Our environment

We are very aware of the need to reduce our environmental impact and the benefits this can offer.

We sought expert advice last year by undertaking a free energy review with The Carbon Trust. The Carbon Trust is an independent company funded by Government in response to the threat of climate change.

Carbon Trust

We established from our Carbon Trust report that we had no formal process in place to review our energy consumption. We have an opportunity to save 22% of our energy bill. The proposed measures could save us a total of 222 tonnes of carbon and a potential annual £56,000 cost saving.

Key measures that were suggested we implement were:

• rationalise heating set points in the building
• replace dichroic lamps with infrared coating technology lamps
• prevent simultaneous heating and cooling
• control pump speeds using variable speed drives
• think about creating an environmental policy and management system.

What we have achieved
Progress has been made with replacement of lamps and this is ongoing with consultation to ensure the correct light is provided by the alternatives.

Our Head Office and two typical branches (Cheltenham and Bromley to represent new and old) were reviewed against a typical benchmark. A good standard for a naturally ventilated office like Cheltenham or Bromley is 134 kWh/m2. The typical standard is 199 kWh/m2.

Cheltenham branch received an above average good standard of 75 kWh/m2. Bromley received a typical standard of 206 kwh/m2.

We've also run internal campaigns to highlight measures staff could take to switch off unnecessary lights and equipment and to think about their energy consumption at work and at home.

Creating an environmental policy
We have started to create an environmental policy collating data for 2006 consumption of energy and production of waste and creating a measurement system to harvest it in future. We set up opportunities for staff to meet with an external consultant, The SMART Company, to discuss the key issues for them at work and at home with regards to the environment.

Important issues for our staff:

• ability to recycle and identify waste we could avoid
• energy consumption
• understanding of how to control equipment such as heating and cooling
• transport - environmental cost of company cars, understanding of emissions and benefits of more environmentally friendly fleets
• energy efficiency of equipment
• targets to tackle environmental issues at work
• understanding what Chelsea is doing to tackle environmental issues
• water consumption.

What we have done to start to address these issues

• Starting to create awareness campaigns to highlight measures we can take in the workplace to reduce our environmental impact.
• Plan to train staff on how to control equipment in their workspace including heating and cooling and reading utility meters.
• Seek expert advice to look at the more technical issue of energy efficiency of equipment, potentially making an investment to reap long term cost savings.
• Provide improved recycling facilities and increase where required.
• Starting to work with suppliers such as our staff restaurant to cut down the amount of waste we create.
• Started to create an environmental policy and promise to publish it in our next CR report.
• Start to collate data from across the business to begin more comprehensive reporting in our next CR report. This will include records of recycling, energy consumption, business mileage, customer satisfaction, customer initiatives, charity and community support given, research statistics, accreditations and awards received.

Environmental management

About SMART
The SMART Company is a specialist corporate responsibility consultancy working with many leading companies including their ClimateSMART service. They are a Carbon Neutral Company.

We are working with the SMART company to identify the key environmental impacts and develop a programme of activity to minimise them.

Project objectives

• Confirm key environmental impacts
• Adopt an Environment Policy
• Adopt environmental performance measures and collect baseline data
• Adopt objectives and targets establishing a programme to achieve them
• Report internally and publicly on performance

Engaging employees
Involving employees in meeting environmental challenges is crucial to project success.

Nearly 40 employees representing six sites came together in three sessions to identify those environmental issues which are of most concern to them and to work on an environment policy. The most important areas identified were energy, paper, commuting, waste reduction and recycling.

Next steps
We are currently collecting data on our environmental impact. Once this is complete, we will report on our findings to the executive team.

We asked The SMART Company to prepare this statement describing our work.