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Our new Sustainability Policy will help TOTEM design a greener tomorrow

The hottest June on record in Ireland, followed by the wettest July. It’s been a summer both to remember and forget, and due in no small way to climate change. Then there is the alarming loss of our biodiversity in Ireland, with more than half of our native plant species in decline, just 2% of the country left with native woodland, and more than a quarter of our regularly occurring bird species in danger of extinction.

The hottest June on record in Ireland, followed by the wettest July. It’s been a summer both to remember and forget, and due in no small way to climate change. Then there is the alarming loss of our biodiversity in Ireland, with more than half of our native plant species in decline, just 2% of the country left with native woodland, and more than a quarter of our regularly occurring bird species in danger of extinction.

The TOTEM Sustainability Policy

Something has to be done. By all of us. Individuals, households, businesses. It’s time to step up and get serious about sustainability. But for the team at TOTEM, that has to be about more than words – it’s got to be about taking action. It’s about making a commitment to minimising our environmental impact.

That’s why TOTEM has drawn up its first Sustainability Policy, a promise we’ve made to ourselves, and a contract we’ve made with the environment, something we‘re living and working by every day.

How we now work

If there was any one positive to come from the pandemic, it was the realisation that we can work and meet as effectively from our homes as we can from our desks or meeting rooms. So, earlier this year, TOTEM introduced an optional hybrid working model for our staff. This not only gives back precious time to our people in the morning and evening, and address their work-life balance, it’s resulted in a happier, more productive, more engaged team. It’s also helped us to attract top talent from diverse geographical locations, eliminating any need to relocate, and opening up opportunities to designers living in different cities, or even countries.

We always have, and always will, love meeting our clients in person, but embracing remote meetings has greatly reduced our travel-related carbon emissions. It also gives us, and our clients, more flexibility.

When it comes to the suppliers we work with, we now do everything we can to seek out those who share our sustainability values and prioritise sustainability in their operations too.

Energy-efficiency in everything we do

We’re working as efficiently as we possibly can in our day-to-day, right across the company, using only the most up-to-date equipment, and implementing a switch-off policy whenever it is not in use. We’ve refrained from using our heating between the months of May to September and try to use natural light as our primary source of working light wherever possible.

We’ve even embraced design management strategies that save on the physical and digital storage of documents and actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to design.

These are just some of the behaviours we’ve adopted in our office best practice policy. Our hope is that, by nurturing a culture of sustainability within our organisation, we’ll create a ripple effect that spreads out and touches all aspects of our work.

Our sustainability policy is an evolving, living thing

Sustainability is an ongoing journey that will present new challenges and opportunities. We will review our Sustainability Policy each year to make sure it stays relevant and compliant, and pinpoint where we can do better.

Our carbon footprint may be small, but we take it seriously. We’ve planted trees and commissioned a biodiversity mural on Abbeyside Bridge on the Greenway, while we continue to carry out pro bono work wherever we can and comply with relevant legislation, codes of practices, and legal requirements.

As we’ve said, for our team it’s about actions more than words. TOTEM is here to innovate, adapt, and inspire

Together, we’ll design a greener tomorrow.