I am committed to promoting sustainability. Concern for the
environment and promoting a broader sustainability agenda are
integral to our professional activities and the management of the
organisation. We aim to follow and to promote good sustainability
practice, to reduce the environmental impacts of all our activities
and to help our clients and partners to do the same
Principles
Our Sustainability Policy is based upon the following principles:
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To comply with, and exceed where practicable, all applicable
legislation, regulations and codes of practice.
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To integrate sustainability considerations into all our business
decisions.
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To ensure that all staff are fully aware of our Sustainability
Policy and are committed to implementing and improving it.
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To minimise the impact on sustainability of all office and
transportation activities.
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To make clients and suppliers aware of our Sustainability
Policy, and encourage them to adopt sound sustainable management
practices.
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To review, annually report, and to continually strive to improve
our sustainability performance.
Practical steps
In order to put these principles into practice we will:
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Travel and meetings
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Avoid physically travelling to meetings etc where
alternatives are available and practical, such as using
teleconferencing, video conferencing or web cams, and
efficient timing of meetings to avoid multiple trips.
These options are also often more time efficient, while
not sacrificing the benefits of regular contact with
clients and partners.
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Walk, cycle and/or use public transport to attend
meetings, site visits etc, apart from in exceptional
circumstances where the alternatives are impractical
and/or cost prohibitive.
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Include the full costs of more sustainable forms of
transport in our financial proposals, rather than the
least cost option which may involve travelling by car or
air. Where the only practical alternative is to fly, we
will include costs for full air fares rather than budget
airlines in our financial proposals
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Reduce the need for our staff to travel by supporting
alternative working arrangements, including home working
etc, and promote the use of public transport by locating
our offices in accessible locations
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Purchase of equipment and consumption of resources
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Minimise our use of paper and other office consumables,
for example by double-siding all paper used, and
identifying opportunities to reduce waste.
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As far as possible arrange for the reuse or recycling of
office waste, including paper, computer supplies and
redundant equipment.
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Reduce the energy consumption of office equipment by
purchasing energy efficient equipment and good
housekeeping.
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Seek to purchase electricity from a supplier committed
to renewable energy.
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Seek to maximise the proportion from renewable energy
sources, whilst also supporting investment in new
renewable energy schemes.
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Ensure that timber furniture, and any other timber
products, are recycled or from well-managed, sustainable
sources and are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
certified.
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Digital practices
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Choose providers who share the same ethos as us and use
renewable energy to help keep our impact as low as
possible.
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Ensure files are shared using secure methods that aren't
attached to emails; this will include using services
such as WeTransfer or utilising the share facility from
a cloud storage provider.
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Minimise the amount of cloud storage required by storing
client files online for a period of 12 months; once this
time has elapsed the file may be deleted, stored offline
onto a physical medium or left in place. This decision
will be made based on the relationship with the client
and the nature of the documents held.
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Strive to minimise the impact of our website by reducing
asset size its minimum and questioning its necessity.
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Follow all guidance stated in Sustainable Web Design,
Web Sustainability Guidelines and the Green Software
Foundation catalog wherever possible.
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Working practices and advice to clients
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Undertake voluntary work with the local community and /
or environmental organisations and make donations to
seek to offset carbon emissions from our activities.
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Ensure that any associates that we employ take account
of sustainability issues in their advice to clients.
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Include a copy of this Sustainability Policy in all our
proposals to clients.