What we did
A scoping conversation with both directors, followed by a written pathway in three steps: a short foundations session to set the commitments and indicators, a measurement starter kit so the claims have numbers behind them, and a set of published pieces (an anchor article, supporting posts and a community case study) built on that evidence.
The whole thing is sized for a two-person business: a couple of hours a month, plus a few working sessions. No framework, no formal report.
The problem
365 Training Hub was not starting from scratch. Free training for Hospice, a collaboration with Auckland City Mission, discounts for charities, courses designed to suit neurodiverse learners, and visible care for their own people. None of it was written down, quantified or communicated anywhere.
Then a client asked about the environmental impact of AI image generation. It is a question the training sector will keep being asked, and answering it credibly takes evidence rather than instinct. The directors had the right instinct (craft your prompts well, and make full use of the Microsoft 365 tools you already own before buying more software) but no sources to stand it up.
What they did not need was equally clear: heavy frameworks, formal reporting, or any obligation two people cannot sustain.
Who the business is
365 Training Hub is a Microsoft 365 training business run by Jandi Shennan and Kelly Coyle. They teach New Zealand teams to get more out of the software they already pay for, delivered by webinar rather than in a room, with course design that works for neurodiverse learners.
Their operating principle is people first. It shows in who they train for free, how they price for charities, and how they look after each other. The gap was never the substance, it was the record.
Jandi Shennan
DirectorChange management, human-centred design, and training design. Winner of the Australian and New Zealand HR community's Change Management Strategy award in 2018.
Kelly Coyle
DirectorMicrosoft Office Specialist and Certified Training Professional. Her specialty is absorbing what is new in Microsoft 365 and passing it on clearly and practically.
The solution
Three steps that work best in order (the session sets the guardrails, the measures produce the evidence, the story is built on both) but each is useful on its own.
- 1
Story foundations session
2–3 hours, both directorsTurn the people-first principle into two or three specific commitments. Choose the small number of UN Sustainable Development Goals their actual, evidenced activities map to, deliberately kept small so the claims are credible rather than overclaimed. Pick two or three simple indicators to track. Everything published later builds on this.
- 2
Measurement starter kit
Within one monthOnly the measures agreed in step one. Hours of free and discounted training and the organisations supported, on a shared spreadsheet that takes about five minutes per event. A one-off calculation of the travel emissions their webinar model avoids against in-person delivery, using Ministry for the Environment emission factors. Templates plus a plain-English explanation of how each figure is calculated, so every published number can be justified.
- 3
The sustainable-AI story, written and ready to load
An anchor article on efficient AI use and why it matters environmentally, two or three supporting blog posts, and a community case study with the partner's approval. Every claim sourced and every figure traced back to step two, so when a client asks where a number comes from, they can show them. Delivered as ready-to-use copy, uploaded on their own schedule.
The figure raised in the meeting, that generating one AI image uses roughly the energy of charging a smartphone, holds up. A peer-reviewed study by Luccioni, Jernite and Strubell (Hugging Face and Carnegie Mellon), testing 88 AI models, found a single image from a large model consumes about 0.011 kWh: roughly a full phone charge, and around 750 times the emissions of a straightforward text task.
The same study shows that for widely used models, emissions from everyday use now surpass those from the initial training. How people use AI genuinely makes a difference, which makes teaching good prompting, choosing text where text will do, and using the tools you already own a defensible way to reduce impact.
Outcomes
A published sustainability story
An anchor article, a community case study, and a blogging rhythm they can actually maintain, with every claim built on a credible source.
Figures they can quote
Pro bono training hours, organisations supported, and CO₂e avoided through online delivery, each one traceable to a method they can explain.
A first-mover position
Leading the sustainable-AI-use conversation in the New Zealand training sector, rather than answering it defensively later.
New reporting obligations
Nothing that creates a commitment a two-person business cannot sustain. A couple of hours a month is the whole ask.
Blue CSR: practical ESG and CSR for New Zealand small business. Published with 365 Training Hub's permission. Figures quoted are sourced and available on request.