Knowledge Labs the new sustainability consultancy service by Nutritics recently launched with BM Caterers. Knowledge Labs provides operators with expert advice and support across a range of topics central to their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) strategy, for example; what sustainability is, climate change, food sustainability, and more. Read below the great results from the launch which included a 30% increase in employee sustainability practices.
Background
Recently, Knowledge Labs ran its first sustainable education briefs with BM. BM provides office catering tailored to each client’s needs. The goal was to support BMs’ empowerment of their staff to play a key role in achieving their sustainable goals. The Knowledge Labs education briefs are short, snackable educational sessions that focus on sustainability.
Knowledge Labs delivers educational briefs through a train-the-trainer method accompanied by practical and engaging activities. These briefs foster collaboration and innovation within teams, creating a dynamic learning environment that break down the jargon and provides a broad understanding of sustainability. The briefs aim to highlight the significance of sustainability within your company and empower all teams to contribute towards sustainability goals. By giving employees a sense of purpose and encouraging positive behaviour change, these sessions promote a collective effort towards sustainability.
The challenge at hand
Nutritics recently commissioned new research with CGA which highlighted the importance employees place on sustainability in the workplace - with 94% considering a company’s social and environmental responsibility when choosing where to work. The research also highlighted that work was required on staff training, community projects, and sourcing with fewer than half of staff seeing these in practice in their workplace.
BM recognised that their teams would benefit from working with a company that educated them in an engaging manner on key topics relating to sustainability relevant to the hospitality sector. Knowledge Labs was seen as the best fit for BM due to their in-depth knowledge and easy-to-digest briefs.
“The implementation was simple and employee engagement fantastic.”
Sally Grimes, Quality Standards Manager
Knowledge Labs provided ‘train-the-trainer’ weekly sessions with a number of managers to provide them with the tools to deliver a 10-minute education brief one day a week as part of their regular daily briefing session. Allowing the BM team to educate their teams without impacting their daily operations.
A streamlined solution
Before the delivery of the Knowledge Labs sustainability education briefs, the participants were asked to complete a survey that focused on gaining insights into their understanding and behaviours around sustainability.
Then the managers delivered 12 weekly education briefs to 70 key team members across 6 sites. The sessions educated teams about key topics including carbon and water footprints, climate change, and food sustainability. In order to gauge their level of understanding and keep the teams engaged quizzes, practical activities, cooking challenges, etc were provided at the end of each session to help embed the teams' knowledge of the topics.
Other topics covered within the sessions included food waste, energy, greenwashing, and biodiversity.
A problem solved
Following the successful 12 weeks of Knowledge Labs sessions, the participants were asked to redo the survey they had completed pre-participating in the education briefs. The results of which can be seen below:
And if you need any more convincing, about the benefits of Knowledge Labs, here's what Sally Grimes, Quality Standards Manager of BM had to say:
"I was impressed with Knowledge Labs’ in-depth knowledge and their ‘Train the Trainer’ programme. The implementation was simple and employee engagement fantastic. We are now exploring other modules at Knowledge Labs to continue our journey."
And if that wasn’t enough, read what else participants had to say:
“I enjoy learning and gaining more knowledge about the industry I’m in and helping to act more sustainably as it’s a subject that interests me. It’s reassuring to know that a company such as BM is involved with sustainability and trying to help with the problems in our sector and therefore the planet”. BM Chef
“I enjoyed this, it was very informative, short enough to hold our interest without being boring or overloading us with too much information. It’s great that BM is trying to make changes, the first step being awareness and passing that knowledge onto employees so we can make changes at all levels and areas in the team”. BM Supervisor
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The next step for BM is the full rollout of the knowledge labs education briefs to all employees, which will commence on the 11th of September 2023
Want to find out more about Knowledge Labs? Get in touch today