Much of this report provides information on subjects where Chelsea has programmes in place but we're also keen to provide information on what we are planning to do in future.
We've recognised that we have strong strategies around our staff and the communities in which we do business and that we have built up sound relationships with members over many years. Some areas which we are starting to work on will be new to us.
To set meaningful aims we will be assessing what we can do over the coming year and will then decide on how best to tackle them to make the biggest difference.
The amount of material we use in the course of a working day is a little more difficult to measure. One thing we are aware of is just how much paper a business like Chelsea consumes. We're very aware of the effects of deforestation and will use this report to identify just how much we can encourage our staff to reduce the consumption of materials they use each day. This will enable us to set aims for reduction annually. Often it's far too easy to forget to print on both sides of a sheet of paper, or not to read a document or email on screen or simply recycle paper as notepads.
We use over 11 million sheets of paper each year. Whilst these come from sustainable forests, are chlorine free and we recycle much of it, it is vital that we reduce how much we use. We're currently discussing how easy it would be to switch our supplies to fully recycled materials without any risk to our current equipment, loss of quality and ease of supply. Paper isn't the only thing we recycle though...
| Recycling | |
|---|---|
| What we recycle | How much we recycle per year |
| Office paper waste | 92.97 tonnes |
| Cardboard | 16.04 tonnes |
| Glass | 5.73 tonnes |
| Aluminium cans | 0.37 tonnes |
| Neon tubes | 0.08 tonnes |
| IT equipment | 1.35 tonnes |
| Videotape and microfilm | 0.5 tonnes |
| Polystyrene | 0.1 tonnes |
We've said much about our staff bus scheme which was designed to help ease the amount of congestion around our Head Office site. The numbers speak for themselves! We think we've reduced the number of cars on the roads each month significantly. Even if you assume car occupancy of two people, the number of bus trips taken locally using our Lioncard equals a staggering 2,275 cars taken off the road each month.
Currently we don't collect how much business mileage our staff travel each year collectively so we're now creating a simple online mechanism to help everyone record their mileage. This will start to help us work on reducing the overall number of miles we travel and help to develop alternatives. We can never eradicate business mileage but we can make sure that it's only travelled where absolutely necessary.
| Bus journeys | |
|---|---|
| Lunchtime - staff using Lioncard bus pass | 799 per month average |
| Total for the year | 54,597 |
Energy
The figures in the table below represent our latest information on our energy consumption and recycling.
We're very aware of the need to reduce our carbon footprint. Indeed many businesses have said that they are 'carbon neutral'. We're starting to work towards becoming neutral by looking first at our overall consumption not at how many trees we need to plant to offset the energy and materials we currently use.
To do this we're setting ourselves an aim to reduce our energy consumption initially by 5% in 2008. The work conducted with Carbon Trust has helped to identify where the most effective measures can be made.
Chelsea energy consumption
It doesn't stop there though. Staff awareness campaigns around our business have already started. These started by showing just how they could save energy around our offices. Energy saving doesn't just happen at work though it should also take place at home, to help Head Office staff get access to good advice we've been working with Severn Wye Energy Agency who offer a free energy assessment.
They are also part of the Energy Savings Trust. If you haven't started to think about your own energy consumption they are an excellent place to start.
A dedicated 'energy group' was created earlier this year to manage our energy reduction strategy. This group meets regularly and oversees the programme of replacement of inefficient equipment and monitors energy use. Additionally, all senior staff will be tasked with making sure their staff maximise their energy savings within their offices.
| Energy consumption | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity | Gas | Total | |
| Head Office | 2.47 million kWh/year | 2.06 million kWh/year | 4.53 million kWh/year |
| Branch network | 1.36 million kWh/year | 0.16 million kWh/year | 1.52 million kWh/year |
Community printed items (Over 308,000 items printed for good causes).
Our community programme has grown over a number of years partially by our own strategy but largely by the demand from local community groups and charities.
We provide donations via our Chelsea Charitable Foundation and from Chelsea Building Society. These are spread across a range of worthy causes some of which can be seen in the CR report.
Over the course of the next year we'll be working to rationalise our community support into areas which mean something to our business and our members. We'd love to be able to help every worthy cause in the areas we operate but that simply isn't feasible. With more companies withdrawing funding for the community we need to refocus our efforts into the areas that best represent our business.
To start with we're committing to make 20% of our community support relate to housing, homelessness, debt and education on finance.
Ask any of our staff and they'll tell you about our core values and the strategies we have for success. We recognise that Corporate Responsibility plays a large part in many elements of our business and none more so than our first strategy 'To create an exceptional engaged workforce.' We have focussed on making sure our staff understand the direction Chelsea is moving in and can communicate this effectively to customers and also that as a business we are listening to the opinions of our staff.
There are many ways in which we encourage anyone working for Chelsea to become involved in initiatives some of which can be found in this report.
Over the next year key senior people from within our Communications, Personnel and Staff Development departments will be pulling together very meaningful data which will give us a measure of our staff engagement.
Why is this important?
Many studies have taken place which clearly demonstrate that the more engaged a workforce is with their business it increases business benefits such as saved costs, increased performance, greater customer service and improves its reputation. We already know Chelsea has an enviable record in each of these areas however we're not complacent.
Any successful business recognises that you are only as good as your last set of results, whether they are fiscal or otherwise it's important to maintain success by whatever measures are chosen. We're very aware that we are driven by our customers whether they're members, professional introducers or people who don't currently have any relationship with us.
Relationships are built on trust. One of the reasons for producing a CR report is to give anyone who wants to do business, or open accounts with us, reason to trust us as an organisation. We think we're good at building relationships and delivering things that matter most to customers.
