Sustainability Policy

 

PRINCIPLES:

The Policy’s Principles are based on:

• To comply with, and exceed where practicable, all applicable legislation, regulations and codes of practice.

• To integrate sustainability considerations into all our business decisions.

• To ensure that all staff are fully aware of our Sustainability Policy and are committed to implementing and improving it.

• To minimise the impact on sustainability of all office and transportation activities.
• To make clients and suppliers aware of our Sustainability Policy, and encourage them to adopt sound sustainable management practices.

• To review, annually report, and to continually strive to improve our sustainability performance.

In order to put these principles into practice we endeavour to:

• Avoid physically travelling to meetings, etc. where alternatives are available and practical, such as using teleconferencing, video conferencing or web cams, and efficient timing of meetings to avoid multiple trips.

• These options are also often more time efficient, while not sacrificing the benefits of regular contact with clients and partners.

• Reduce the need for our staff to travel by supporting alternative working arrangements, including home working etc.

• Minimise our use of paper and other office consumables, for example by double-siding all paper used, and identifying opportunities to reduce waste.

• As far as possible, arrange for the re-use or recycling of office waste, including paper, computer supplies and redundant equipment.

• Reduce the energy consumption of office equipment by purchasing energy efficient equipment and good housekeeping.

• Purchase electricity from a supplier committed to renewable energy.

• Seek to maximise the proportion from renewable energy sources, whilst also supporting investment in new renewable energy schemes.

• Ensure that timber furniture, and any other timber products, are recycled or from well-managed, sustainable sources and are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.

• Purchase fair-trade and/or organic beverages. Undertake voluntary work with the local community and/or environmental organisations and make donations to seek to offset carbon emissions from our activities.

• Ensure that any Subcontractors, Suppliers or Designers that we employ take account of sustainability issues.

• Where possible, deploy “Virtualisation” technology in the IT Department to ensure that the Company’s energy consumption requirements are minimised by reducing the number of physical machines to load IT solutions on to.

• Strive to achieve a more paperless office. To this end several document management systems have been developed that allow employees and customers retrieve and transmit documents electronically e.g., PODs, Invoices etc.

• Through our Satellite Tracking software continually monitor all vehicle journeys and optimise travel routes and vehicles to ensure that all vehicle movements are minimised thereby reducing our CO2 emissions.

• Offer incentives to employees to discourage the use of private vehicle transportation and single vehicle commutes where possible, with a view to promote the use of bicycles or walking for example.