TINY RESPONSIBILITIES!

Over the past couple of weeks, some of the team have been hiding away in top secret meetings (i.e. having a cuppa/beer in the bar) discussing how we can make the world a better place. “We are the world” as Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote.

We definitely don’t think we can do it alone, but we know for sure that it can’t be done without us - without all of us choosing to make small changes.

So with that in mind we set out a list of five targets to hit over the next five years. Here they are:

1% Landfill by 2023

Over the next 5 years we’re going to undertake a really ambitious drive to reduce our landfill-bound waste. We only have one world and it’d be nice if it wasn’t stuffed with plastic wrapping and bits of junk - so we’re going to do our very small bit to help prevent that.

We’ll have the classic mantra of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle at heart over the next 5 years (and beyond) to make sure that we can shrink our landfill contributions to as close to nothing as possible!

We’ll be removing plastic straws from our bars and reducing plastic waste generally; we’ll be purchasing recycled, and recyclable products; bottle and can boxes that go to our bars will be flattened and reused, before being recycled when they simply don’t work as boxes anymore. There are plenty more ideas that will come in over the coming years.

Committed to managing the environmental impacts of our processes

Over the next 5 years, Chief Compliance Officer Sarah will be reviewing every single tiny little detail of how we work and reworking them to be as green as possible. We want to make sure that we keep the area where we live and work in as good, if not better, condition than when we moved here.

Our water is and will always be sourced from an on-site natural spring, which we will closely manage over the course of its use. We will implement LEAN processes and continuously improve how we work to be more efficient. We are working to streamline high impact processes such as deliveries, and are moving towards a 100% renewable energy supply.

We’ve taken inspiration from other companies, like Sierra Nevada in the US who have made waves in environmentalism, and will be doing all we can to reduce our environmental impact. But we’ve also seen criticisms of those kinds of efforts, suggesting that they’re just veiled attempts at cost cutting.

Make no mistake - the cost that we’re focussed on cutting with these commitments is the cost to our natural environment, but it is undeniable that it may well save us some money. So what are we going to do with that?

£100K in charitable donations over 5 years

The next five years will see us contribute £100,000 to charitable causes. Charitable giving has always been something we’re passionate about, with close relationships with several charity organisations stretching back to our first days as a business. Our main chosen charity is St. David’s Hospice Care - they are based only about 5 miles away, so it’s a cause close to home in more ways than one.

We will be ramping up our fundraising efforts and direct donations to our chosen charities over the coming years. These groups do vital work in our communities and rely on support from individuals and organisations. We will do all we can to help them.

There are so many ways we want to do this - key charity partnerships are the biggest method, but we will also be giving charity donations for events like raffles and auctions, matching staff fundraising efforts, giving free use of our venues for charity causes and giving cash donations from our profits.

£400K in staff benefits annually

We well and truly love our staff. The people that work for the company make it what it is. Everyone is important and contributes significantly to Tiny Rebel’s success, and it’s only right that they share in that success. So we’re setting aside £400,000 every year to give back to the guys. These benefits will take on many forms, from staff discounts to a bottle of every new beer for each staff member. And it’s not just freebies - we’re committed to continuous personal development and supporting training for the whole team.

There’s so many possibilities that we’ve given this section a pretty apt name - Bear Benefits.

1000 employee hours committed to the local community

We now have more than 100 colleagues. Allowing each of them to spend one day out in the community doing good will add up to more than 1000 man hours going to good causes locally.

Those hours can be spent in each colleague’s community, so they can contribute in a small way wherever they live. That means good deeds as far as Swansea to the West and Swindon to the East, but plenty of them will be spent in our hometown of Newport. Additionally, each staff member can choose exactly how they spend that time. As long as it is positively contributing to the community, each person can choose which cause they would like to contribute to.

So there it is. Our “Corporate Social Responsibility” plan for the next five years. That sounds too, well, corporate. It’s more like Tiny Responsibilities. Small things, but they all add up, and they’re not totally at odds with being Tiny Rebels.