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Medcom’s 2021 Sustainability Goals

A new year means new resolutions! Even for us, here at Medcom. Our sustainability efforts have been building over the years, but this is the year we are really extending our efforts!

I think we can all agree it was pretty hard this past year to keep our impact sustainable and low-waste. Because of COVID-19, a lot of businesses reverted to single-use plastics. It quickly became unsafe to bring your own reusable products to coffee shops and grocery stores. We all took these discouraging, but very necessary steps to keep ourselves, and others, safe. For this reason and so many others, we all deserve to cut ourselves some slack this year as far as how unsustainable we've been. I'm doing my best to not make myself feel too bad. However, we can still make up for it this coming year. Let’s go over some of the things we want to accomplish and why we want to accomplish them.

 

 

  • Create a sustainability policy. A sustainability policy can look different for every business or individual. For Medcom, this will probably outline what sustainability means to our employees and our commitment to that. A policy like this can help make it very clear to our clients and stakeholders where our priorities lie. 

 

  • Measure our current footprint. How can we know how far we've come if we don't know where we're starting? As Medcom continues to make strides to make our business more sustainable in and out of the office, we'll need to first figure out what our impact is now. In the coming year, we will learn to measure things like, how much electricity are we using? How much water are we using? Then we can use that as a jumping-off point to see how much we've improved by this time next year. 

 

  • Reduce the use of paper and printing. This seems like a pretty straightforward one, but honestly, I think it'll be tough. I'm a very visual person, so I find myself printing out a lot of things so I can see how they look, or so I can highlight important things and make notes on them by hand. Start by making a list (electronically, of course) about all the ways you can reduce your own paper waste at the office and then share it with your colleagues.

 

  • Live plants in the office. I know what you're thinking, how is this sustainable? But plants are a wonderful way to purify the air in the office, add to the atmosphere, and bring something alive into the office! Also, it can be cheaper than commercial air purifiers. 

 

  • Bike rack outside the building. Adding a bike rack outside of the office to encourage employees to bike to work! If more employees biked, it would significantly reduce the carbon footprint just from omitting fewer vehicle emissions. 

 

  • Support sustainable business! We can reduce our impact by supporting businesses that are making efforts to do the same! Also supporting smaller local businesses versus larger, international businesses can also reduce our footprint and it's important to support local businesses! 

 

No matter what your sustainability goals or new years resolutions are, just remember that every little bit counts! A lot of Medcom's inspiration to be a more sustainable company is due in part to our partnership with Earth Charter International. If you have any questions on what you can do to be more sustainable, or about our partnership with Earth Charter and what they do, you can contact us at earthcharter@medcombenefits.com. You can also visit their website, https://earthcharter.org/


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