We are delighted to have had the opportunity to work with our placement student Jude Ratnayake and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors. Jude is currently undertaking an MSc in Leadership for Sustainable Development at Queen’s University Belfast, and who has been with SUKI for the last 8 weeks. It was amazing as a business to have Jude digging deep into analysing our Scope 3 emissions and building up concrete strategies for our Net Zero Carbon goals.
It's been a busy 8 weeks for Jude and the Environment Team at Suki. It is not the time for businesses to put their environmental impact on the back burner and we never like to sit still. Jude has left us with a very detailed list of strategies for improvements and we can’t wait to implement these – from public transport and car sharing incentives for team members, to eliminating waste throughout the Tea Factory.
On Jude’s last day we had a plastics expert in to train the team in all things plastic - reduce, reuse, recyle and end of life, as well as performing an audit on the business and creating strategies to ensure we as a business are proactive in tackling the plastic pollution crisis.
As a business, we strive to show leadership and, hopefully, radically change and influence both our network and consumer behaviours. We’re serious about our responsibilities and you won’t see us green-washing - that’s why we publicly state our efforts in sustainability and hold ourselves to the high standards of independent certification like Fairtrade (P.S. Happy Fairtrade Fortnight everyone!)
Our first step in communicating our commitment was through taking the CLIMATE ACTION PLEDGE led by BITCNI, of which we are founding members of the Responsible Small Business Network in Northern Ireland, and.. ahem… achieving Top Performing Small Business in the Environmental Benchmarking Awards 2021!
Last year the Suki Environment Team (which comprises half the company) also undertook a 3-month long Climate Action Programme and Carbon Literacy Training.
We are proud of our achievements to date but can’t sit still. Jude’s expertise and detailed analysis has really given impetus to our sustainability agenda and we wish him all the best in his future studies, work and life. Jude you are an absolute star – keep supping and changing the planet for the better .
We’re also looking forward to updating the Environment Leadership Team of NI on everything we’ve been up to at SUKI HQ at our meeting next week! Watch this space…
Responsible Plastic Management Program | RPM Program
Home - The Carbon Literacy Project
Environmental Benchmarking Survey | Business in the Community NI (bitcni.org.uk)
Environment Leadership Team | Business in the Community (bitcni.org.uk)
