November month notes
Reflections on AI and sustainability
Reflecting on career changes
If you’d told me I would be ending 2023 working with Vikas at Swiscot. That I’d be in a role driving an SME’s sustainability agenda forward. And that I’d spoken at events about our journey I would have laughed this off as a fanciful idea.
As 2023 comes to a close I’m starting to feel reflective. It’s been a learning journey from my first month notes back in April. This is now my 7th instalment. Taking the time each month to just pause and take stock has been helpful. As things move fast it’s easy to forget the range of activities I've been working on. I’ve had to rapidly learn. While also looking more broadly across the range of markets we serve. As well as the overlapping challenges and opportunities between commercial and retail markets.
There will be a larger summary of my learnings at the one year anniversary milestone. But as the year draws to a close I’m feeling grateful for the opportunity and proud at how I’ve adapted. If you also like to take stock of the year, I have included a very handy guide I use at the end of the post.
Digital
Green Friday campaign
For Black Friday I wanted to try something different. With the focus on sustainability it didn’t seem right to push the usual discounts. After researching sustainable offers a tree planting campaign seemed a good fit. I've heard of Ecologi and so they seemed to be a great climate action partner.. Only orders placed were entered into a prize draw to win a free Christmas bed set.
We also offered free delivery with DPD Green. Delivery charges can still account for up to 20% of your purchase cost. For example if you need to top up on some new towels then paying £5 for delivery adds up! We also shared tips and advice on how to shop sustainably.
Citizen Friday - A new initiative to encourage behaviour change
I spotted a fantastic idea from Re-Action called Citizen Friday. It’s an evolution of Green Friday where the focus is on being a good citizen. Connecting with the people and planet around us.
Shop less and Citizen more. There’s a fab article on Re-Actions site as well as a LinkedIn post from Women In Sustainability network. Watch this space as I see a lot of opportunities to shift the conversation around how consumers and colleagues can do more to support humanity.
TikTik shopping
This year’s black Friday saw a huge push for TikTok shop. TikTok has been offering discounts to sellers and shoppers to drive product listings and purchases.
It is scary to see the lack of information included in the listings. For example it's hard to find the material source of many textile based products. We are sleep-walking into consuming huge amounts of ‘crap’ with no thought for how we dispose of it.
AI Marketing opportunities for content and social
I attended a fascinating AI marketing webinar hosted by Imran Farooq from MMU and CIM.
The whole webinar had been created via AI. The opportunity to leverage AI in marketing is huge. In all honesty I’ve not been making the most of Chat GPT.
So this month I’ve been trialling how Chat GPT can help with online content standardisation. Creating templates to help streamline processes. As well as seeing how it can support social media topics and content plans. As a solo marketeer I have saved hours of time this month alone. I will continue to experiment with what tasks AI is best suited to.
Sustainability
LADAs - Responsible Business Award
Back at the start of November our commercial textiles business Linen Connect attended the Laundry & Dry Cleaning Awards (LADAs). Celebrating
We bagged the Responsible Business Award for our CSR initiatives. Based on our charity appeals. As well as our efforts to ensure we’re paying staff by becoming Living Wage certified. There’s so much more we plan to do in 2024. The award was a welcome acknowledgement of our commitment to ethical business practices.
Sustainability Industry Live conference
I happened to hear about an industrial focussed sustainability conference in Manchester.
Of all the events I've been to this year it was a stellar mix of speakers and attendees. Large scale industries have a real challenge to reduce their carbon footprint. Especially when we look at the impact of scope 3 emissions of purchased goods and services.
The discussions looked at sourcing challenges, manufacturing efficiencies and circular economy innovations. I was particularly impressed by an innovative new paper based bottle design. It's designed to reduce single use plastic for products with a shelf life less than 18 months. It was reassuring to see see industrial business creating scalable sustainable innovations
https://www.silive.co.uk/
Tree planting
As a result of our Green Friday campaign we planted Uk seedling trees with Ecologi. This is a small number in the scheme of things. But our first step to work with Ecologi to invest in carbon reduction projects. Both in the UK and in the countries we source from.
Achievements and recommendations
Reading this month
Matthew Perry’s Autobiography “Friends, Lovers and The Big Terrible Thing”
I actually read this as an audiobook on Spotify. It’s a moving memoir of his battles with addiction. It goes to show that just because someone is funny and can crack a joke doesn't mean they are not struggling.
There were parallels with the Oxycontin documentary. As opioid addiction is costing so many lives.
Hearing the memoir in Matthew’s own words leaves an impression. He created a powerful account of overcoming addiction. I won't include any spoilers but I would encourage anyone to give it a listen. It's a reminder that we need to completely re-look at how we support people battling addiction.
End of year reflection toolkit
For the last 3 years I have used year compass. Its a fantastic template of journal prompts to reflect on your year. As well as get clear on your intentions for the year ahead.
I print it out as it gives you the space to sketch. As well as having some much needed digital down-time when you fill it in.
Here is the toolkit https://yearcompass.com/
Achievement
I received my Carbon Literacy Project certification this month. Which timed nicely with the CSR award as well. It’s also a good reminder of the work I need to do to set-up my pledge in the New Year as well.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my month notes. I post a summary each month of the key insights across Digital, Sustainability and some personal musings including recommendations of what I’m reading.