Litter pick brings team together

Sustainability is something close to my heart, made all the more prominent thanks to my experience with the topic, having previously studied for my PhD in Marine Biology. I’ve always felt strongly about wanting to preserve and protect the world in which we live, and how seemingly small changes can lead to a larger result.

Fortunately, the Analytics team I’m part of at NATS feels the same way. We are involved with supporting a huge range of projects across the full breadth of NATS, and as such we are often able to identify many ideas around how we can contribute to our business’ sustainability objectives. In order to capture them all, we have started to dedicate time at our regular team meetings to focus on these opportunities.

It was during one of these meetings that we asked for ideas and volunteers for an optional team building session to get to know the colleagues we don’t usually work directly with during which we could give something back to our local community. What better way to build a team bond than getting outside and doing something meaningful together!

So, one afternoon in March, over 30 volunteers armed with bin bags and litter pickers went about the wooded areas surrounding our head office in Hampshire collecting the litter.

There’s no sight quite like a group of analysts gleefully excited at the sight of a loose crisp packet! It was a wonderful opportunity to engage with others across the team whilst giving something back.

In just a couple of hours we had collected ten bags of waste and recyclables, which we sorted and disposed of responsibly back at the office.

There’s no question that the session delivered on bringing us closer as a team. But more than that, it produced a sense of accomplishment and pride in the environment we live in and the small act we did to make a difference.