WPR > People & Planet
THE PEOPLE AND THE PLANET
Talking CSR is never something that gets people on their edge of their seats but
we’re in PR and like to think we know how to put a positive spin on things. So, when the prod of social conscience became too much to ignore, we asked people
at WPR to become our “chico -warriors” – and several jumped at
the chance.
They might have thought we had the launch of a clothing allowance in mind; but no,
we had something far more meaningful up our sleeves. To help us to become a better
organisation all round.
We know we can’t change the world, but we can certainly do our bit. And that’s what we’ve being doing, bit by bit.
- Lots of people say it, but we really mean it. There's more to life than work. We don't work our employees to the bone: we only give people as much work as they can realistically get through and, as an added bonus, everyone gets their birthdays off. We actually think that's the secret to our success. Clients get a good service and staff get a good night's sleep - everyone's a winner.
- Much less exciting but just as important (honest) - we have ISO9001: 2008, are currently
going for Investors in People and have signed all staff up for the Chartered Institute
of Public Relations' Continual Development Programme.
- And, every Friday it's "Wine and Wotsits" before home. If there's a better way to
end the week, we challenge you to find it.
- In 2003, we told people they had to use both sides of the paper before getting rid. They started to do just that and our paper consumption was cut by some 40% - overnight.
- We also started to recycle - paper, ink cartridges, magazines, the lot.
- In 2004, petrol cards were officially abolished. It's amazing how much travel comes
down when the price goes up.
- In 2005, we went all tecchie and set up remote access to company emails. That's
helped to keep us off the road - a little.
- We also set up a teleconference service for clients. No one wants to sit on the
M6 if they don't have to.
- We believe in share and share alike too. One meeting, one car - and that's the rule.
- Our building still needs some work to get up to scratch but we're working on that now. Most bulbs are now low energy and those that aren't will be switched soon.
- And if you do happen to meet us, you should find we only give one colour document
per presentation. If not, we want to know why.
- All staff have set their home page to "everyclick.com" rather than Google, helping
to raise money for charity everytime they search the net.
- Many of us have also walked miles and miles to raise money for St Basils too - and
a few of us have spent the night sleeping (or at least trying sleep) in an open
car park in late November.
- Sometimes, we even pay to wear our jeans to work - raising money for Jeans for Genes.