We kicked off 2020 determined to make some positive impact! We officially launched the month-long INSEAD Single Plastic Use Challenge on January 6^th with our enthusiastic LGI team members! The objective was to collectively reduce our carbon footprint by reducing our usage of single-use plastic (SUP) and raise awareness in our social and professional circles.

This Challenge is in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Single-use plastic negatively impacts human health, the economy, wildlife and the environment. Our oceans are an economic asset worth three trillion dollars a year, an engine of growth employing hundreds of millions of people and feeding billions. Yet, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased around the world every minute and a staggering eight million tonnes of plastic ends up in the world’s oceans each year. We kickstarted our efforts with a 1-hour team-building session! On the agenda:

• a quick pitch about the challenge and why we’re doing it (bottom line: if we continue business-as-usual, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. We can’t let this happen!)
• a fun quiz with useful zero-SUP gifts for the winning team
• building a visual “challenge board” to agree on what items we will collectively reduce, and our main individual challenge, to know how to help each other
• all this around the traditional French galette des rois to make it tasty

As a result: renewed interest, inspiration and motivation to go ahead and we collectively decided to reduce much more SUP items than expected! We’re more sensitive to the environmental cause given the scope of our work at LGI and carbon neutrality is one of our main aims. This challenge had the best timing and continues to be a great conversation starter. We highly recommend! Soon we will share the results and feedback of the challenge, stay tuned.

Related blog posts

• It’s a (non) plastic revolution – minimise use with these 3 tips!
• The dirty truth about recycling plastics