News

It's all well and good - and at first we were naively impressed - but nothing has really changed and we're all pretty sceptical. You just have to witness the senior management arrive in their SUVs every morning to see they aren't taking it seriously. Should I protest?

A: In any reasonably open, well-managed company, it should be possible to register this sort of concern quite informally - and without having to raise the temperature unnecessarily by 'protesting'. If that doesn't work, and there's no existing mechanism for employees to lodge complaints or propose ideas, then I suggest you round up a bunch of your colleagues and draft a proposal (not a protest).

It should say that you're all delighted that the company has decided to take climate change seriously and you'd very much like to help put its good intentions into practice. So you suggest the formation of a representative group, acting initially under the guidance of an outside expert, whose collective job it will be to identify any actions, big or small, that the company should take to reduce its carbon footprint.

It's hard to see that such a suggestion could be rejected (if it was, any hypocrisy would be mercilessly exposed) - and the list of inevitable proposals would naturally range from the immediate use of low-energy light bulbs to the discontinuation of the use of high-emission company cars ...

- Jeremy Bullmore is a former creative director and chairman of J Walter Thompson London. His book Another Bad Day at the Office is published by Penguin at £6.99. Address your problem to Jeremy Bullmore at: editorial@mtmagazine.co.uk. Regrettably, no correspondence can be entered into.