BUILDINGS & LOCAL NEIGHBOURHOODS

BUILDINGS & LOCAL NEIGHBOURHOODS BUILDINGS & LOCAL NEIGHBOURHOODS
You may rent or own the building in which your organisation operates. You may have luscious gardens or a dusty old car park. You may engage in community activities or never see your neighbours. Whatever your circumstances, these are all areas to think about when considering your organisation’s sustainability.

Building and grounds

Issues around the fabric of your building will fall under the 'Energy and Water' category ie; making sure it is well insulated and free from drafts to conserve energy. What you also need to take into consideration are the grounds and/or the surrounding area.

If you are lucky enough to have access to an outside area it is well worth creating opportunities for biodiversity. This is important as it can benefit your health by maintaining environmental quality and offers a haven for local native wildlife. It also offers a pleasant environment to relax in at lunch times, boosting moral and productivity.

Promoting biodiversity can be as simple as providing feeders, nesting boxes, bat boxes and bug hotels; or planting up containers with nectar rich flowers for bees and butterflies. If you have a garden area you could also consider planting local indigenous flowers, shrubs and trees or building a pond that will attract local wildlife.

If you rent your building, permission to plant up and cultivate the outside area will need to be sought from the landlord. Maybe you can engage other organisations in the building. Suggest that everyone works on the garden together one afternoon a month.

Neighbours....everybody loves good neighbours!

Many organisations find that being an active and visible member of their local community enables them to better connect with the community and understand what the community actually needs. Services that are responding to the needs of the community usually generate a higher success rate.

Organisations that employ some of their people from the local area are also more likely to be successful. Using local knowledge is vital in building up your reputation as an organisation that cares, which in turn will attract more service users and potential funders.

Purchasing goods and services from local suppliers helps the local economy and keeps wealth within the local community. Rather than purchasing goods and services from an anonymous national firm why not seek out local suppliers through our Sustainable Directory.

How can MERCi help your organisation?

Sustainability benchmarking of your organisation
Sustainable Directory - a directory of Greater Manchester goods and service providers.
Resources and tool-kits
Ideas on how to involve your staff, volunteers, board, service users and customers
Tailored training and workshops

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Encourage Wildlife

1. Encourage wildlife to visit you place of work by providing feeders, nesting boxes, bat boxes and bug hotels.

No 2 Promote Biodiversity

Promote biodiversity by planting local indigenous trees, shrubbery and flowers or building a pond.

No 3 Create Outdoor Areas

Boost staff moral and productivity by creating an outdoor seating area for staff to have lunch and conduct meetings outside wherever possible, weather permitting!

No 4 Guerrilla Gardening

If you don't own any grounds then why not find a patch of local scrub land and start guerrilla gardening. You could get other organisations or your local community involved in the process

5. Get involved in community events

To find out when and where things are happening in your area try reading the local paper, visiting a community centre, the corner-shop and the neighbourhood church to pick up ideas

6. Employ Local People

6. Using local knowledge and employing people from within the local community is vital in building up your reputation as an organisation that cares. Advertise your job and volunteering opportunities in places where people might go; local shops, post office, church, community centre.

7. Make a roof garden

1. If you don't have space on the ground for a garden do you have space up above? A roof garden is a great way to utilise otherwise 'dead' space and can create a haven for wildlife and for staff.

8. Create a vertical garden

A vertical garden is a garden that grows on the walls of your building, a neat idea! Otherwise referred to as living walls, biowalls, vertical gardens or more scientifically vertical vegetated complex walls. Try creating your own vertical garden by covering part of your wall with coir fibre or felt mats, watering and sowing seeds.

9. Avoid sick building syndrome

Did you know a building can make you sick? Sick building syndrome was first coined in the 1970's and relates mainly to the heating, ventilation and air quality in your office space. Make sure you have access to plenty of fresh air that can flow from one side of the room to the other. This should cut down on 'mystery' sickness in your staff team.