Breaking Boundaries: Kinetics’ Journey towards a Sustainable Future and the Power of One.
We’ve set out on a journey to a sustainable future…
Sustainability is all about making sure that we can meet our current needs without harming the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It balances economic growth, social progress, and environmental protection all at the same time.
The United Nations (UN) also recognises the importance of sustainability and has created a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that cover everything from poverty reduction and gender equality to access to clean water and sanitation, as well as taking action to fight climate change. By adopting sustainable practices in our daily lives, through the world of business and governments, we can all contribute to creating a better world for everyone.
Here at Kinetic, we are in a unique position. Through the use of our innovative solutions, connections and know-how, we can inspire our communities to deliver a real positive impact for our future.
Our communities in the sector are already playing their part, with many having already embarked on their own journey such as The University of Exeter, who have 1000 research and education specialists working on a green future, including the UK’s top five most influential climate scientists. The University of Cambridge have committed to continual environmental improvement including a ‘science-based target’ to reduce their energy related carbon emissions to absolute zero by 2048, with a steep 75% decrease on 2015 emissions by 2030.
Let’s explore the innovative strategies and actions we’re taking to make a positive impact on our planet and society.
We’ve been on an extensive journey since the start of the year, having brought a team of colleagues together who all share similar views, to form our ‘Green Team’ who, alongside Marinma Dorado, Sustainability Consultant specialising in bringing clarity and intrinsic motivation to the Sustainable journey, have formed a purpose and guiding principles we can abide by along this journey.
The Green Team was formed when our champion for sustainability, asked simply, ‘What are we doing with respect to sustainability?’ This question then led to a series of actions that have put us on a path towards a sustainable future.
"When I started interviewing members of the Green Team as part of my process, a few themes started to emerge and it soon become clear that the potential positive impact Kinetic could create, was greater than initially thought.
Kinetics’ Conferencing & Event and Student Accommodation and Wellbeing management solutions are tools for staff within these organisations, but the Sustainable impact could reach thousands of students and event delegates, who are already hungry for sustainable action”
Marinma Dorado
Sustainability Consultant
Working towards positive change means taking action with the intention to create change, not just maintaining the “status quo,” and with a positive spirit, without stress, overwhelm or climate anxiety, which are contributors to poor mental health and at the end can do more harm than good.
Our sustainable purpose has been carefully curated to benefit the sector and align with our company purpose: Ever-evolving solutions for higher education to build a better future. In the last few months, our Green Team have worked together to decide which of the SDGs to focus on, based on the relevance to us at Kinetic and our community which are:
Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Marinma and the team then set about outlining our guiding principles to help positively influence our chosen SDGs. These principles will act as our sustainable superpowers, and are:
- We put sustainability 1st, giving more meaning to working at Kinetic.
- We bring our communities with us on our journey of sustainability.
- We all play our part in making the right choices for sustainability.
- We do business in a way that creates a negative carbon footprint.
- We inspire our communities to protect nature.
It is these principles that are the foundation of our sustainable purpose: ‘Working towards a sustainable future through positive change.’
As part of this journey, we want to be fully transparent and, as a result, will be sharing more information on what we are doing, starting with delving deeper into each of our sustainable superpowers.