Increase in paper recycling at our Watford office in 2005/06
Decrease in our paper consumption in 2005/06
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The Green Team
The Green Team, a group of 20 volunteers from across the company, plays a lead role in involving our employees in environmental initiatives. One of the main aims of the Team is to make colleagues aware of the relatively simple things they can do individually and in their teams and departments, to protect the environment. We want to make this a way of life in the company.
During the year the Green Team ran a campaign in Watford, London, Northampton and Aintree to get the message across that it's easy for everyone to do their bit to manage our impact on the environment, with the emphasis on doing small things to make a big difference.
The campaign focused on energy saving, encouraging staff to switch off lights and computer monitors, and to use the stairs rather than lifts. Posters and stickers were put up in stairways, corridors and meeting rooms. As part of the same campaign, an article on energy saving was published in the staff magazine and special screen saver messages were posted on all computers.
Our Green Team also set some targets during the year on recycling and waste. These were successfully achieved in 2005/06.
- Increase paper recycling at Watford by 10% We actually increased it by 44%
- Reduce office paper consumption at Watford by 5% Although we decreased paper consumption by 35%, we still use too many sheets of paper per employee each year and want to reduce this further
- Establish recycling facilities for paper and plastic at Northampton and Aintree This was achieved in February. It is now possible to recycle paper, cardboard, plastic and cans at all our main sites.
The Green Team's plan to increase plastic recycling at Watford by 5% was not achieved, largely because we set the wrong target. We have however visibly reduced our waste by replacing disposable cups with reusable cups at our head office. We have actually managed to halve our use of plastic although we have not undertaken a full impact assessment.
In the year ahead we plan to run similar campaigns encouraging colleagues to conserve paper by printing double–sided and to recycle more.