Sustainability is in Simplicity’s DNA. Being an ethical investment fund, every dollar invested has impact. Simplicity have made millions of dollars of impact through their investing, but their impact doesn’t stop with investing. It’s a way of thinking about everything they do. This is certainly evident with Simplicity’s most recent sustainability initiative where they’ve committed to pay for all their employee’s public transport use (whether that be for work or personal use – it’s all covered!). We spoke the Simplicity Founder, Sam Stubbs, about this incredible initiative. Read on to hear what sparked the initiative, how they went about implementing it, the employee response and their plans for the future.
Simplicity team pictured above.
For Simplicity, actions speak louder than words. “Plans can be perfect in formation but don’t always translate into perfect implementation,” says Sam. The team were brainstorming initiatives to both improve Simplicity’s footprint and enable their employees to be more sustainable. One of the team members had an AT HOP card on their key ring and someone had a lightbulb moment, to give one to all the employees. Soon after, the initiative was in motion. Every employee and contractor now have a Simplicity branded AT HOP Card with unlimited auto top ups. With 1.4 million people driving to work each day, what better way to encourage employees to get out of their cars and onto trains, buses, and ferries. Stubbs says, “It was super simple to implement, AT were great to work with.”
Hitch are strong believers that the commute is a great sustainability area for businesses to focus on in conjunction with employees. The joint accountability between the business and employee makes it a powerful engagement initiative. We asked Sam about the benefits they’ve seen from an employee engagement perspective. “It’s been such an effective investment because the return we get out of it, both from an environmental and a team satisfaction perspective, is so high relative to the cost!” Employees were pleasantly surprised by the initiative. Simplicity has had very high uptake so far. The initiative builds on Simplicity’s culture and sends a strong message to employees and customers. “The response has been much more positive than expected! Even people who don’t use public transport were super excited that we were introducing this, and that their colleagues were using it. We have a lot of benefits for our teams, but this is without a doubt one of the most positively received benefits that we offer.”
We spoke to Sam about their plans to expand mobility related impact in the future. “We are just getting started. We don’t have any plans yet, but in the future we may look at pay-per use mobility options too such as e-bikes or scooters.”
Ka Pai, Simplicity! The Hitch team are stoked to see companies making real and tangible action, pathing the way for a cleaner, greener future. A future with less cars and connected, healthier communities.