Climate change and carbon reduction
Globally, the waste management industry is responsible for 3% of carbon emissions. Through minimising the use of fossil fuels, recovering materials through recycling and energy from residual waste, we can help to reduce our contribution to the industry’s carbon footprint.
We are adjusting our daily activities to optimise carbon reduction. Our in house measuring systems allow us to target initiatives towards green practices in the office and renewable energy supply. We also encourage responsible driving practices and route optimisation. In our Westminster contract alone, these measures reduced fuel consumption by 13.4% last year.
We have a created a CO2 calculator which can help you measure your carbon footprint in your personal and business lives.
Our customers can also benefit from our experience in this area. Our dedicated greenhouse gas department has developed a pioneering tool called the GHG tracker, which uses operational data from our services and calculates their estimated carbon contribution. The initiative has been picked up by major organisations and received the Platinum Award at Boris Johnson's London Green 500 celebrations in 2010.
Training and dialogue
Through communications campaigns and environmental training, we equip our staff to push for environmental excellence across the board.
All our site managers are required to complete our environmental awareness and legislation courses. Our industry leading Health and Safety campaign has expanded to promote awareness of environmental issues, and we back this up with internal seminars to keep staff up to date.
We also strive to improve our customers' environmental performance. Through free legislation seminars, exhibitions and presentations to individual organisations we aim to stimulate dialogue on all aspects of environmental performance.
Environmental legislation
Our own and our customers’ compliance with environmental legislation is the minimum standard to which we operate, without compromise.
In addition to informing clients about legislative developments, we also operate battery, packaging and electrical equipment waste compliance schemes, which take on our customers legal obligations under EU producer responsibility regulations.
Measurement
Robust management systems are essential to work out where we are now and to track our progress in the future.
We’ve developed internal reporting systems which audit our sites annually. Our network of 350 sites has now achieved the internationally recognised ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO 14001:2004 (Environmental) and OHSAS 18001 (Health and Safety) standards.
For more information on these subjects, please download our 2010 Annual Review.