improve their impact on the environment are:

• Switch to a renewable energy supplier
• Reduce the amount of energy you use, through the usage of smart meters and usage monitoring
• Spend more time in nature, doing our bit where possible to maintain and restore habitats
• Share environmentally friendly ways with friends and family and encourage each individual to be more environmentally conscious

To find out more visit https://greatbiggreenweek.com/