At wallacespace we believe that a clear conscience is important for clear thinking. We know there is always more we can be doing, but we are working to reduce our environmental impact in every corner of our business by looking closely at supply chains and trying to make choices that help us tread a little more lightly on the planet. If you have any suggestions we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line at ask@wallacespace.com.
In 2019 we planted the first of the trees that would become our ‘wallywood’. We now have around 2397 trees across the English countryside. We no longer send paper Christmas cards and heavily packaged Christmas gifts in favour of planting more trees. Every year our wallywood grows a little larger and hopefully one day we’ll be able to say ‘wallyforest’. We also contribute to tree planting by using the search engine Ecosia across our business, which plants trees on behalf of users.
Don’t worry about arriving hot and sweaty post walk or cycle in to us, we have showers, soaps and towels available on a first come first serve basis.
Enjoy a healthy breakfast in our caffè, which we keep as plastic free as possible.
We use energy efficient light bulbs throughout our spaces and don’t turn lights on just for ‘show’. We’ve also enabled power saver features on computers and other equipment.
We only use eco-cleaning products across our five buildings and use unbleached, recycled loo roll and hand towels in our bathrooms.
We have two bins in each room. One for food recycling and one for all other waste. All of our other is recycled by First Mile.
Our flip chart paper and pens are all recycled.
All food served in our kitchen is fresh, seasonal and sourced locally where possible. Our menus are super healthy and packed full of vegetables (which may be wonky, as we use surplus veggies). We always have a veggie and vegan option available and our meat and fish is certified and traceable. We give surplus food to local businesses and charities. Read more about our food and our suppliers here.
Enjoy still and sparkling water on tap in our caffés which has been cleaned and purified in our filtration system. We use glass bottles and glasses to keep our kitchen as plastic free as possible and our chefs use PVC free, recyclable cling film.
We’ve almost completely phased out plastic in our drinks fridges, with a goal to eliminating it entirely by the end of March 2024.
Your lunch boxes, breakfast pots and straws may look plastic but are in fact all compostable, meaning they’re made of organic matter which can be broken down to make nutrient-rich compost.
All kitchen waste is recycled by First Mile and none of it goes to landfill. If waste can’t be recycled, it’s taken to a waste-to-energy facility where remnants are burnt, producing electricity and heat, used to power homes. Clever hey?
Médecins Sans Frontière (Doctors Without Borders) provide lifesaving medical care across 70 countries. Their medical teams help those affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters or exclusion from healthcare.
Wallacespace has supported MSF since 2015, donating space to help them plan and strategise, and money to fund the important work they do around the world. We are delighted that our spaces can be used in such a positive and powerful way.
Sam Thomson, from MSF UK speaks kindly about our support, “over £65,000 in monetary gifts and pro bono support is a fantastic contribution to our work over the past 8 years. On top of the £20,500 in cash donations, every £1 we can save in overhead costs is more funding that we can send to our life-saving projects around the world. Though it can feel abstract, the contributions of Wallacepsace will have saved many lives and we are very appreciative to you and everyone there for your help.”
We have wallywood inspired tote bags available for you to help yourself to at each building. They’re handy if you have lots of stuff to carry home. While fabric tote bags are, on balance, a better option for the planet than plastic, this is only the case if the bags are used and reused lots of time, 131 times! Please take one, but please try to use or share your bag, rather than throwing it in a drawer and forgetting about it.
Our buildings are thriving with plants of all shapes and sizes. Not only do they look good, there are lots of positive benefits with working amongst plants, such as, increasing workspace happiness, productivity and helping with stress relief. All plants need different levels of watering and feeding, so we’ve made little signs to go in each plant pot, indicating when it’s time to feed.
To help reduce water waste we are in the process of installing water butts on our patios and terraces.
We’ve also designed a propagation station for our Clerkenwell kitchen, which not only looks good but also gives us lots of new plants for the buildings.
At wallacespace we are always looking to improve our buildings in a creative, smart and sustainable way. Recently Guy, a facilities manager and talented carpenter has built tech cabinets for each building from scratch. Say “no more” to those nasty wires on show! Guy has also repurposed an IKEA bookshelf into table tops at Clerkenwell, adding left-over tiles to further extend their life. We’re happy to say that lots of our furniture comes from eBay, (often the older stuff is actually better made) which extends its life but also adds to the individual style of each of our building. It’s great that we have such a proactive and resourceful team, things are always being turned around, improved and recreated for the best. It’s always exciting being in the buildings.
Our Covent Garden building has an abundance of homegrown delights, from chilli plants to an assortment of herbs, thanks to our finest green-fingered Facilities Assistant, Tom. It’s taken about four months of constant nurturing, watering and monitoring to reach flowering stage and full growth. With Tom’s skills and expertise, we hope to have herb stations set up in each of our buildings which our chefs will use in the delicious meals served at wallacespace.
Wallacespace has an inclusive employment policy and we are committed to promoting sustainable best practice amongst employees. Every Xmas we invite our teams to nominate charities to which we donate a percentage of our profits.
Everything! We have general and food recycling bins in every room and floor to put waste in. First Mile, our waste disposal people, collect and process waste responsibly through their award winning sorting facility. Waste is sorted, recycled, re-purposed or turned into green energy so nothing is sent to landfill.
If you don’t need to take your training materials back with you after your training has finished, we’re able to dispose of your materials through our usual recycling process or put them into confidential waste depending on how sensitive your documents are.
All our menus are seasonal and are locally sourced where possible. Our fish is MSC certified which means we only use fish that is sustainable, usually this is haddock, salmon and tuna. Our meat and veg are always fair-trade to help producers in developing countries achieve better trading condition.
We are trying to tread lightly on the planet in every area of our business, but of course there’s always more to do. Download our CSR policy here Please do share any suggestions and ideas with us at ask@wallacespace.com.
