Catalyst

Catalyst

Making IT solutions and waste minimisation look real easy. 

Meet Catalyst, an open-source software company at the leading edge of making hard IT solutions look real easy.  The whole company is made up of around 170 staff across three cities - Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch. 

Our work with them began when Anne, a manager from the Wellington office reached out to us in August 2018. Aside from being a keen green bean, Annie was also a member of the company's self-made ‘8-Ball team’.  A team solely dedicated to creating a happy, healthy workplace. For them, social happiness and environmental happiness were interconnected. 

One of the first things we had to address was how we were going to roll out our behaviour change programme across three cities. There was no way we were going to be able to do this without a few tech hacks and help from the 8-Ball(ers).

Before any on-site changes were made, Catalyst informed staff that they were taking part in the Your Sustainable Workplace programme and that they could expect to see adjustments to current waste systems. Rob was also invited to host an education session at Catalyst’s regular ‘Pizza Fridays’. “What better way to inform and inspire staff about waste minimisation and sustainability than with pizza”! 

We made a number of recommendations, tailoring them to fit each office’s regional councils waste collection and they went from a ‘D’ to an ‘A-’ and, in just four months. Overall, they reduced their landfill waste from 80 per cent of their total waste to just 31 per cent. Not a bad effort! 

Since the programme, we’ve remained in touch with Anne. We caught up with her six-months after the reassessment and she mentioned that biggest change she saw in staff following the implementation of the program was:

““People’s general awareness of their purchasing and disposal of rubbish habits. We question what we buy and who we buy from - what are their sustainability practices? Also in some of the small things, like no more balloons at parties, no unnecessary single-use items. Many have commented they have also changed the way they behave with recycling at home too.””