Planet - It’s all about building new habits
With our partners and projects, the Brunel Foundation strives to be a catalyst for change, inspiring and encouraging Brunel employees to make sustainable choices whenever and wherever they can.
Femke Dijkstra,
Founder Brunel Foundation
We take action for clean oceans by initiating local impact initiatives (e.g. cleanups on land or at sea) to reduce plastic waste before it even gets into the water. As a company, team or individual, we have to believe that every change we make, every piece of plastic we don't use or clean up, will make a difference.
Trash ‘n Trace with Litterati
Since Brunel Global Trash 'n Trace was introduced with the Litterati app in June 2020, thousands of pieces of litter have been picked up and registered in our challenge. Brunellers, friends, family and many others have rolled up their sleeves and joined us on our journey to clean up the Earth and eradicate litter.
The Litterati app empowers people to make a significant, measurable impact on the environment as individuals or teams. Users of the app take pictures of pieces of litter they clean up and tag them. The app itself then applies a geo-tag and timestamps the picture. Together, all these pictures create an open source database of litter maps all around the world. The collected data are used to create awareness, cultivate a new mindset and convince governments to introduce deposit programs, for instance, or to challenge organizations to find sustainable solutions for a litter-free world. This initiative ties in with the Foundation’s focus on actions to reduce (plastic) waste before it gets into the water.
One of the main initiatives around Litterati is the 24-hour Global Trash ‘n’ Trace challenge on World Cleanup Day every September. On this day, we encourage people from all around the globe to compete for a special prize (as well as our eternal gratitude). The country where most items are picked up and uploaded to the app within 24 hours is our winner!
Building New Habits
The Brunel Foundation creates awareness among Brunellers, clients and many others about making sustainable choices in their professional and private lives. Making these choices is all about building new habits: What can we change on a daily basis which will impact the environment on a global scale? In the shape of the ‘Building New Habits’ campaign, we aim to inspire our colleagues and others to take action to reduce their personal carbon and plastic footprint, one habit at a time.
To this end, we also introduce sustainable gifts with a clear message. These gifts – such as Correctbook (an erasable notebook), KeepCup, our reusable canvas bag, a beeswax wrap and a reusable water bottle – inspire people to take action to reduce their own environmental footprint, as well as motivating others to do the same.
