One of our most important core values is: Caring. To reflect this, we have decided to place an even stronger focus on the subject of sustainability. To successfully complete various sustainability projects, there is another core value we rely on: Team Spirit. Through the engagement of every single employee from all our departments, we are committed to help our planet.
Sustainability is an ongoing, relevant and important concern for all of us. More and more people are asking themselves, what can I do to live in a more environmentally friendly way? And like many people, we have realised that the possibilities are almost endless. But what really matters is that every step towards sustainability, whether large or small, can help improve our environment. The well-known motto “the more, the better” applies perfectly to what we have in mind for our upcoming sustainability projects.
Our vision is that many employees, each with inspiring ideas for eco-friendly projects can achieve a much greater impact than if the whole of Congrex Switzerland just worked on one project. Therefore, each department carries out one sustainability project per quarter. All projects are selected by the teams themselves and need to be completed within this three month period. And of course, longer-term changes, like minimising the use of plastics, for example, will not stop after the end of the quarter. In summary, this means that eight projects will be carried out in each quarter of this year.
To give an idea of some sustainability projects, we would like to present a couple that have already been successfully completed.
Department: Meeting Planning
Project: Awareness for mindful clothes shopping – A month of ‘conscious shopping.’
The whole team did not buy any new clothes for one month. The goal of the project was to become more aware of our shopping behaviour and also to question in the future, whether we really need to buy a certain item of clothing. Most of our wardrobes are full anyway and it is surprising how many clothes we have that are hardly worn, or sometimes not worn at all.
Impressions from the team:
«At some moments it was quite difficult to resist, because you knew you were missing a bargain in a sale event.»
«Overall it went pretty well but at one particular point the temptation was almost too much, because I knew some pieces would go out of stock. Nevertheless, I did not weaken and it is truly not the worst thing to miss something like that.»
Conclusions:
The conclusion of the meeting planning department is that they will continue to carefully consider future online orders.
«You start to think twice about whether you really need to buy a certain item. Nevertheless, the whole team noticed that we had already been pretty conscious of our behaviour.»
Department: Registration and Accommodation
Project: Collect discarded masks and trash, followed by a barbecue with local products.
These two teams have noticed that lately an increasing amount of garbage and especially lots of face-masks are carelessly thrown on the ground where they can be a health hazard to our neighbourhood. With this project, they wanted to draw more attention to the problem and help fix it, in order to make at least a small step toward a tidier, and safer environment.
