Reducing paper waste and building a more sustainable mindset

The customer is an integrated specialized insurer with expertise in managing risk for organisations that give businesses the confidence and reassurance they need to grow. It has 14,000 employees across the globe, with 3,000 in North America.

 In 2018 the customer had revenue of ~ $12B. They have been rated A+ by Standard & Poor’s. 

At the customer’s 375,000 square foot North American facility, ISS Guckenheimer offers an office coffee service programme to all employees. This programme is free to the employees and provides them with coffee, water and tea. 

ISS helped the customer take this popular programme one important step further. To align with the customer’s sustainable and environmental initiatives, we sought ways to reduce the waste from the Office Coffee Service programme, while also reducing the cost of materials. 

Here’s what we did:  

• In 2019, all 679 employees were provided with non-disposable mugs and cups, which each individual was then responsible for.  
• We removed the majority of paper products related to the service, significantly reducing the paper cost. 
• Together with the customer, we created an educational campaign to promote employee buy-in and change the culture around waste.

By providing all employees with two reusable drinking vessels and decreasing the available paper products for coffee, tea and water services, we were able to reduce paper cost by 94%. This reduction resulted in a projected annual savings of $14,260. This shift increased the environmental awareness and behavior of all employees.