Human.Kind are fully committed to an ultra low environmental impact in our onsite.
This low impact sensibility has been part of our ethos from the start. Aiming for B-Corp status has helped us gain even more momentum and take bolder steps as a studio, business and community. operations, suppliers, staff and students.
Human.Kind City studio is powered by 100% renewables through a combination of a 30kW solar panel system (installed by us to our rental building in 2019), and switching our electricity supplier to Energy Locals with the 100% GreenPower option (January 2021).
Glenelg studio is not yet on renewables. We do utilise efficient ducted air-conditioning and far-IR heating panels in the studio, plus light sensors to to reduce wastage. We are working with the building owner to switch power suppliers to a renewable energy supplier.
Our team and community are committed to sorting our waste, compostables and recyclables as they occur. We audit our site waste monthly to discover where we can do better. Our standard landfill waste profile per week is just one shopping bag per week across the full city studio (including physiotherapy and community contributed waste). Glenelg Studio waste is approximately one shopping bag every two (or more) weeks. We aim for zero landfill waste target to be achieved by 2022, predominantly through better education and selection of our suppliers. To support this zero waste target, our retail items are deliberately minimal and yoga essential. We choose plastic free items and packaging however some suppliers still deliver plastic to our site in the form of transit packaging. We are working with suppliers to improve their standards.
We understand that the financial system is largely entangled with a profit at all cost mentality, seeking out monetary gains even if it results in environmental or social depletion.
In 2020 we moved our business banking to Bank Australia, an Australian customer owned bank and certified B-Corp. We also offered an ongoing 1% bonus superannuation contribution for all employees and contractors who moved their personal superannuation to an ethical provider.
Our first Intelligent Living topic of 2021 centred the main community action as divestment. It achieved nearly 100 divestment actions which we estimated a combined impact of over $3M divested from fossil fuel supporting superannuation funds and banks.
We had Adelaide City Council install additional bike racks at the front of our building in 2018 to encourage students to make use of the bike paths in our area. We also installed security cameras to watch over the bikes at street level. Both City and Glenelg studios are sites were chose because they are well serviced by the public transport and bike paths. These scope 3 emissions by staff and community in their commute to the studio are something that we are aiming to improve in 2021 through education and incentives.
Water flow rate limiters have been applied to all showers and faucets. Members are encouraged to keep shower time to a minimum to minimise the waste of both the water and the energy to heat the water.
We do not currently have a way to measure water usage. And because of shared use buildings at both City and Glenelg studios it is unlikely that we will be able to get good data on this.
