We will update this regularly with all our new Responsible Business Practice activity. Please feel welcome to have a browse around to learn what Kaplan Altior RBP is all about.
See you again soon!
Recently, Kaplan Altior has been celebrating its productive RBP Scheme. The RBP scheme at Kaplan Altior has been in place for a little over a year, and has encompassed a wide range of activity – which was highlighted week by week throughout July.
Each week, we drew attention to a different aspect of the scheme on the RBP notice boards. We reflected on what we’re doing to improve our own wellbeing, environmental impact, involvement in local community and our fundraising projects.
Key projects like the BitC-run Give and Gain day are exciting and dynamic ways of getting involved and pitching in within the local community. This year, a small group of us helped to re-paint areas of a school playground and design and paint a wall mural to brighten the playground area. It took a whole day, and we all felt a job had been well done.
To keep us all in tip top condition and improve staff wellbeing, we have a weekly fruit delivery for staff and we have recently invested in a selection of air-purifying plants to help with the air quality. It sounds simple, but having a mains-fed water cooler has also helped us all to drink more water through the day. Every six weeks of the academic term, students from the local Higher Education college come in to provide us with ‘holistic drop in’ sessions. They offer us relaxing Indian head massage, hand, shoulder and foot massage – and all the practise they have outside the college counts towards their assessments so they benefit from the sessions too!
We ‘banned the bins’ months ago and the amount of waste we are recycling is still on the up. On another environmental note, as our office is so close to so many transport links, almost everyone one of our team walks, cycles, trains or buses into work every morning. We have dramatically reduced the wastage on our promotional items, course note packs, office materials and deliveries. And, for any Cardiff-based deliveries, we are delighted to now be using Ben Allen of Big Blue Bike to pedal our deliveries around Cardiff in his fantastic cargo bike. We only ever order our kitchen consumables when they are fairtrade or rainforest alliance accredited. Our milk is locally delivered on a traditional electric milk float.
Our aim overall with the RBP scheme is to make a difference, have fun and make sure that there’s something for everyone to get involved in. We have had a positive response to all our projects from staff, so here’s to another 12 months!
Plants help clear the air and lift our mood.
After months of selecting the right types of plant to enhance the aesthetic qualities of our office and to benefit our health and wellbeing, the plants have now moved in. Plants are proven to be an effective way to improve the air quality in offices, and to have a positive psychological effect on staff.
Even better, our plants are already visibly growing, which hopefully means they like their new home! Of particular interest are the ZZ plants, which have both nearly doubled in size.
Give & Gain 2011 has been and gone and proved to be another success. This BitC run project is an engaging and dynamic way of getting involved and pitching in within the local community. This year, a small group of us helped to re-paint areas of a school playground and design and paint a wall mural to brighten the playground area. It took a whole day, and we all felt a job had been well done.
Posted by alana | Posted in Community | Posted on 09-06-2011
This month’s a busy one…
A jungle of plants should arrive in the office to ‘green’ our working environment, we have extra ‘heart friendly’ fruits in our delivery to raise awareness of this week’s British Heart Week, we’ll be trying to recycle everything we can in Recycle Now Week, and those of us who have a bike will be using pedal power to get to work for Team Green Britain Bike Week . In addition, 14 June is World Blood Donor Day - so if you can give blood, and there’s a donation centre near you, try to make it in!
A whole year has flown past already since the last BitC Give & Gain Day.
We’ll be taking part again this year, and will be helping out at another local primary school. It’s paintbrushes at the ready this year – as we are painting whole sections of the playground area, and a 10 metre long mural wall.
This year’s project is a big undertaking – it’s a lot to do in one day, so we will let you know how we get on!
We’ve a lot to be happy about today – the sun is shining, the Bank Holidays are getting closer and today is World Health Day. This year’s theme is Antimicrobial resistance and its global spread – why some drugs become less effective as resistance to them grows. In response to the overall idea of a world health day though, we’ll all be taking a lovely stroll around Bute Park in Cardiff – an opportunity to appreciate the beautiful park, our own health and the springtime.
Just a few of the things we will be keeping involved with this month are:
> The Great Daffodil Appeal: 1 – 31 March
> Comic Relief - 18 March (we’re holding an office pyjama party)
> World Poetry Day: 21 March. Here’s a poem by the current UK Poet Laureate:
Talent by Carol Ann Duffy
This is the word tightrope. Now imagine
a man, inching across it in the space
between our thoughts. He holds our breath.
There is no word net.
You want him to fall, don’t you?
I guessed as much; he teeters but succeeds.
The word applause is written all over him.
> World Water Day: 22 March - we’ll be trying to conserve ours with small gestures (like only filling the kettle with as much as we need).
> WWF Earth Hour: 26 March – we’ll be switching out lights off in the office during the week running up to Earth Hour day
> World Theatre Day: 27 March
It’s all happening in March 2011. With Fairtrade Fortnight in full swing, and World Book Night on Saturday, followed by Oxfam International Women’s Day on March 8th, there are plenty of things to keep us busy this month.
World Book Night’s got our vote (we just need to seek out the mysterious book-givers), much Fairtrade coffee is consumed each and every day in the office, and some of us will be trotting over to our local Oxfam Boutique to watch a fashion show next Thursday evening.
Feels nice to be involved, doesn’t it?
28 February – 13 March 2011 is Fairtrade Fortnight.
Events are running across the UK to increase awareness of Fairtrade, including tea and cake events, bunting making parties, coffee mornings, and here in Wales, free Fairtrade Homemade Welshcakes!
To find out what’s happening in your area, please click here to visit the Fairtrade website.
There we all were, raring to go in December for the British Heart Foundation’s Cardiff Santa Jog 2010. Then the snow and ice appeared and just before we all donned our funny hats, the event was postponed until January.
So, Sunday 23rd January came and went, and with a totally different line-up for the Kaplan Altior ‘Jingle Belles’ team, our Santas set off. Craig, Gary, (welcome ’guest belles’ for the day), Gemma, Jan, Lisa and Jody all made it round in one piece, with the fastest jog/stroll time being 35 minutes. Ho Ho Ho!
This annual event happens in different towns and cities (normally in December) every year. Entry fees go to the British Heart Foundation to help fund their charitable work supporting a variety of projects to promote heart health in the UK.
