Caítlín Flanagan is Project Lead on both initiatives, and she takes us through the thinking behind them. The first of these involved a beautiful piece of art that was created from potential waste as a result of one of our teams moving to a new building. It’s completely made from pieces of technology that would otherwise have been recycled.
“The project is the brainchild of a local organisation called Earth Art, who create artistic environmental solutions for corporate campuses,” Flanagan explains. “They support local artists in accessing corporate funds, allowing them to use their artistic skills to benefit the environment.”
“This piece is visually stunning – but also makes use of a revolutionary ecological paint (Graphenstone) that removes CO2 from the air during its carbonation process, naturally filtering and cleaning the environment which surrounds it. One square metre of the paint will absorb as much CO2 as an adult tree, when applied to a building.”
Flanagan added: “It’s lovely to see things like broken keyboards that had been sitting in cupboards turned into a piece of art for everyone to enjoy, and it’s a highly creative and effective way of demonstrating the true power of recycling.”
The second initiative is delivered through a partnership with ReLearn, and Deloitte are the first company in Ireland to avail of their exciting new NANDO technology, which is a form of artificial intelligence to help monitor what rubbish is going into what bin. ReLearn is an Italian organisation with a mission of “nurturing a conscious waste-free world by making data meet people.”
Flanagan explained: “What this means in practice is that we have sensors on our waste bins, which let us monitor how we’re segregating our waste. There is an iPad interface that allows our people to check which bin their waste should go into. We get a percentage view on a monthly basis, giving us a yardstick for measuring improvement in correct waste segregation.”
“One of the scores we receive through the ReLearn monthly report for our waste is our ‘People Score’. This indicates the percentage of correctly differentiated waste items and is calculated as the number of correctly differentiated objects divided by the total number of items thrown in based on the weighted average.”
The iPads that our people can interact with at the point of disposal are the first way that we communicate to drive change. This is also supported by numerous other communication touch points including through our sustainability networks and we hope to see continued improvement over the coming months.
Flanagan sums up the impact so far: “Since the launch of the NANDO technology in April, we have seen a month-on-month improvement in our people score, with a 7% increase, and data-driven insights to support how we communicate with our people on areas of waste disposal they may find more challenging. This initiative supports our strategic desire to significantly reduce waste as well as Sustainable Development Goal 12- responsible consumption and production.”
