In October last year we took part in a ‘values challenge’, as part of an inspiring event organised by Ramsay Patterson.
We were encouraged to choose just one of our organisation’s values and think about how that value could be better embedded on our organisational culture, then decide on one step to take to help make a change.
The challenge was brilliantly useful at sparking new thoughts and ideas in all sorts of areas, as well as re-enforcing some of the actions and practices already embedded in our culture. However, the specific value we chose to take tangible action in relation to was our value of ‘positive impact’.
This is how we define positive impact in our company constitution….
Positive Impact; We carefully consider the impact of our actions on clients, colleagues, society and the planet and strive to positively impact as many lives as possible through our work and philanthropic endeavors.
We have rented an office in Wells for a number of years and, without really questioning it, commute to and from the office each day to work. We calculated that, over a year, our collective commute contributes around 6.15 tons of CO2 emissions.
Our clients also told us that they prefer us to visit them in their own homes where they feel comfortable and have access to financial paperwork, or chat via telephone or Skype.
So, in order to reduce our carbon footprint while at the same time providing a better experience for our clients, we have taken the decision to close the office from the beginning of April and work remotely.
There were a few details to iron out, the most complex being how we would handle our post. We have arranged for a PO Box address within cycling distance of our office manager’s house so he can collect the post daily and maintain his health at the same time – another win win!
Our new address, with immediate effect, is:
Find Peace of Mind Limited
PO Box 5309
Glastonbury
BA6 0BX
On the positive impact theme, so far this financial year we are proud to have planted 56 trees for income generation in Kenya and given 40 horticulture training sessions to children in need as part of our partnership with Business for Good.
Why not take on your own values challenge - think about the things that are important to you, the people, activities or experiences that you value. What one step can you take to make a positive change?