The end of water cooler moments at Monzo?

Digital bank Monzo has scrapped the water coolers and kettles in its London office as part of its mission to achieve net zero by 2030.

As first reported in the Telegraph, Monzo has refitted the taps in its London office “to eliminate any emissions associated with boiling kettles”, according to its 2023 Annual Report.

Its London and Cardiff offices also run on renewable energy, and the power generated by these two spaces, plus its office in San Francisco, generated 34 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2022 – this is 0.3% of the company’s total carbon footprint.

Monzo did not answer a request about the precise positive impact of getting rid of water coolers and kettles on its push towards net zero.

One question that remains with Monzo rethinking its office design, and getting rid of water coolers altogether, is will this also remove the opportunity for employees to have so-called ‘water cooler moments’ in the office?

Water cooler moments have been a huge nexus of the debate over the past three years about remote and in-person work.

Just a few months ago, UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt declared that working from home was denying employees “water cooler moments where they can bounce ideas off each other”, as reported by the Telegraph.

The benefit of these interactions is they allow employees the time and space to have casual conversations, and build social connections beyond work. This, in turn, can drive build workplace friendships and cross-functional collaboration between teams that contributes to organizational success.

Of course, the outcome may be that Monzo employees who are in the office – the bank has some remote only roles, and allows its office-based workers to work from home occasionally – simply have similar interactions around the new water taps. Only time will tell.

Monzo goes beyond carbon offsets

Monzo’s 2023 Annual Report also shares some other green wins it had last year.

Notably that it has offset 397 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from business travel emissions with the help of TravelPerk.

But Monzo is keen to move beyond offsets and towards reducing emissions as much as possible, and working with its carbon advisor WaterShed to actually remove the rest.

To balance out the emissions from producing and sending out 5.4 million debit cards in 2022, Monzo has undertaken a carbon and reforestation removal program in Kenya.

“We’re removing at least the same amount of emissions from the atmosphere as we generated from the card emissions (829 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions). This purchase covers our card emissions for 2022”, stated the 2023 Annual Report.

Finally, Monzo shared that it has become a member of the Tech Zero Taskforce to help it make even faster process in the next years. Other signatories to the Taskforce include Wise, Vodafone, Auto Trader, and another UK challenger bank, Starling.

In a statement to UNLEASH, a Monzo spokesperson shared: “As one of the fastest growing banks in the UK, and one with lower greenhouse gas emissions than the high street banks, we continue to prioritize our ambition to achieve net zero.

“On such a critical issue, there’s no effort too small or too big that we shouldn’t look to make.”