Environmental stewardship.

Your guide to being planet positive at Young Folks.

March, 2021


Hello, you!

We're for the planet and the people at Young Folks, which means we take care to reduce negative environmental impacts in all that we do.

We ask that you take time to familiarise yourself with our environmental stewardship guidelines.


Energy consumption.

Young Folks is a paperless business. We only print what we have to for legal reasons (i.e. some contracts don't accept e-signatures and require a wet signature). This means our paper usage goes down but our energy consumption increases in order to hold all our files and operations in the cloud.

As such, we have elected to use Google Workspace as our server environment as Google is carbon neutral. We also have elected to use carbon neutral hosting for our website. We also take steps to use low energy requirement LEDs and devices wherever possible (high computing power is required, which means energy consumption, too).

Our operations are carbon neutral which means we audit our energy usage and purchase carbon credits to offset our consumption. We are independently certified by Climate Active. The carbon credits we've purchased support a rice husk thermal energy generation project in Vietnam and a forest protection and preservation project in Papua New Guinea.


What can you do?

When you're in the office, make sure to switch off lights and heating/cooling when you're not in the space. Where possible, open the windows and doors instead to let in cool air and ensure they're closed right when using heating. Switch your devices off when you're not using them, too – it all helps!

When working from home, we encourage you to use energy saving lighting and appliances, switch off your devices when you're done, and limit heating and cooling usage where possible and appropriate.

Water usage.

Being a service business in an office environment, Young Folks doesn't use a lot of water. But we still need to be mindful of water usage.

We use water to keep our plants alive when rainwater isn't available (hello fresh oxygen in the work space) and when using the kitchens and bathrooms.


What can you do?

When you're in the office, make sure taps are turned off tight to avoid dripping water. Don't leave the taps running and always only use what you need. When using the bathrooms, opt for a single flush instead of a double where appropriate.

When working from home, we encourage you to do the same. And if you're able to collect rainwater for your plants – they will love it.

Waste management and resource recovery.

When organic waste (such as food scraps) breaks down in landfill it creates methane which is a greenhouse gas that's a major contributor to the climate crisis.

At Young Folks, we're all about planet positive waste management and resource recovery. In fact, often what's defined as waste is actually a resource that can be recovered and recycled, reused or repurposed.

We separate out our waste into the following:

  • Electronic waste (which is collected for recycling via Officeworks)
  • Organic waste such as food scraps and certified home compostable packaging (which is composted by Erin in her garden)
  • Co-mingled recycling (which is recycled via local council recycling programs)
  • Soft plastics (which are collected and recycled via Woolworths and Coles)
  • General waste (which is collected for council waste management)


What can you do?

When you're in the office, make sure you separate your waste into the correct bins so we limit what we send to landfill. Bring your lunch to work in containers to limit plastic wrapping and ensure to compost any scraps.

When working from home, we encourage you to do the same. And if you have non-office related recycling (such as bread tags or toothpaste tubes) we recommend checking out BRAD a recycling program by Banish. If you don't have room for composting at home, check to see if your local council offers curb-side organic waste collection.

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Technology and electronics.

Every year, 44.7 million tonnes of e-waste is generated around the world – containing up to US$ 65 billion worth of raw materials like gold, silver and platinum. Yikes.

As a marketing agency, we use a heck of a lot of technology to do our job. Which means we need to be mindful of where it ends up when we're done.

We ensure we only buy the tech that we need and use it for as long as its efficient. When we're done, we sell our technology via second hand marketplaces so it has a new life with someone else. If it's unusable, we recycle through Apple and Officeworks.


What can you do?

Whether you're working at the office or at home, take care to look after your devices. Make sure to manage your files and regularly clear your cache and cookies to avoid slow performance (our IT legends can help you with this).

At home, take note of the devices and electronics you own personally and see if they can be recycled via Officeworks or Apple.

Stationery and office supplies.

Being a paperless business, we limit our use of office supplies and stationery. But we do need it from time to time – sometimes, when digital isn't cutting it, our team just need to write it all out.

We purchase notebooks and printer paper made from FSC certified sources and recycled paper stock where possible. And ensure plastic pens are recycled or alternatively, use pencils where you can.

We use eco-friendly non-toxic cleaning products from Koala Eco and compostable bin liners for our organic waste.


What can you do?

When working in the office, try to keep things digital where possible. And where not possible, choose from our eco-friendly stationery supplies. You're welcome to take stationery from the office for use at home for work related purposes.

Eco-friendly supplies we love.

  • Printer paper: Greenline
  • Notebooks: Karst
  • Pens: Karst
  • Compost bags and bin liners: BioBag
  • Cling film: Great Wrap
  • Toothbrushes: Big Little Brush
  • Coffee cups: Pottery For The Planet
  • Non-toxic cleaner: Koala Eco