Celebrating Spark’s Green Initiatives: from Easter Eggs to Steps Challenges

Here at Spark, we pride ourselves on keeping abreast of the latest news – but you don’t need to be an expert to know the climate crisis is a major story right now. Something that really stuck with me recently when I was watching Barack Obama’s Our Great National Parks was the quote “we are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change, and the last generation who can do something about it.”

But amongst all the doom and gloom, what really stood out to me about the documentary was how it put a positive spin on the story, celebrating what we have achieved so far with protected wild spaces and species, and highlighting what more we can do.

So that’s what I thought I’d do here – share some of the things we’ve been doing at Spark to make a difference, no matter how small. Here are five planet-friendly behaviours we’ve adopted in recent months:

1. Reusable Water bottles

As single-use plastics like straws and cutlery (rightly) become illegal in many places – England, the EU and Australia to name a few – all Spark employees were given a reusable bottle.

These aren’t just any bottles though! In addition to being customised with an engraved Spark logo and a snazzy orange colour, each one of these Ocean Bottles pledges to take 1,000 plastic bottles out of the ocean. So far, the company has removed over 5 million kgs of plastic that could have damaged wildlife.

2. Vegan month

In November, Spark pledged £2 for every lunch or dinner we swapped for a vegan option. Over the course of four weeks, the Spark team debated the best brand of oat milk, shared curry recipes, and tips on where the best discounted vegan burgers were near the office.

According to Vegan Calculator, being vegan for a month can save 30 animals, 281 kilograms of CO2 and 278 square meters of forest. We raised over £400 for charity in the process – check out our blog here!

3. Palm-oil free eggs

Food and drink is definitely a running theme here. It’s fair to say a few of the Spark team are foodies (check out our blog on the best spots to eat), and we were delighted to be given palm-oil and plastic-free Easter eggs recently.

Palm-oil is the world’s largest contributor to deforestation, which in turn kills our carbon sinks and harms the biodiversity we rely on. Did you know that 25% of Western medicines are derived from rainforest ingredients, but we’ve only tested less than 1% of the plants in the rainforest? Cures are out there – but we’ve got to protect these spaces to find them!

4. March for March!

Now to shift those calories - our annual steps challenge was back this year bigger than ever! We tracked our hiking, walking, and running on the Pacer app, totalling a massive 5,689,959 steps to unlock a £650 prize for charity. This year Michelle reigned supreme, choosing to support Prostate Cancer UK for her almost half a million steps.

Walking is carbon-neutral, so choosing to walk rather than drive or even take public transport is a really easy swap to make. You can read the full blog on the challenge here.

5. The green team

Individual members of the Spark team have their own green initiatives to celebrate! Chris uses solar power electricity, Hannah grows her own food, and Andy cycles to work. Meanwhile, Kelly and myself are both huge fans of the outdoors – you’re sure to find us hiking up a mountain somewhere!

Small steps soon add up

From Easter eggs to step challenges, these five things are just a few examples of how we can be greener in our day-to-day lives. You may say in isolation we are hardly saving the world, but combined together, these kinds of actions can make a big difference to our planet.