International Mother Earth Day

On April 22 each year since 1970, Earth day celebrates the environmental movement and raises awareness about pollution and maintaining a clean habitat. This year's celebration for International Mother Earth Day, as designated by the United Nations, highlights the theme 'Restore Our Earth.'

As an organisation key to sustainable development, we at Bewsys celebrate Earth Day by looking at how our policies and actions influence the environment.

As we are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are keen on contributing to a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable pathways. Our shift to remote work was vital in driving our commitment to contribute to a cleaner environment. Generally, office buildings consume more energy than the average home. We have reduced our energy consumption rate at our office building by more than 70%. Though more than 90% of staff work remotely, a few employees commute to work to the nature of their roles. Nonetheless, fewer resources are consumed, and this has reflected hugely in our utility and supply expenses. 

Our employees can save money on gas, oil, and wear-and-tear on their vehicles, as they do not need to commute to work. A way to keep the environment safe and improve our climate situation is by decreasing fossil fuel usage. Global Workforce Analytics estimates that remote workers could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons every year, and that's just if people worked out of the office for only half of the workweek. Working remotely does a lot of good for the planet. Also, our employees create a less ecological footprint by eating from home and using less food packaging, which results in less plastic waste.

Additionally, we are a paperless office. As such, there is minimal physical paper, and instead, we use primarily digital documents. This helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It is estimated that 110Ibs of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when a tree is burnt. Trees are also 'carbon sinks,' and every tree that is not cut down for paper usage can absorb C02 gasses. Also, less time is spent on completing, filing, organising, and tracking paperwork; hence more time is spent on productive operations.

Besides our remote work policies, we encourage our staff to adopt a sustainable lifestyle by sending weekly reminders in our SDG newsletters.

If you are considering shifting to remote work, here is enough evidence to show the good you will be doing for yourself and society. With a more conscious and collaborative effort from organisations and employees, we can breathe cleaner air, face lower risks of premature death, improve our general wellbeing, and preserve the environment.