20/06/2022

Making a difference!

Barracudas is keen to make a difference to help the planet.

We're committed to offering the most amazing experience for children in the school holidays but also want to reduce our impact on the environment.

Each department is finding ways we can provide more sustainable holiday childcare.

We recently set up a ‘Working Party’ including members from each team. We’ve set up regular meetings to look into all areas where we can be a more eco-friendly summer camp.

We’ve already put key innovations in place and continue to find opportunities to improve.

A snapshot of actions

Here’s a snapshot of ways we’re reducing our impact on the environment in the office:

• Each employee has 2 screens to avoid printing
• All forms available online
• All tech switched off overnight to reduce energy consumption
• Water machine rather than water cooler reducing plastic waste
• No plastic cups
• Where staff do have to print, print double sided
• Recycled paper for printing
• Regular recycling
• Hybrid working in the office and from home cuts down on commuting to work which in turn helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Our general approach is; reduce, reuse, recycle!

Equipment and at camp

We know it’s all about their time at camp. We aim to offer the best experience at every camp, for every child.

With 45 camps this summer, 80+ activity options, 6 sessions a day and a choice for every one, that’s a lot of equipment!

We’re always reviewing our offering and considering the impact on the environment when we order materials. We recently took glitter off the table as we know how damaging this is to the environment, but it’s not about what we don’t do, it’s about what we do do!

This year we invested heavily in brand new electric vehicles to replace our motor versions for every camp. We were excited to let them loose at Easter and kids gave them the big thumbs up. That’s double positives for us.

We also need to consider the best ways to get all our lovely gear to camps. With 45 camps running at summer, that’s many motorway miles. We’ve invested in new pallets to compact our packing. This means fewer vans on the road delivering camp equipment.

Keep your eyes peeled for our blog all about our new electric vehicles coming up!

The Business end

We’re mindful of reducing printing, recycling where we can and reducing our energy consumption.

A big development has been our investment in robust and efficient tech platforms to ensure we can easily share and access information without paper. A huge plus for us too as we grow and develop as a company.

As an activity day camp, there are numerous essential child-related forms we’re legally required to carry and moving these online has had a massive impact on our reduction of paper use. Our Essential Information forms are a legal requirement, and we’re obliged to keep these for 21 years as records. Having these stored (securely) online has meant we no longer need to scan these and store paper copies, reducing the need for paper and space!

We no longer store paperwork files, everything needed is scanned onto our secure platform or stored securely online.

Of course, we always operate securely and within legal guidelines. Data is stored responsibly, and we follow GDPR regulations.

Here’s what we’ve moved from paper to online:

• Invoices and remittance advices
• HR documents
• Key company information for staff
• Camp resources and guides
• Planning files

Customer Services, Sales & Marketing

There have been key developments in our processes recently that have significantly improved our environmental impact.

In 2021 we introduced fully contactless check in. This not only helped to protect children, parents and staff from COVID-19 but cut the amount of paperwork. We also developed a new parent app for bookers to access key information and make updates to their booking and information wherever they may be.

It’s key that our Customer Service team can help parents with queries and facilitate requests. Important documents were moved online, including accident forms and Essential Information forms.

We also need a number of planning documents and internal guides needed to run our professional camps. It’s much more efficient having access to these online as well as being much better for the environment!

We’re spreading the word digitally! We need to let people know about our school holiday camps but think carefully about the best way to do this. Things have moved on from the days of traditional marketing mediums and we were quick to adopt a digital led approach.

Whilst there’s still a need to share physical information for parents to keep hold of, we try where we can, to make everything available online. We’ve significantly reduced the amount of leaflets we produce and magazines we advertise in, choosing digital channels, where we can, instead.

Recruitment

Seasonal staff are a vital component of running quality holiday camps. A huge amount of work is involved in finding, training and hiring camp staff.

Once we’ve found the right people, we need to make sure they're ready and trained to take on their roles and deliver amazing experiences following our strict guidelines and requirements.

We recently made a significant change by offering online Virtual Assessment Days rather than this being a location based event. We’ve designed this carefully to make sure we’re still paving the way for quality staff.

We’ve also moved our starter induction online. This used to be printed a version we’d share with staff. We have a LOT of staff. We need to share a LOT of information. That’s a LOT less paper!

Ongoing commitment

We’re continuing to investigate ways we can operate more sustainably. 

We're constantly looking at ways we can be kinder to the environment. We've made a great start and will continue to identify actions that will lead to positive change. 

Keep your eyes peeled for more on our electric vehicles later this week.