Banner Blog

Hybrid working is making it easier for people to take care of their health and well-being, data shows.  

Despite fewer walks to and from work and lunch-time strolls, staying at home to work on a few days a week isn’t impacting our physical activity levels. Data shows that Brits are maintaining their physical activity levels since before the COVID pandemic and the advent of hybrid working.  

This could be thanks to hybrid working helping us cut down on non-productive work-related activities, such as commutes, affording employees more time to indulge in their health, fitness and well-being, while some are finding it easier to exercise during work hours. This conclusion is backed up by data showing home gym equipment in particular, such as under-desk treadmills, is trending.  

With rising costs hitting both small and large businesses, and the cost-of-living crisis impacting employees, everyone is looking for ways to save cash. The innovative ökoform desk, designed originally just to create a more comfortable experience for desk workers, could offer massive savings to businesses and hybrid workers alike. 

Energy costs are skyrocketing, meaning businesses are having to fork out more money than ever before to maintain a suitable office environment. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that one in five businesses have reported energy prices as their main concern for February 2023, according to ONS data. With this in mind, many businesses are now looking for alternative ways to keep business costs low, without moving to a WFH model.

Introducing, the ökoform heated desk...

We all need to become more environmentally conscious, so there’s a greater focus than ever on workplace sustainability. Trying to find greener products, and making sure they truly are better than the alternatives, is a complex task. 

Julie Hadley, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Banner, explains what she looks for in green workplace products…

Once you’ve acknowledged that you really do need to make a purchase and other options have been exhausted, you’re in a prime position to swap to a cleaner, greener alternative, but choosing one product over another can be a headache.

There has been a lot of talk around sustainability, and for some people it can become overwhelming.

But with environmental focus becoming something we need, rather than want, to implement into a business it can be a mammoth job to tackle. So where do you begin?

There are a lot of areas of focus in creating a more eco-conscious workplace - from everyday tasks like remembering to turn your monitors and the lights off, to keeping recycling bins in the breakrooms and kitchens. However, there are also areas of sustainability that require a longer period of time to implement, like a greener commute to work or switching to more sustainable products.

Here are 4 easy ways to you create a more sustainable workplace:

With Plastic Free July now over, Julie Hadley, CSR and Social Value Manager at Banner, shares the wins, challenges, and reflections that occurred in her household throughout the month of cutting down on plastic waste.

You might expect, given my role, that I’d be a paragon of virtue, but like everyone else I’m time poor and with two teens in the house, I sometimes feel I’m on a hiding to nothing when it comes to the amount of plastic passing through here! It’s harder than you think to go plastic free and requires a real behaviour change, but with my two girls now on board, I’m quite pleased with the result.

The trigger was guilt, especially with the knowledge that lots of plastics are ‘wish-cycled’ – you pop it in the recycling and hope your local authority deals with it! Often though, the plastic we put for recycling goes for incineration, so the only way to deal with it was to cut down what I brought into the house.

Given that I’m the one doing most of the shopping, the buck stops with me…

Plastic free July was a good opportunity to tackle my mixed waste recycling output.  Our general waste is pretty minimal (around half to a third of a tall wheelie bin per fortnight) as I employ the following strategies:

• A compost bin in my garden for all fruit and veg peelings and cores
• Little cooked food waste as I plan food with portions and either freeze or leave any left-overs for lunch next day
• Salad drawer soup/stock to use up end of life veg and salad
• Cardboard and paper are recycled separately
• Plastics, cans and bottles are mixed separated from other waste and put in to mixed recycling
• Batteries and electricals I pop to one side for a visit to the local recycling centre
• Soft films and bags are recycled at my supermarket

With the above as my start point, I had a look at the mixed recycling bin contents and I’m sad to admit that our mixed recycling was 2 bins a fortnight, this included all glass, plastic and cans, of which I’d say plastic made up half.

In today's world, moving to more sustainable product choices is a key focus for many businesses. But actually identifying the best and most sustainable products can be tricky. 

At Banner, we’ve been offering a great selection of sustainable products for many years throughout our catalogues and online offering. But the 2021 launch of our ‘Green Choice’ symbol makes the selection of sustainable products much quicker and easier for you.