environmental

We recognise that our work may have a direct or indirect effect on the local and/or regional environment. We are therefore committed to reducing any harm that this may cause on the environment and as a manufacturing establishment we will promote the understanding of sustainability within all we teach.

Our green policy is to constantly look for ways in which we can improve our green credentials; we are achieving this by forming a steering group to explore ways to achieve our statement promises and to link with other like-minded organisations.

Our Green strategy is aligned with our business strategy. We will focus on:
Reducing waste
Reusing materials at every opportunity
Repair rather then throw away where we can
Recycling

As our green culture becomes established and embedded, we aim to:
Encourage our staff to be responsibly
Utilise energies and water sparingly
Consider environmental impacts in our purchasing
Endeavour to work with partner organisations that share our green values
Reduce the need for transport and its impacts on the environment

It is our intention to operate our business in an as environmentally friendly way as we can. What we have done so far:
We reuse, or recycle, all of our incoming packaging materials (cardboard, polystyrene/cereal based beads, shredded paper, air bags, etc)

We minimise our use of paper. Our course information guides, job vacancies and key information about the company are readily available on the Internet. The increasing use of e-mail greatly reduces the amount of paper used in hard-copy correspondence, envelopes and letters. Processing information electronically is also much more energy and carbon efficient than physically sending hard copy.

We have installed some multi-functional devices (for faxing, printing and photocopying) in our offices that will reduce energy and paper usage.

We only purchase paper that is FSC accredited.

We supply recycle bins for our office paper.

We are using 100% use of digital photography for the production of marketing materials.

Our consumption of fuel and energy is closely monitored and we take care that it is not wasted through inefficiency or casualness. For example, we use signage to remind staff to turn off lights when leaving a room, and ask staff to use computers responsibly i.e. turning them off at night and using the stand-by mode during the day.

We recycle our old computers and will continue to do so throughout the IT replacement strategy.

We recycle mobile phones and printer cartridges.

We recycle the fluorescent light tubes used on our factories, showrooms and offices.

We have reduced the amount of our landfill waste by finding ways of recycling waste material, either in-house or through working in conjunction with others who are able to use the material constructively.

We are ensuring that any new build/refurbishment plans adhere to current environmental standards and energy conservation requirements

What we intend to do in the future:
We will encourage staff and visitors to recycle bottles, plastics and aluminium cans by locating recycling bins at strategic points throughout our facilities.

We will purchase our electricity and gas from suppliers who re-invest in renewable energy sources

Where possible we will choose to source our materials from suppliers who operate in an environmentally friendly manner and who are geographically local to us to reduce delivery miles.

We aim to serve Fair Trade hot drinks in our cafes

We will work with our catering suppliers to buy locally where possible in order to reduce our food miles

We will chose our delivery vehicles with fuel efficiency in mind and their fuel consumption will be closely monitored

We will look into offsetting the carbon effect of overseas purchases by planting a tree for each £100,000.00 spent each year

We will measure and calculate the carbon footprint of each factory with a view to reducing this year on year

We will encourage our business partners to strive for the same high level of environmental care by offering free environmental training programmes

We will encourage web-links to sites promoting sensible and sustainable attitudes towards the environment, renewable energy, etc.

We will deliver awareness raising training programmes on Green Issues and Sustainable Development to all staff in order to inspire them to reduce their carbon footprint and encourage them to take action to offset their carbon in innovative ways

We will work with schools to encourage their pupils to actively participate in environmental projects devised by the college and its eco-partners.

We are in the process of doing a feasibility study on the implementation of 'Low Sodium Lighting' throughout our facilities.