Tread lightly on the Earth and leave nothing but footprints
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CJS has always tried to be a low impact business, using recycled paper and inks long before it was fashionable to do so, indeed in the early days it wasn't always easy to obtain sustainable, environmentally friendly products particularly when you consider that we used 3-4 boxes of A4 every week (yes boxes, that's 15-20 reams) and a similar number of toner cartridges. We were delighted to find a company that would supply recycled paper in bulk even if it did have to be shipped from London to North Yorkshire and a firm in Middlesbrough that would refill the toner cartridges. I think at peak printing in the early 2010s we used 6-8 boxes* of paper a week, by then we had our own large scale printers so the ink usage was different. However, times have changed and we're really aiming at the paperless office, business is conducted by email and documents are digital ones which are stored rather than printed. However, the office does use quite a lot of electricity running the server and all the computers which with remote working are running for longer than when the office was occupied every day; we're on a 100% renewable energy contract - even so it's an eye watering bill. The volume of water used by the office has dropped significantly though; we must have drunk a LOT of tea!
In 2019 we signed up with 9Trees to offset what little carbon the business does produce by planting and caring for trees that are part of their community woodland initiatives, the first trees were planted in March 2020 just before lockdown and will be nurtured into new biodiverse woodlands of native trees over the next 50 years.
When recycling and energy efficiency began to become less niche CJS advertised the jobs, increasing from 2% of total vacancies advertised in 1996 to a peak of just over 10% in 2004, however we found that many of the jobs were not really relevant for traditional CJS readers and stepped back from the more engineer based roles and stopped actively sourcing waste reduction and energy jobs to focus on wildlife and countryside once again. Things are turning full circle as it's becoming ever more apparent that we need to use and manage the land to stand a chance of getting anywhere near net zero but biodiversity net gain is something that's more easily in our grasp and that needs countryside managers.
As Roberta Antonaci, Policy and Advocacy Manager at Our Bright Future said: "Often when green jobs are discussed, we hear about wind turbine engineers, home insulation installers, or people managing green finance initiatives. But some of the most vital green jobs involve working directly with the natural environment, whether it’s ecologists, hedge layers, nature reserve managers or environmental educators." Read the full article: Your new job: could it be greener than you think? here.
With the UK Government supporting countryside management projects with green grants as part of the build back better scheme to help meet targets set at COP26 and by their own advisers, the number of jobs focusing on these core sustainability elements is steadily increasing. As so many of these new vacancies need countryside and land management skills, therefore, we're delighted to be able to include adverts for these vital roles once more. In March we launched a new sector on CJS Online specifically for Sustainability vacancies, these are roles involving a significant element of sustainability. It covers: net zero, nature recovery, biodiversity net gain, nature based solutions and nature capital projects. Green and environment jobs such as composting, waste reduction, recycling initiatives; working on or for energy production sites e.g. solar and wind farms are also listed here.
Friday 22 April was Earth Day and the theme this year is Invest In Our Planet, the website states: " This is the moment to change it all — the business climate, the political climate, and how we take action on climate. Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, and our livelihoods."
So we invite our readers to join CJS treading lightly on our path to invest in the future, caring for our shared planet. For Earth Day 2022, together, for everyone, everything, every day…
*That's equivalent to 1/4 acre in paper!
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