Industrial Placements Priya Bains and Riley Grant, Year in Industry student Eleanor White, and Graduate Olyvia Jones, who are based at Capability Green in Luton, are active members of Leonardo’s ‘Fit for the Future’ environmental team. Fit for the Future is an employee-led initiative that provides anyone across the UK business with a forum through which to propose ideas on how to improve the way Leonardo conducts its business and ensure that the company can meet the future challenges. The environment, along with innovation, communication and sport, is one of the themes on which Fit for the Future focuses.
With an active interest in activities that can be carried out to help and protect the environment, the team researched the impact of the festive season and found that wrapping paper and gift decorations are amongst the worst repeat offenders.
On average, 227,000 miles of wrapping paper are thrown away each year. In the UK alone, the amount of wrapping paper used throughout Christmas could stretch to the moon. Each year, a forest the size of Wales is required to provide all the paper used in Britain, and as most wrapping paper is single use, the impact on the environment is significant. Wrapping paper is often dyed and laminated and contains non-paper additives such as gold and silver colouring, glitter and plastics.
After identifying the best suppliers, the team set to work creating over 200 packages of recyclable wrapping paper and eco-friendly ribbons and bows. They then handed them out to colleagues around the office to spread the sustainable message about greener alternatives, and were met with a very positive response.
Priya said: “It was a fantastic day and we were able to spread festive cheer whilst sharing a great message about the environment. In addition, together with our Christmas Jumper Day and ‘Trolley of Christmas Treats’, we have also been able to raise around £1,000 for our site charity, the Alzheimer's Society.”
In September this year, Leonardo published its first Carbon Reduction Plan for the UK, detailing how we will achieve our net zero targets by 2030. We also recently completed a helicopter flight using Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), demonstrating our readiness to offer customers greener options.
