Policy
We wish to act as responsible citizens within our society. The way that we interact and impact our environment is a fundamental element of how we work.
We are therefore committed to reducing our impact upon the environment and as a responsible employer we will strive to promote an understanding of sustainability through our staff and through their interaction with our customers.
We have set ourselves key goals to constantly look for ways in which we can improve our environmental credentials; and we will invite and welcome feedback as to improvements that we can adopt to achieve continued improvement.
Actions
Over the past year we have adopted the following strategies to help us achieve a positive environmental policy.
Where possible we allow staff to operate from home and or local offices. In doing so we have:
- Reduced road congestion
- Reduced fuel consumption
- Improved staff morale and well being
We encourage staff to adopt public transport for longer journeys and wherever possible reduce drive times
- Again impacting road congestion and reducing fuel consumption
- Benefiting our staff by reducing stress and tiredness
We have adopted recycling strategies, including
- The reuse, or re-distribution of old equipment, and office furniture etc to local charities
- Recycling of paper and tins through charities and organized collections
We have a positive approach to reducing waste,
The reuse of materials wherever possible and the emphasis on recycling where this is not possible
This intention to operate our business in an as environmentally friendly way has yielded positive dividends already:
- On average we have reduced commuting time per member of staff by one hour per day
- In doing so we estimate we have saved fuel equal to a quarter of our annual usage in 2006
- We recycle all of paper and tin in our admin department, and as archive material is disposed of we are employing responsible recycling partners
- We positively promote the paperless office, issuing marketing and other literature electronically to minimise our use of paper. The increasing use of e-mail has greatly reduced the amount of paper used and we strive to avoid sending hard copy correspondence if it is not necessary.
The future
- We will provide staff with materials and education with regard to for example, responsible use of the stand-by mode on electrical equipment, the benefits of energy efficiency lighting and so on
- We will recycle our old computers using environmentally aware and licensed contractors
- We will continue to recycle mobile phones and printer cartridges
- We will continue to recycle the fluorescent light tubes used in the offices that we do operate
- We will be introducing more recycling points around our offices
- We will introduce green buying policies to purchase resources from environmentally aware organisations for example we will only purchase paper that is FSC accredited.
- We will ensure we source supplies locally to reduce delivery miles.
- We will use Fair Trade supplies in our kitchens
- We will develop links and support ethical organizations to ensure that environmental issues are promoted and developed
- We will provide links through our website to sites promoting realistic and sustainable attitudes towards the environment
- We will measure and calculate our performance with an aim of making continuous improvements
