On the 10th Day of Christmas Promar gave to me: 10 Hundred Carbon Audits
Yes that’s right, Promar have had a busy year (nothing unusual there). But this year they have taken on the task of carrying out carbon footprint audits on farm (or virtually thanks to the pandemic) and between the team have managed to get well over 1000 under their belts! It certainly made good use of time with a grounded workforce! Sustainability is a key part of Promar and Tom Gill has seen his sustainability team grow as it becomes increasingly important right across the food and farming supply chains. Although the carbon footprint audits may have seemed like another monotonous spreadsheet at times, delivering them back on farm was really inspiring, with most customers intrigued as to what their carbon footprint actually looked like! The audits involved reviewing data about business and measuring its carbon footprint against the amount of raw milk produced. The Audits opened conversations with the customers and allowed our consultants to report how each business was performing well in in terms of its carbon footprint, as well as providing three practical and customer focused ways to further reduce it. This was normally taken on board as it not only reduces the carbon footprint but drives efficiency and profit ending the conversation on a good note!
Promar have also focused on employee wellbeing this year with 5 members of the team receiving mental health training in order to offer some support to colleagues and clients. This was an important focus for the team as mental health is becoming more recognised as a problem within the agricultural sector. To add to this, with the effect of the pandemic sinking in and the consultancy team becoming grounded, there was less time spent with fellow employees and on farm with customers and more time filling in those monotonous spreadsheets I mentioned earlier. Although fun to some, it was important to keep spirits high and support available to avoid death by spreadsheet. On top of our mental health support, Neil Adams Managing Director shared with the Promar team his ‘10 top tips’ to keep spirits high. It included virtual charades in the lunch break, yoga or Pilates, and appreciating being able to work in your pink fluffy slippers!
Our employees play a vital role in building a sustainable business and their skills, knowledge and wellbeing underpin the company’s success- so a key objective for us to ensure a work-life balance for all employees. Promar also added to the trophy cabinet this year receiving the Investors in People Silver Award. This is based on 3 key areas – Plan, Do, Review. Promar takes pride in planning strategies to improve employee performance, doing the action to improve performance and reviewing the plan to continue to improve performance and competencies for all 90 employees!