Business Operations

Our main greenhouse gas emissions are, of course, from electricity generation, but we also want to reduce the impact of emissions from our offices’ energy use, waste and travel.

Although we missed our 10% reduction target for non-operational emissions in 2006 our carbon intensity (emissions per employee) has gone down by 15.5%.

We have calculated the main components of our carbon footprint and had this verified by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM) and are implementing recommendations from their report to help develop a complete carbon footprint reporting system.

Our community of carbon champions is helping the business take steps to reduce its carbon footprint:

• Lowering office temperatures by 1 degree.
• Closing offices out of hours and turning off equipment.
• Trialling and promoting smart meetings using Live Meeting and video conferencing technologies.
• Raising awareness of climate change, encouraging environmentally sensitive behaviours and communicating the actions we are taking.

Office energy use

We supply our own electricity from renewable sources saving 30,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year (hundredth of the amount of CO₂ emitted from our power stations).   However, we have not stopped there and are carrying out an extensive programme of workplace improvements, as well as developing an Energy Management Policy which will be binding across the business.

We have undertaken energy efficiency and thermal imagery surveys which showed how we could improve our offices efficiency by:

• Reducing air conditioning load.
• Replacing windows to reduce drafts and limit solar gain.
• Retrofitting.
• Light sensors.
• Suitable microgeneration options including heat pumps, solar panels and wind turbines for our non-generation sites.

Eventually our surveys will cover all of our 80+ sites leading to continuing energy consumption reductions.

Business travel

Our green travel scheme encourages our employees to reduce the impact their travelling has on the environment by assisting with locating car sharers with each other, providing green travel parking spaces and offering monetary incentives to travel more sustainably.  

We also provide, promote and educate on the use of technologies such as telephone/video conferencing and live meetings. These facilities enable employees to make greener choices by providing a number of different options to limit carbon intensive travel.

Working with employees

We are committed to communicating, and engaging, with our employees on environmental issues and climate change and are working with the Charity Global Action Plan to help us achieve this. We have recruited 350 environmental champions throughout the business who will work to change behaviour and culture of employees by providing advice and encouraging change both at work and at home.   We also regularly conduct opinion surveys amongst employees to encourage feedback and gauge how our people view our company and its activities.

Recycling

Government guidelines suggest that an office should recycle between 70% and 80% of its waste.   The amount of waste that we recycle differs between sites but, with an average of between 15% and 25%, we still have a way to go. But, with the help of our environment champions, communications and procuring contracts with recycling facilitators, we hope to increase the amount we recycle with an aim to reach government recommendations in the next five years.