Our workplace improvement team focuses on implementing strategies to reduce the environmental impact of our central functions and facilities.

During 2007, the team carried out major improvements to the energy efficiency of our buildings as well as helping employees reduce their travel through a number of initiatives.

As a result, we reduced our energy consumption per employee by 12.37% in 2007, against 2006 figures. Our target had been 10% on our non-operational sites. Our overall total consumption rose by 1.13%, but this is due to an increase in our number of sites and employees.

All of our non-operational sites now use our own renewable energy tariffs and we produce detailed monthly consumption data for each business unit and for every site. We encourage each function to input their information and expect that they proactively manage their environmental impact.

Now that planning permission has been approved, we recently started the installation of one of the UK's largest solar and thermal array at our Coventry head office and of smaller solar arrays at some of our other major offices for combined heat and power (CHP). We believe this will save an estimated 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

Having carried out thermal imaging at 11 of our major sites, we've identified sources of heat loss through walls, roofs and windows. Remedial work has since been carried out and has delivered better energy efficiency in most of our buildings.

The installation of automatic computer switch-off software to shut down computers outside of normal hours is anticipated to deliver projected annual C02 savings of around 740 tonnes and cost savings of £106,000. Under this project, known as 'Green IT', we're analysing different shift patterns to ensure there's a sustainable balance between keeping our critical business systems available and the environmental impact of doing so. We initially rolled this out in November 2007 at our call centres in Nottingham, Bolton and Leicester. Around 2,130 computers were included and this is giving us projected savings of approximately 456,000 kilowatt hours annually - enough to power 10 small fridges for 125 years!

We've commissioned external audits by the Carbon Trust at seven of our largest sites. This gave us initial savings estimates of 6% (around £200,000), from some quick wins, just by looking at how we light our buildings, by altering our building management systems and raising our employee awareness. We've also been working with our contractors to reduce their energy consumption. One great initiative that has been trialled at Bedford is the installation of an Ecube on the refrigeration units in our kitchens. The Ecube device fits onto a thermostatic sensor which then changes how fridges and freezers work by mimicking food rather than responding to fluctuating air temperatures. The six units trialled at Bedford have already delivered a saving of approximately 1.27 tonnes of carbon dioxide.