The 1,136 sustainable activities by Team Ritra Cargo

26 April 2022

Adopt more sustainable habits. Not just at work, but at home too. This is exactly what the employees at Ritra Cargo have been doing intensively for the last 40 days. There were no half-measures, that much is clear. Together, we took part in 1,136 sustainable activities! From quicker showers to picking litter, and eating less meat. What impact have we made as a team? And how can we make sure the results are lasting?

Ecological footprint 9.4% less on average

It takes 40 days to form new, lasting habits. The exact duration of the Footprint Challenge at Ritra Cargo. For six weeks, we worked on raising awareness and carrying out all kinds of sustainable activities as part of a competition. The activities were all around a theme such as energy, water, and circularity, and allowed us to reduce our footprint and increase our handprint.

We are now at the point where we can take stock. Which team and which individual were best at transforming the sustainable activities into new habits? Here are our winners:

1. Most points: Daisy
2. Biggest reduction in ecological footprint: John
3. Winning team: Eco-United with Daisy, Chantal V, Brian, John and Georgiana

As an organisation, we made a big impact. Thanks to our new sustainable habits, we managed to reduce our ecological footprint by an average of 3.247 m2 per person. This brings the average colleague to 3.12 hectares, which is a reduction of 9.4% and far below the national average of 3.6 hectare. What’s more, each colleague has inspired an average of 4 other people outside the Challenge to live more sustainably. Something we are incredibly proud of!

Lasting result

The increase in sustainability from within doesn’t stop with the end of the Footprint Challenge. Everyone at Ritra Cargo now focuses on sustainability in a more constant and consistent way. Here are some of the sustainable activities that various colleagues have integrated into their lives:

• Chantal V. regularly goes on a litter-picking stroll with her mother
• Marjo now pays even closer attention to standby consumption and switches more devices off completely when she is not using them
• Marjolein consumes around 50% less dairy
• Martijn now shops at the greengrocer’s to save on packaging material
• Daisy wastes little or no food thanks to the meal boxes from HelloFresh
• Chantal K. collects the cold water from the shower while it is warming up and uses it to water the plants, for example
• Ad regularly cleans his solar panels to optimise their yield

Did you know…?

The Footprint Challenge has greatly increased our awareness of sustainability. We gained many new insights along the way. Some of these were surprising and sometimes even shocking. The following ‘did you knows’ are some of our favourites.

Did you know:

• …it takes 2,400 litres of water to make a single hamburger? You can avoid wasting water mainly by eating and drinking products with a low ‘water footprint’.
• …a drill is only used for an average of 12 minutes throughout its service life? Instead of buying items you only use every now and then, it is better to share, borrow or hire these items.
• …if a quarter of Dutch people picked up one piece of litter every day there would be no litter.
• …the average Dutch person throws away 34 kilos of food? That’s the equivalent of 120 EUR!
• …an LED light uses 90% less energy than a traditional bulb, and is 85% more efficient than a halogen bulb?

If you would like to find out more about the Ritra Cargo Footprint Challenge or our sustainability vision, please contact us.