Online Courses

Are you overwhelmed by the thought of tackling plastics in your business or encouraging your colleagues to take action

The Blue Planet effect has highlighted the issues with single-use plastics and brought the topic to the fore for many consumers. But how as a business do you respond to this when your suppliers use it, it's cheap and versatile and you are busy trying to run your operation and remain afloat in difficult times?

"Two thirds of UK SMEs struggle to find plastic alternatives that are better for the environment but do the same job. 56% worry about the high cost of alternatives”

(Brita & Keep Britain Tidy Report 2019)

What materials should you switch to?
As a material, plastics have many advantages. They are versatile, lighter to transport and have a lower carbon footprint than some other options available.

But many are hard to recycle. Your customers and staff are keen to see you move away from unsustainable options, and you need to make a choice that’s good for your business and the planet.

With a multitude of alternative materials out there, how do you choose?

When asked which lifestyle changes people are prepared to make, 57% said ‘waste less’ and 50% said ‘avoid plastics' "
(Futera & OnePulse survey Tidy Report 2020)

How do you get colleagues on board?
According to a Futera and OnePulse survey, run in the midst of the Global pandemic, 80% of respondents said they would make as significant changes for climate change as for Coronavirus.

The eco-conscious members of staff will be pleased to hear you’re implementing policies to tackle your single-use plastics...but what about the rest?
How do you get buy-in and behaviour change from everyone on your team - without having to send endless emails about the recycling bins?
Different personality types have different values and motivations. With the right communications methods you can achieve change without everyone needing to become a born-again eco-warrior.

" 70% of SMEs acknowledge that staff want to reduce their single-use plastic footprint"
(Brita & Keep Britain Tidy Report 2019)

Affordable training for your plastic reduction journey

Sustainable Sidekicks supports SMEs, office managers and green champions to take action, inspire change and make their workplaces more eco-friendly, so that their businesses can build brand loyalty, attract the best talent and be seen as industry leaders doing their bit for the planet.

Our CPD accredited courses are here to help you and your team embed change in your organisation, without big budgets.

Short courses with step-by-step actions
Your customers and staff are concerned about the environment and plastics, but you and your team don't have an environmental degree or the time to get on or high a full-time consultant.

You don't need to, we have designed these courses with short videos and step-by step instructions for actions that you can take if they are relevant to your organisation.

The e-learning courses are delivered with:

Bite-sized modules
Handouts and support documents
Case studies and interviews with organisations already taking action
Optional 1-1 support.

We will take the mystery and overwhelm out of undertaking:

Waste and plastic audits
Talk confidently to suppliers about packaging and plastics
Develop a plastic policy and action plans
Inspire behavioural change within your organisation.

We will also help you to get clarity on the pros and cons of packaging materials and plastics and what happens at the end of their life.

These courses will completely transform your approach to waste and talking about environmental issues to your colleagues.
And if that isn’t enough, you will save money, reduce waste and improve staff and customer loyalty by aligning with their concerns and values.

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“Very comprehensive look at everyday materials. A lot of detail, but that is necessary to understand the topic fully. Engaging delivery.”
Attendee
The Tipping Point: What happens with our Waste

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“Livvy was a lively and engaging speaker who conveyed a lot of information in an easy to digest fashion.
She tailored the content to the audience at Universal Music and got everyone thinking about practical steps they could take at work and at home to live in a more sustainable way.”
Karen Simmonds, Sustainability Lead, Universal Music

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Find the plastics reduction course for you

Tackling Plastics in your Organisation

Are your customers, staff and stakeholders asking about your plastic footprint? Perhaps you have gone plastic-free at home and despair in the workplace. These courses are for business owners, managers and green champions who want to take action on plastics within their business and workplace. You can engage your teams, suppliers and customers with confidence demonstrating your commitment to being a change maker.

Six Week Course

Single-use plastics are everywhere. This 6 week course covers all areas that plastics and packaging arise within your business so you can transform your organisation and demonstrate your improvements with evidence and confidence.

It covers:

Understanding plastics
Evaluating alternative materials
Conducting a waste and plastics plastic audit
Developing a policy and action plan
Working with your supply chain
Inspiring behaviour change

On completing this course and completing all the action learnings (these are optional) you will have a plastics policy, action plan and a behaviour change initiative to reduce single-use plastics and packaging in your workplace.

Watch the preview

Want to take action? Join this course from £129 per person. Plus special Green Team offers

Short courses- plastics in the workplace

Have a particular focus for reducing your single-use plastics and packaging?
These short courses are from the six-week course so you get straight to the issue and take action.
Prices start from £29

Understanding Plastics & Plastic Recycling

Perplexed by plastic recycling? Remove the overwhelm and take charge of your plastic waste streams.

This course covers:

Why plastic has become so problematic
How plastic usage is being reimagined
How to improve your plastic recycling at work
How to confidently talk to your waste contractor
Solutions for hard-to-recycle plastics

Watch the preview: 

Keen to understand plastics and improve your plastics recycling?

Evaluating Packaging Materials

Bio-plastics, aluminium, glass- do you know their environmental impacts? Get clarity on your packaging choices

This course covers:

Comparing materials to plastics
If bio-plastics are the solution to plastic pollution
How materials really get recycled and composted
Questions to ask about innovative packaging materials

Watch the preview:

Need clarity on choosing packaging materials?

Conducting a plastics and waste audit

Can you quantify your biggest impacts and demonstrate your improvements? Auditing gives you evidence to make changes.

This course covers:

Bin auditing- everything you need to get started
Visual and desk-based audits - what items to look for and where to find data
Collating and analysing your data

Watch the preview:

Want to understand your plastics footprint?

Creating a Plastics Policy & Action Plan

Do you team and customers know about your plastics ambitions? Follow this step-by-step process to create your policy

This short course covers how to:

Get support and buy-in from top management and your team
Align with your customers and staff values
Provide accountability and benchmarks to check against

This course includes all the tools and templates to create your documents.
Watch the preview:

Ready to create a plastics policy and action plan.

Addressing Plastics in your supply chain

Is your packaging coming from your suppliers? Would you like to confidently work with them for change?

This short course covers:

Which aspects of the supply chain to focus on
What you actually need your packaging to do
The costs you will pay for single-use items versus reusable or more durable
How to reduce confusion and choice for your team

Watch the preview:

Take action with your suppliers

Delivering Behaviour Change in the Workplace

Changing behaviours and habits is about more than education! Get all the techniques to inspire change

This short covers how to:

How to effectively communicate
Better understand different people types and behaviours
Apply principles to your workplace
Develop a behaviour change initiative that is easy, attractive, social and timely
Engages the people who are not environmentally motivated

Watch the preview:

Ready to start making a change?

Be inspired
Watch interviews with organisations who have already taken action:

‘Doing the right thing’ often isn’t the easy option but the benefits to your business can be incredible and throughout the course, you will hear interviews with businesses who have already taken action.

Their insights and measures will be relevant to businesses of all sizes from start-ups to large organisations and will inspire you to adopt the mindset you need in order to achieve change.