sustainable times issue 2

WINTER 2008/9

Does your printer supplier

tick BOTH boxes?

ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE

ETHICALLYSOUND

Brother does!For the second year running Brother has come top of

the Ethical Company Organisation’s results in each of

our product categories.

Green from the ground up... page 17

?

?

Green

Certifi cation

Paper Merchants

Fight Back

Top Ten

Recycled Chairs

Offi ce Lighting

Recycling Offi ce

Furniture

Putting Waste

to Work

Green Tips

For a number of years care and concern for the environment has always been of paramount importance to the edding company. Our pens and markers have contained only the safest ingredients for many years. Many of the products are refillable, and even some of the nibs are replaceable, where appropriate. In recent years, we have installed modern, efficient production processes including a photovoltaic plant to generate electricity, and have also incorporated the use of recycled paper. Today we are proud to announce the introduction of four markers, whose caps and barrels are made predominately from recycled material, or a renewable resource. The new range includes: permanent markers in a bullet and chisel tip, a bullet-tipped boardmarker and a chisel-tipped highlighter.

For a number of years care and concern for the environment has always been of paramount importance to the edding company. Our pens and markers have contained only the safest ingredients for many years. Many of the products are refillable, and even some of the nibsare replaceable, where appropriate. In recent years, we have installed modern, efficient production processes including a photovoltaic plant to generate electricity, and have alsoincorporated the use of recycled paper. Today we are proud to announce the introduction of four markers, whose caps and barrels are made predominately from recycled material, or a renewable resource. Thenew range includes: permanent markers in a bullet and chisel tip, a bullet-tippedboardmarker and a chisel-tipped highlighter.

b f d f h h l b f

For more information, please go to www.edding-ag.com/environment

Sustainable Times is a supplement of Business Info Magazine. It is published by Kingswood Media Ltd., 4 New Cottages, Green Farm Lane, Shorne, Kent DA12 3HQ. Tel: 01474 824711. Email: [email protected]

Welcome to the second issue of Sustainable Times,

your guide to green offi ce products and services.

The perceived expense of green IT has caused many to question its prospects during the current economic crisis. While it is true that purchasers may opt for cheaper, less energy-effi cient products, we believe that the core principles of sustainability and resource management have never been more relevant and are confi dent that 2009 will be a breakthrough year in sustainable business practices. May you all have a happy, prosperous and

green 2009!.

James Goulding, Editor

CONTENTS

03 Competition

04 Agenda

11 Green LabelsManufacturer Accreditation Schemes

12 Pulp & PaperThe paper industry answers its critics

14 Sustainable SeatingTen of the best recycled offi ce chairs

Editor James Goulding 01962 771862 [email protected]

Advertising Director Ethan White 01474 824711 [email protected]

Publishing Director Neil Trim 07803 087229 dd 01737 249408 [email protected]

No part of Sustainable Times can be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher. © 2009 Kingswood Media Ltd.

The paper used in this magazine is obtained from manufacturers who operate within internationally recognized standards. The paper is made from Elementary Chlorine Free (ECF) pulp, which is sourced from sustainable, properly managed forestation.

A new carbon footprint calculator on the Carbon Neutral Company website gives businesses a simple, four-step procedure for measuring their greenhouse gas emissions. If you’re feeling lucky, you could even win a free carbon assessment for your business, plus 12 months’ worth of free offsets. All you have to do to be in with a chance is enter CarbonNeutral Company’s small business survey (details at the bottom of the page).

STEP ONECollect your data. The more you complete of these questions, the more accurate your carbon footprint will be:

1. What is the total area of your offi ce space (m2)?

2. What is your annual electricity, gas and oil consumption in KwH?

3. How much non-recycled waste does your company produce per year (kg)?

4. What is the annual distance or fuel consumption of company owned vehicles?

5. What is the annual business travel distance or fuel consumption in non-company owned vehicles?

6. How many business journeys are taken by taxi or train per year?

7. How many long/short haul fl ights are taken per year?

8. What is the number of overnight stays in hotels per year?

9. What is the annual commuting distance by staff?

STEP TWOSimply log onto The Small Business Calculator and enter your data: http://www.carbonneutral.com/business-carbon-calculator

STEP THREEPress the ‘Calculate’ button, and your carbon footprint will be calculated automatically. You can see where the majority of your CO2 emissions are coming from.

STEP FOURYou can instantly reduce your carbon footprint to net zero by selecting the ‘Offset Your Emissions’ button. For every 1 tonne of CO2 you produce, you will be paying for 1 tonne to be saved by climate-friendly projects around the world.

If you want to go one step further, you could select the ‘Become a CarbonNeutral Company’ button. This will give you an independent and audited carbon assessment; a report on ways to internally reduce your CO2 emissions; advice on external reductions through offsetting; and marketing help to communicate what you have done.

When you have reduced your emissions to net zero through the CarbonNeutral programme, you will be awarded the CarbonNeutral® brand mark for use across your collateral.www.carbonneutral.com/business-carbon-calculator

WIN A FREE CARBON AUDITThe CarbonNeutral Company is eager to fi nd out what small businesses think about climate change, carbon footprinting and carbon offsetting and has produced a small online questionnaire on the subject that will take no longer than fi ve minutes to complete.

All responses are completely confi dential and businesses are not required to submit any contact details unless they would like to enter a prize draw to receive a CarbonNeutral® small business package (a free carbon footprint audit of your business plus the reduction of your carbon footprint to ‘net zero’ for one year – up to a maximum of 100tCO2).

To view the survey and enter the prize draw please go to www.carbonneutral.com/sbsurvey

17 Cover Story: Brother minimises environmental impact

19 Lighting

20 Recycling Offi ce Furniture

22 Managed Print Services

25 Offi ce Moves

26 What’s New

28 Top Tips

How big is your carbon footprint?

COMPETITION : COMPETITION : COMPETITION : COMPETITION

Win a carbon footprint audit and 12 months’ worth of free offsets

COMPETITION : COMPETITION : COMPETITION : COMPETITION

CU-CoC-810614PEFC/16-33-595

04 sustainabletimes 0870 903 9500

greenAgendaReverse vending turns trash into cash

Aberdeen residents can look forward

to discounted bus journeys following

the launch of Scotland’s fi rst

reverse vending recycling project

by Stagecoach and Aberdeenshire

Council.

An automatic reverse vending machine at the Ellon Park and Ride facility allows commuters to exchange used drinks cans and plastic bottles for Stagecoach Green points.

Green points can be redeemed for discounted bus travel at a rate of 50 green points for a 20p travel voucher and 100 points for a 50p voucher. Users receive one Green point for every item recycled.

The reVend FR 600 supplied by the Reverse Vending Corporation automatically sorts cans and bottles and prints a ticket for every item recycled. It has a capacity of 2,000 items.

Earlier in 2008, Stagecoach launched a partnership with Perth and Kinross Real Nappy Network (PKRNN) to offer a week’s free bus travel to anyone who signed up for PKRNN’s real nappy service.www.stagecoachgroup.com

www.reversevending.co.ukStagecoach Group Chief

Executive Brian Souter launches Scotland’s fi rst reverse vending recycling scheme at

the Ellon Park and Ride facility in Aberdeenshire

Avery has joined forces with the

Green Belt Movement to plant

100,000 new trees in Kenya.

Every time a customer redeems the voucher code on promotional packs of Avery Eco-Friendly Laser Addressing Labels, Recycled Labels and Laser ID Labels, Avery will plant a tree. Customers can enter code details on Avery’s dedicated microsite at www.nature.avery.eu

The Green Belt Movement was founded in 1977 by Wangari Maathai, the fi rst African woman to receive the Nobelw Peace Prize. Since then, it has planted more than 40 million trees, increasing forest coverage, conserving

biodiversity and helping to provide income and sustenance to hundreds of thousands of Kenyan people.greenbeltmovement.org

HP is to offer Boston-Power’s long-lasting Sonata Lithium-ion (Li-ion)

battery cell as an upgrade option on select HP consumer notebooks.

HP Enviro Series program notebook batteries with Sonata technology are

claimed to deliver ‘like-new performance’ for three years, unlike other

batteries that start to deteriorate after three to six months.

The use of longer-lasting batteries has environmental benefi ts as it reduces the need to replace batteries so often – according to a recent Harris Interactive poll, 40% of consumers who have owned a notebook for three years or more have replaced the battery as many as fi ve times.

In the same poll, more than one third of notebook users (36%) said that they would be willing to pay more for batteries that are better for the environment; 54% said they would pay more for one that recharged more quickly (Sonata has 50% faster recharge times); and 51% said they would pay extra for a battery that came with a two-year warranty (HP Enviro Series program notebook batteries with Sonata technology have three-year warranties). www.hp.com

AVERY TO PLANT TREES

IN KENYA

HP to offer long-lasting Sonata laptop batteries

London Remade award winners announced

In 2008, the combined purchases of London-

based organisations that have signed up to the

Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code

diverted 72,490 tonnes of waste from landfi ll.

According to London Remade, this is enough

waste to fi ll 187 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The 126 signatories to the Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code spent £306 million on sustainable and recycled products and services from more than 500 suppliers. Purchases included 5,074 remanufactured printer cartridges; 23,840 bags of fairtrade tea; 21 energy-effi cient streetlamps; and 892,366 reams of recycled paper. The purchase of recycled paper alone resulted in the equivalent savings of 36,958 trees, 5,000m3 of landfi ll space and 65,214,107m3 of water.

The winners of the 2008 Awards for outstanding achievement were Mapeley

Estates Ltd, London Fire Brigade, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and Transport for London.

The Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code is a free support service set up to help London-based organisations reduce their environmental impact through responsible purchasing. www.greenprocurementcode.co.uk

The Award trophy is made from recycled glass encapsulating a length of reclaimed copper.

sustainabletimes 05www.binfo.co.uk

Panasonic sponsors WWFPanasonic is becoming a major

sponsor of the WWF as part of its

‘eco ideas’ strategy to improve the

effi ciency of products, increase

environmental performance at

manufacturing sites and encourage

people to act more responsibly.

The consumer electronics company is sponsoring WWF’s International Arctic Programme, which has been established to protect this pristine region from growing threats, ranging from climate

change to illegal fi shing and oil and gas exploration.

As part of the ‘eco ideas’ programme, Panasonic also plans to launch 20 ‘superior green products’ by March 2010 and reduce CO2 emissions from European manufacturing sites by 10%. www.panda.org/arctic

www.panasonic.net/eco

When it comes to being green it

seems that there is always something

or someone that stops us from acting

in a more responsible manner.

According to an ICM Research survey for the Energy Saving Trust, 63% of us would be greener if the Government offered green tax credits; 50% of us would live a greener lifestyle if we had more time; and 44% would act more responsibly if our employers gave us an incentive to do so, such as loans to buy energy-effi cient products.

Blaming one’s employer is not a completely groundless excuse, as the pan-European survey of 6,000 adults revealed that Britons work the longest

hours in Europe and spend the most time commuting (more than 5 hours per week). Almost one in three Britons said that their job was the main reason they did not have time to be green and one in seven (14%) would like their employer to give them time off to take necessary carbon reduction measures.

More than a quarter of British survey respondents (27%) said they would like the Government to introduce a green public holiday to help them fi nd time to take action to reduce their carbon footprint, compared with a European average of 12%. www.energysavingtrust.org.uk

0800 512012

As the worsening economy forces

businesses to cut costs, npower

is recommending energy-saving

measures as one of the easiest ways

to reduce expenditure.

Its team of experts recently helped four businesses cut their energy spend by £1,200 and reduce CO2 output by almost 4.9 tonnes by implementing simple measures that could help any business save up to 20% on energy bills.

These included reducing the air conditioning settings in a pub by 2°C; defrosting the fridge freezer and installing energy effi cient lighting at a car auctioneer’s; and draught proofi ng doors and changing light bulbs in a shop.

greenAgenda…

Simple steps to save energy

What’s stopping you from being green?

HPA identifi es radiation

risk from light bulbsPeople who sit for long periods

next to certain energy-saving

compact fl uorescent light bulbs

could be exposed to higher than

recommended ultraviolet radiation

levels, the Health Protection Agency

(HPA) has warned.

The HPA recommends that open (single envelope) CFLs should not be used if someone is likely to be within 1 foot or 30cm of a bare bulb for more than 1 hour a day. In such situations, open CFLs should be replaced by encapsulated (double envelope) bulbs, which look similar to traditional domestic light bulbs. Alternatively, the lamp should be moved at least 30 cm or 1 ft away.

The HPA’s research found that people within 2 cm of some open fl ourescent bulbs were exposed to radiation levels equivalent to direct sunlight on a summer’s day.

Guaranteed carbon captureTo counter the poor reputation

of forestry offsets, carbon offset

company Carbonica guarantees that

its reforestation programmes in

Central America will capture carbon

throughout the term of the offset.

Dr Mikel Susperregi, founder of Carbonica, said that trees would be assessed on an annual basis and any damaged ones replaced. He added: “Trees release the CO2 that they have captured during their growth back into the atmosphere when they die. That is why it is important to replace them upon maturity and use the timber commercially. The CO2 is then safely locked away in the wood. This way the forests are effi cient sinks of carbon.” www.carbonica.org 020 7499 9192

Unveiled at the 2008 Philips Simplicity event

in Moscow, the Light Blossom

outdoor lighting concept collects energy

from both the sun and wind. It is designed to generate enough electricity to power itself with any surplus being fed into the grid.

No premiums for

green IT, pleaseLack of knowledge and high prices are the two biggest obstacles to green purchasing, according to a global survey conducted by Cohn & Wolfe and Strategic Oxygen. The GreenFactor survey of 12,000 consumers found that the cost of Green IT was a factor for 45% of respondents. More than half (57%) said that they did not expect and were not willing to pay premiums for green electronics. Just 15% said they expected and were prepared to pay higher prices for Green IT. For more survey results, turn to page 11.

www.greenfactorstudy.com


On the slide

The economic crisis is pushing sustainability down the boardroom agenda, according to a survey by Echo Research. Nearly two thirds (63%) of opinion leaders surveyed said they viewed it as a low or non-priority, and almost half (47%) said that businesses would do less in the current economic climate. Fewer than one in three (29%) believe that business is making a signifi cant contribution to sustainability. www.echoresearch.com

Paper recycling on target

The paper and board recycling rate in Europe reached 64.5% in 2007, according to The European Recovered Paper Council (ERPC). This confi rms that the industry is on track to meet its voluntary target of 66% by 2010. The total amount of paper collected and sent to be recycled in paper mills was 60.1 million tonnes, an increase of 7.6 million tonnes (or +14.5%) since 2004, the base year for the target.www.paperrecovery.org

Double the money

The Carbon Trust is doubling the size of grants available under its fl agship Applied Research scheme from £250k to £500k. Carbon Trust Applied Research grant funding supports the development of technologies that have the potential to reduce UK carbon emissions. Since 2001, it has invested £18.5 million in 145 projects as diverse as fuel cells, combined heat and power, bioenergy, solar power, low carbon building technology and wave energy convertors. Of the 95 projects completed to date, 70% have fi led patents, secured follow-on funding or generated commercial sales.www.carbontrust.co.uk

0800 085 2005

How to save

Businesses can identify where to make savings using a free online tool developed by BT Business. Based on work that BT and Global Action Plan have undertaken on behalf of corporate clients, the BT Business Environmental Self-assessment Tool (BT BEST) identifi es where businesses have an environmental impact and what they can do to improve their green credentials. www.bt.com/btbest

greenBrief

Don’t neglect tried and

tested CHPSustainable power group ENER-G

is warning that tried and trusted

technologies, such as combined

heat and power (CHP), should not

be sidelined in the rush to develop

power from renewables.

Alan Barlow, managing director of ENER-G Combined Power, points out that the simultaneous generation of electricity and useful heat is almost twice as effi cient as conventional power generation and is a proven technology.

“CHP reduces greenhouse emissions drastically by capturing the heat output that is wasted in conventional power generation. But unlike renewable technologies such as wind it doesn’t benefi t from large subsidies and suffers from ‘Cinderella syndrome’ in which its value goes largely unrecognised.”

He added: “We need renewable generation, but in our race to meet targets we must not forget about those important technologies that help consumers cut their carbon output. CHP electricity is around one third of the price charged by conventional UK suppliers and cuts carbon by around 20%, yet out of all the members of the European Union the UK’s current CHP capacity is the fourth lowest.”

Offi cial statistics show that every 1 MW of CHP operating in the UK helps reduce carbon emissions by between 510 and 760 tonnes every year. The Government’s target is to reach a UK CHP capacity of 10,000 MW by 2010. www.energ.co.uk

greenAgenda

RSA urges landlords to do more than the minimum for an EPC Insurer RSA is urging landlords to do more than the bare minimum to comply with the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Instead of simply obtaining an Energy Performance Certifi cate (EPC), it is advising them to follow the EPC’s recommendations for improving energy-effi ciency. EPCs – mandatory for all buildings being leased or sold – indicate how energy effi cient a building is on a scale of A to G and recommend ways to further improve energy effi ciency, for example by resetting building management systems or replacing air conditioning units or windows. RSA is following the EPC recommendations for its Manchester offi ce EPC by purchasing a duct for the heating and ventilation system at a cost of £15,000. It is estimated that this investment will lead to an annual savings of £6,000.www.rsagroup.com

By preventing heat loss through poor insulation or windows, businesses like the RSA Birmingham ICC can signifi cantly reduce heating bills.

Two’s company Userful is giving away free software that enables two

people to share a single computer, eliminating the need to

buy a second home PC.

The two-person version of Userful’s Multiplier desktop virtualisation software enables a single PC to support two users simultaneously. All the second user has to do is connect an extra monitor, USB keyboard and mouse.

The full version of the software can create up to 10 independent workstations from a single PC, reducing the number of computers that need to be purchased and maintained. It is already used on 30,000 workstations in schools, libraries, hotels and other businesses worldwide.http://userful.com/products/free-2-user

Bio-plastics set for wider use in MFPs

Canon U.S.A. and Toray Industries have

developed the fi rst bio-plastic suitable for use

on the exterior parts of MFPs.

Plastics that contain plant-derived components require less oil and have 20% fewer manufacturing-related CO2 emissions than wholly petroleum-based plastics, but their use to date has been limited due to shortcomings in the areas of fl ame retardance, impact resistance, heat resistance and malleability.

Ecodear bio-plastic overcomes one of the main objections to the wider use of bio-plastics by meeting the highest levels of fl ame retardance (5V classifi cation under the UL 94 fl ammability testing program), which is essential for exterior MFP parts.

In 2009, Canon plans to use 100 tons of the material, which includes 25% plant-derived material (by weight).From 2009, the outer panels of certain Canon MFPs will

be made from bio-plastics

packagingproducts that don’t cost theearth...

reliable products, reliable people

At Ambassador and Jiffy, we lookclosely on how to combine everythingyou expect from our top brandproducts with the environmentalawareness our society needs.

Our aim is to provide environmentally friendly protectivepackaging through a range of quality and cost effectivesolutions. We have a selection of products that arefully recyclable or contain recycled materials, withoutcompromising the protection your items require.

Jiffy Green BubbleFully recyclable cushioning made using 100%

recycled polyethylene.

Super LiteThe fully recyclable all polythene postal bag that

can be written on and printed, provides a

waterproof product.

Degradable Carrier BagsOur brand new range of Degradable Polythene

Carrier Bags are manufactured from recycled

materials and themselves are fully recyclable.

Jiffy Padded BagsThe original eco-mailer has a fully recyclable all

paper construction with up to 65% recycled

content. 100% paper cushioning protection.

Ambassador packaging Ltd, Road One, Winsford Industrial Estate, Winsford, Cheshire CW7 3QB

Tel: 0870 60 99 888 | Fax: 0870 60 99 889 | Web: www.ambassadorpackagingcom

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Tel: 01606 867200 | Fax: 01606 861877 | Web: www.jiffy.co.uk

Ê

1. “One of the easiest ways to be greener is simply to use less IT equipment in the fi rst place”, says Cefyn. “Sharing equipment, such as printers and photocopiers, and hot-desking where possible are two simple and effective ways of doing this.”

2. Cefyn recommends purchasing from responsible manufacturers, suppliers and distributors to ensure your IT equipment isn’t already causing unnecessary damage to the environment. “Many manufacturers use lead-free solders, for example, and do not treat their plastics with harmful chemicals. It’s also important to bear in mind where products are made as ineffi cient logistics will add to your carbon footprint.”

3. “Future-proof your IT equipment by buying wisely and considering likely technical developments in your industry.” Bear in mind the effi ciency of newer IT equipment, too – fl at screen monitors, for example, consume less energy than older CRT monitors.

4. “Ensure that PCs are not left on overnight by setting up automatic shut-down, and implement the stand-by facility so that computers that are left on while the user is away from his or her desk power down after a few minutes. Add password-protection and you also have a great security measure to stop anyone using your computer while you go for lunch or a quick meeting.”

5. Maximise the usable life of your computing equipment: “If you maintain your equipment to a good standard, when it’s time for an upgrade, it can be redeployed to other parts of your business that may not have such high-spec requirements. Remember to ensure that all sensitive data is removed beforehand and equipment is suitably prepared.” E-cycle’s research suggests that refreshing computers every three years, and redeploying or selling on older equipment, is highly cost-effective. Many companies choose to donate older equipment to charities or organisations such as schools in developing countries.

6. “Once computer equipment has reached its end of life, ensure it is recycled via a reputable service,” advises Cefyn. “Despite legislation, thousands of computers from businesses in the UK and Europe are still fi nding their way to landfi ll, are incinerated or are simply dumped outside the EU in places like West Africa. Not only is this dangerous, it’s also illegal.” If it is not viable to refurbish computer equipment for redeployment or sale, Remploy e-cycle will recycle every single component.

7. “Finally, use IT-related services and partners that are themselves ethically and environmentally-minded. A good place to start is with companies registered with the Environment Agency - such as e-cycle, which processes all equipment in line with the environmental standard ISO 14001. As part of Remploy, the UK’s largest employer of disabled people, e-cycle also provides employment for those who face barriers to work, which can help to fulfi l clients’ corporate and social responsibility.”www.remployecycle.co.uk


Did

yo

u k

no

w? • Less than 5% of the annual

worldwide volume of mobile

phone handsets shipped come

back through recycling or ethical

disposal programs (source: Mobile Handset Green Initiatives, ABI Research www.abiresearch.com)

• 60% of offi ce chairs end up in landfi ll at end of life (source: Orangebox)

• It takes 97% less energy to

make aluminium from recovered

material than it does to make it

from bauxite, aluminium’s source

material. Making steel from

recovered material requires 75%

less energy than making it from

iron and ore (source: Okamura)

• Recycling one tonne of steel cans saves 1.5 tonnes of iron ore, 0.5 tonnes of coal and 40% water usage. Recycling just seven steel cans saves enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 26 hours (source: SCRIB, the Steel Can Recycling Information Bureau)

• Lighting is responsible for 19% of

all electricity used. Street lighting

and buildings account for 75%

of lighting-related electricity

consumption. Up to 80% of

lighting systems in buildings are

based on outdated technology

(source: Philips)

• If all the lighting in the world was switched to energy effi cient solutions, we would save €120 billion worth of electricity and 630 million tonnes of CO2. That is equivalent to the output of 500 power plants or 1,800 million barrels of oil each year (source: Philips)

• Almost half of UK households

(47%) still leave the TV on standby

when they go to bed, wasting more

than £80,000 a year in electricity

(source: Energy Saving Trust)

• A third of Britons (35 per cent) would share a bath or shower to save money on their electricity or gas bill compared to just eight per cent of Swedes (source: Energy Saving Trust)

greenAgenda Top Tips for Green IT

Remploy e-cycle can refurbish computer equipment for redeployment or sale

To help businesses successfully implement

Green IT policies, Cefyn Grafton from Remploy

e-cycle has compiled the following top tips.


Launched April 2007 was the Work and Families Act requiring organizations to provide fl exible working options to anyone with a ‘caring responsibility’.

Those with young families or fi rst time mums look at fl exible working as a means for fl exible hours or days. However, directors, management and staff within a company can see it as a solution to staying connected with customers and colleagues; accessing voice and data communications on the move.

By allowing employees to work from home or on location, the Samsung solution reduces the need for employees to return to the offi ce, therefore reducing the carbon footprint needed to make this so.

Flexibility and mobility mean one thing – keeping in touch while on the move.

Findings from the Human Resources Flexible Working Survey 2007 found that 94 per cent of respondents felt that fl exible working was relevant to their business, with the exception of the manufacturing industry. As manufacturing involves so much hands-on work, many fi rms believe that fl exible working is not a viable option.

However, this is not the case, by breaking down the benefi ts of fl exible working to both the company, the customer and the individual shows how fl exible working can add to an organisation.

Flexible working can mean fl exible locations; workers are available within warehouse, factory and production sites etc rather than being confi ned to a single area of operations (i.e. the offi ce). As people in manufacturing are constantly on the move or in different locations, it makes it particularly important for them to be contactable, at any time and place. This not only makes them much more effi cient, but also gives a good impression to

customers; they don’t need to leave messages to call back.

Technology is also an issue; Purchases for mobile technology previously took place on an individual or departmental level, but is now a company-wide decision. Vendors are responding to this by offering bundles and plans for fl exible solutions at lower costs, taking the headache out of the buying process.

Major vendors in the market are all contributing to introduce IP technologies that give the ability to take and make calls from any location on the premises using an offi ce extension number as if the user is sat at their desk. In addition to this DECT telephone handsets can be integrated within the general phone system, allowing users to be on an extension of the PBX.

Another option is Offi ceServ Connect which enables businesses integrate mobile phones or other phones as extensions to the offi ce system. Allowing calls to be routed from desk extensions to mobile phones and reduces overall costs.

Wifi allows cordless phones and PC’s to be on the main network and be used anywhere around the host and Computer Telephony Integration allows a worker to be on the network anywhere and still make and receive

calls as if they were made at the desk by utilising a PC soft phone, all allowing companies to work more ‘fl exibly’.

Benefi ts to the customer include Continuous connection. This enables the company to be more effective, as well as helping them

win more new business, by being constantly reachable and not

dropping any potential leads.Flexible working leads to an edge

over the competition; by setting up an IP extension and re-programming the

phone system, business can be conducted from global offi ces whose day is just beginning. When

one location shuts down for the night, the other is just

logging on to take-over, providing a 24-hour service for customers.

There is no doubt that the right fl exible solutions improve both accessibility and communication and consequently are worth the investment. Samsung believes that with the right offerings, services and training, manufacturers will be able to reap the business benefi ts possible through a truly fl exible workforce.

An Example of Samsung’s successes within this area comes from

the company Bartholdi, who have been based at

the same industrial park near Heathrow for a number of

years, but recently expanded to new offi ces opposite. Samsung installed a 100mb laser link to create an IP network between the sites.

Maurice Stephenson, IT Manager, Bartholdi, commented: “The laser link is great. We have a complete network between the sites and are able to communicate in the same way we would if we were all in one offi ce. We felt confi dent in buying the Samsung name.”www.samsung.co.uk

Increased sustainability

with fl exible workingMark Ivens, Senior Marketing Manager, Samsung Networks

Division, looks at the theory of fl exible working and its

implications within the manufacturing space.

Samsung’s environmental credentialsSamsung’s commitment to increasing sustainability is outlined within their fi rst

Environmental Guidelines, adopted in 1992. Their mission statement to this

day, over 15 years later, is to focus on minimizing environmental impacts

both in Samsung factories and as the outcome of their products life cycles,

from the design phase through to manufacturing, use and end of life.

This Environmental guideline notes that Samsung ‘plays a leading role in creating a

sustainable society by recognizing and implementing the environment, safety and health as crucial

factors in all their business endeavors’; one of these important sustainable movements is the continual research into

products which facilitate ‘fl exible working’.

Samsung also scored highly on the recent Greenpeace spectrum of the world’s major technology manufacturers

and the Samsung solution has been deployed by the Carbon Neutral Company.

advertorial


It is a measure both of the importance

of Green IT and the inadequacy of

third party accreditation schemes

that Fujitsu Siemens Computers has

launched a new Green IT labelling

scheme for its notebooks, PCs and

servers.

The new Green Plug label will be applied to products that meet environmental targets relating to energy consumption, material use and recycling. In order to qualify for the label, notebooks, PCs, workstations, thin clients, servers and storage products must meet certain mandatory criteria. Those that do will be awarded one, two or three stars depending on how many additional targets they meet.

Green Plug is far from being the only green labelling scheme set up by a manufacturer. Philips, too, has introduced a green label to help customers choose the most environmentally responsible products in its portfolio (see caption).

The benefi t of such labelling programmes is that they make it easy for customers to identify a manufacturer’s greenest products without having to do the research themselves. After all, how many companies have the time, resources or infl uence to extract from manufacturers all the information needed to make an informed decision about a product’s environmental impact throughout its lifecycle?

According to a survey of 10,000 adults conducted by Strategic Oxygen and Cohn & Wolfe in September and October 2008, the public wants to receive more information about a product’s energy consumption and production methods. The GreenFactor study found that the Number One obstacle to green purchasing was ‘lack of awareness’ (cited by 53%), just ahead of price (45%).

Manufacturer certifi cation schemes are likely to be welcomed by consumers who appear to value the publicity material of suppliers above independent sources – the GreenFactor survey found that information on a product’s

packaging (33%) and a brand’s website (32%) was given more weight by consumers than ‘independent brand comments online’ (28%) and input by ‘friends and peers’ (13%).

But is it wise to rely on green labels that may have a very low bar for qualifi cation, be highly selective in the criteria chosen for qualifi cation and act as a fi g leaf for a multitude of environmental sins?

One of the most revealing parts of the GreenFactor report is a comparison between consumers’ perceptions of green leaders and Greenpeace’s facts-based ranking of 18 leading manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TVs and games consoles.

Cross-tabulating GreenFactor’s fi ndings with The Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics shows that the brands consumers perceive to be green may not have the best environmental practices after all, whereas others that score highly in Greenpeace’s ranking, like Samsung and Nokia, are not considered to be green leaders by consumers.

This underlines the benefi t to manufacturers of burnishing their green credentials though a variety of means including labelling schemes, whilst highlighting the need for independent assessments like those provided by Greenpeace.

The Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics is infl uential (it has been given credit for the recent greening of Apple) because it challenges the posturing of consumer electronics manufacturers in relation to energy use, toxics elimination and recycling.

The 10th edition of the Guide released in November 2008 praises manufacturers for making their products more energy-effi cient but criticises Motorola, Microsoft, Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, Nintendo and LG Electronics for having no plans to cut absolute emissions from their own operations and for not supporting the targets and timelines needed to avoid catastrophic climate change.

In this respect, The Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics is different from narrow product certifi cation schemes, such as Energy Star and EPEAT (for PCs and notebooks) that help identify the most environmentally responsible products but don’t take account of a manufacturer’s overall environmental record.

Independent eco-labelling schemes are another useful source of information. Environmental Resources Management Ltd recently assessed different schemes for the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and classifi ed four as ‘Class 1’ schemes: Nordic Swan, EU Flower, New Zealand’s Environmental Choice and Germany’s Blue Angel. Products that carry these labels are likely to have a smaller environmental footprint than ones that don’t, but because the schemes are regional, voluntary (opt-in) and have limited scope, they, too, have weaknesses.

Manufacturer and independent certifi cation schemes have an important role to play in helping business people and consumers make informed purchasing decisions. But they are no guarantee that the company that has made them is a ‘green leader’ and committed to taking the actions needed to minimise the effects of climate change. www.greenpeace.org/electronics/

companyrank

www.greenfactorstudy.com

www.fujitsu-siemens.com/greenlabel

Manufacturers’ green certifi cation schemes have a role to

play, but should be treated with caution

What’s in a label?

Philips has developed the Philips Green Logo to identify products with a smaller environmental impact like the Magic5 ECO fax from Sagem Communications

Fujitsu Siemens Computers’ Green Plug label

Now is not a good time to be in the

paper industry. Structural problems

within the industry itself have

been exacerbated by bad PR and

growing interest in, and use of, digital

alternatives to paper.

The paper industry has been blamed for a host of environmental disasters from the destruction of the rainforests to pollution and excessive use of energy (visit www.shrinkpaper.org to read the full charge sheet).

Paper reduction strategies have become a popular way for organisations to reduce their carbon footprint – the French Government has a target to reduce paper consumption by 50% by 2012 – and they are even being used by printer companies to sell managed print services (see page 22).

The ease with which it is now possible to reduce paper consumption in offi ces, from the use of electronic workfl ows to two-sided printing (now a standard feature on almost all offi ce printers), had already started to affect demand for paper even before the banking crisis and economic downturn impacted marketing budgets.

According to the National Association of Paper Merchants (NAPM), there was a 6.5% reduction in fi ne and graphic arts paper tonnage between 2004-2007, and a 4.3% year-on-year reduction in the volume of sheets from August 07-August 08.

Faced with declining demand for its products and continued criticism of the paper industry, the NAPM has started a new campaign to counter what it sees as misinformation spread

by environmentalists. Targeting Government organisations and media buyers, the Two Sides campaign will use PR, a website and booklets to put the paper industry’s side of the story.

NAPM president Alistair Gough told Sustainable Times that the time had come to fi ght back against the industry’s critics.

“For many years, the NAPM has watched the industry take negative comments about its impact on the environment. Clearly environmental responsibility has gained more prominence in the last two or three years and in that period the level of misinformation has increased,” he said.

“We are instigating the campaign to redress the balance and facilitate a debate on what steps environmentally responsible management should take in the future, in terms of the manufacture, design, use, disposal and recovery of paper.”

The NAPM has already set up a website – www.twosides.info – to dispel six myths relating to the production of paper viz. that making paper destroys

forests; that paper is bad for the environment; that it consumes a vast amount of energy; that paper has a high carbon footprint; that recycled paper is always better for the environment than virgin paper; and that

paper contributes signifi cantly to landfi ll.Gough told Sustainable Times that

Two Sides was not an attempt to whitewash the paper industry but to redress the balance and highlight the paper industry’s real achievements in environmental responsibility.

“It’s easy to make superfi cial assumptions,” Gough said. “People know that paper comes from trees and that rainforests are being cut down and therefore assume that paper comes from rainforests. But we know that fuel and farming are the main reasons for the loss of rainforest. We aren’t denying that the paper industry has issues regarding its environmental responsibility. We are simply saying let’s redress the balance.”

He points out that the paper industry has the potential to be truly sustainable: paper is a natural, renewable and reusable resource and manufacturers have made, and continue to make, signifi cant investments to eliminate harmful chemicals from the production process and to minimise waste and power consumption (see box).

This view is supported by Jonathan Porritt, chairman of the UK Sustainability Development Commission, who is quoted on Two Sides as saying: “There aren’t many industries around that can aspire to becoming genuinely sustainable. The paper industry, however, is one of them: it is inherently sustainable.”www.twosides.info

The National Association of Paper Merchants (NAPM) is fi ghting back against the paper industry’s critics. James Goulding reports


In Defence of Paper

M-real goes the extra mile for a lower carbon footprintM-real’s 100% recycled Evolve paper provides an example of how investment

in modern technology can substantially reduce a paper’s carbon footprint.

The 100% recycled paper used to be made at the New Thames Mill in Kent using waste paper that was collected from businesses in the South-East and converted to pulp in a neighbouring recycled fi bre plant (RCF).

At the end of 2008, M-real moved production of the paper to the Alizay Mill in Northern France. Pulp from the RCF plant in Kent is transported by road to Alizay where the paper is produced; the reels are then transported back to the UK for conversion and packaging into reams.

With the extra transport involved you might think that the paper’s carbon footprint would have increased. In fact, because the integrated pulp and paper mill at Alizay is predominantly powered by renewable biomass, including black licquor, a by-product of the paper-making process, Evolve’s carbon footprint is now 66%

lower than when it was produced at the gas-powered New Thames Mill.

In the medium to long-term, M-real expects total product miles to fall, as Alizay Mill is closer to emerging European markets for recycled paper.www.m-real.com

Green Calculators

With over 40 years of calculator innovation Canon this year launched an innovative range of environmentally friendly “Green” calculators made from recycled material.

As the fi rst offi ce equipment manufacturer to implement a cartridge recycling program in 1990, Canon has long been committed to reducing its environmental impact. The launch of this calculator range was another small step towards a truly sustainable manufacturing programme.

The casings for the range are made from 100% recycled Canon Copier components whilst recycled paper is used for the packaging and instruction manuals for the range.

Consumers can choose from a wide range of pocket, desktop and printing calculators and selected models are solar powered, further increasing the products’ energy effi ciency.

Every calculator is manufactured to Canon’s usual high standards and comes with a 3-year warranty.

For further information please contact Canon on 01737 220 260 or visit www.canon.co.uk


Steelcase ThinkSteelcase characterises Think as a chair with a brain and a conscience – a brain because it automatically adopts the healthiest/most comfortable position at all times and a conscience because it is designed according to Steelcase’s Life Cycle Assessment to minimise its environmental impact. It has a recycled content of 44%; contains no PVC, chrome, mercury or lead; uses CFC and HCFC-free foam; and is 99% recyclable. To encourage recycling the chair can be completely disassembled in just 5 minutes.www.steelcase.co.uk

67%23%

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Haworth Zody_System 89Haworth’s Zody_System 89 task chair has been

awarded MBDC Cradle to Cradle Gold certifi cation. It is free of PVC, chrome and chlorofl uorocarbons

(CFCs) and all elements are clearly marked to aid recycling. The chair is made in China, Germany and the United States for global distribution. Haworth has

purchased renewable energy credits equal to the amount of electricity used to assemble the chairs

in Asia Pacifi c and North America.www.haworthuk.com

Dauphin TakeOverTakeOver is another chair that can be taken apart in less than 5 minutes for easier recycling.

To extend its useful life, cushions and upholstery can be replaced at any time.

www.dauphin.de

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rial* Recycled Content

RH AmbioRH Chairs has implemented

numerous initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of its activities.

In the case of the Ambio chair, this is demonstrated not just by the

high percentage of recyclable material, but also by the use

of natural alternatives to chemically produced foam, notably pig and horse

hair. The 33% of material that can’t be recycled is designed to

be burnt and converted into energy at end of life.www.rhchairs.co.uk

HÅG SidewaysWinner of a Business Info Editor’s Choice award when it was launched in the Spring, the HÅG Sideways

chair is designed for today’s more informal, collaborative

meetings. The wide seat cushion has a

waterfall edge on three sides so you can sit at

any angle on an arc from 0 to 180 degrees

with no discomfort. Recycled content is 52% on the skidbase version

(the 9730) and 71% on the four star base

model (the 9742).www.hag.no/uk

98%71%

Recyclable Ma

teria

l Recycled Content

* for parts weighing more than 50g

*by weight

10TOP RECYCLED CHAIRS


Connection IS ChairIS was developed by Roger Webb

Associates and the Connection design team with sustainability in mind.

Upholstery is woven as a sack so there are no offcuts, and there is no glue on

foam and fabrics so that they can easily be separated and re-used or recycled.

www.is-connection.uk.com

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Okamura BaronThe award-winning Baron chair uses recycled aluminium and resins. Making aluminium from recycled materials consumes 97% less energy than creating virgin material from bauxite. The Japanese manufacturer’s stylish Contessa chair has a similar footprint (52% recycled and 95% recyclable). www.okamura.co.jp

Herman Miller EmbodyEmbody, the new fl agship offi ce chair from Herman Miller, is designed using the McDonough

Braungart Cradle to Cradle Design Protocol. Like the Mirra chair – the fi rst Herman Miller chair based on this protocol – Embody is 42% recycled and 95% recyclable. www.hermanmiller.com

BOSS Design LilyLily is the new task chair from carbon neutral company BOSS Design. All of Lily’s major parts can be quickly disassembled so that components can quickly and easily be divided into their relevant material category for recycling.www.boss-design.co.uk

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Orangebox G68In addition to using a high percentage of recycled materials, Orangebox has sought to minimise the carbon footprint of its G68 task chair by making it available with optional Climate Care carbon offsets.www.orangebox.com

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We don’t conduct experimentation on animals. We don’t develop weaponry. We don’t make things that produce dangerous emissions. We don’t support political parties. And we don’t come second in any of the Ethical Company Organisation’s recent results for each of our product categories.For the second year running, we’ve come first.

If you’d like to discover more things that we don’t do visitwww.brothergreen.co.uk or call 0845 6060 626

Once again,we’d like to tell youwhat we don’t do

Source: www.ethical-company-organisation.org

.

Brother was committed to improving its environmental performance long before being ‘green’ became fashionable in business technology.

The company’s commitment can be seen throughout its product portfolio and all Brother products are engineered to have a low impact on the environment from their creation to the end of their life.

Brother has the rigorous ISO 14001:2004 standard for environmental management systems and is a leader in its fi eld for environmental and social responsibility. The company has also achieved Energy Star and Blue Angel accreditations on many new products for minimising negative environmental impact.

Brother consumables have a low environmental impact. By having individual cartridges for colour ink, users get full use out of every colour. The same rules apply with laser technology - choosing equipment with separate drum and toner reduces the wastage that all-in-one supplies are known for.

When cartridges come to the end of their lifecycle, Brother ensures that they can be recycled effectively and effi ciently at its state-of-the-art plant in Ruabon in Wales. The plant produces zero waste, and is able to recycle 98% of the disposed product’s material.

Brother’s ReNew recycling scheme has doubled the return rate of its toner cartridges over the last two years. The scheme’s success is largely attributable to the inclusion of freepost labels in cartridge boxes and providing downloadable return labels on Brother’s website. This enables end users to return old cartridges quickly and for free. Brother also provides its larger customers that have higher volume printing requirements with bespoke cartridge recycling boxes and free returns. It’s a simple scheme but minimising time spent for the end user has brought about impressive uptake.

To ensure that end users’ consumables have the least possible environmental impact, it’s really important to buy originals. With Brother consumables, the end user is getting the best possible quality print results from a company with a sound environmental policy that ensures consumables are fully recycled.

Brother came out on top of the 2008 edition of the Good Shopping Guide, published by the Ethical Company Organisation - further cementing its reputation for green technology. The Good Shopping Guide, which looks at the environmental and ethical credentials of technology suppliers to help businesses make a more informed purchase, scored Brother at 100 out of a possible 100 in the report’s ethical company index. This is measured against ten key markers including human rights, political donations and affi liations to the nuclear industry. The company continues to be at the cutting edge

of green initiatives and understands the fact that a manufacturer’s environmental credentials can have a signifi cant bearing on the consumer’s decision to purchase.

This was the second consecutive year that Brother was given the accolade. Mike Dinsdale, communications director at Brother said: “Our commitment to sustainability is deep rooted in Brother’s corporate philosophy. From the earliest stages of product development through to the delivery of our technology to end users, we continually invest in the environmental performance of our business.”

Brother is championing better use of printers. The results of a recent study* showed that offi ces could save the equivalent of a transatlantic fl ight’s worth of carbon emissions every year if employers were to introduce more effi cient use of printers.

It found that only 11 per cent of businesses have a clear printing policy and recommends printing on both sides of the paper to slash paper consumption - many Brother offi ce printers have duplex capability and it’s an easy way to reduce costs. The study also showed that more than four tonnes of CO2 is emitted in the production of a year’s worth of paper for the average offi ce. This could be slashed by up to 50 per cent if people had proper training on paper usage and printing effi ciently.

Brother’s enthusiasm for having the environment at the core of its outlook will continue moving forward. This will ensure that all processes, from product development to distribution, are as green as they possibly can be.

For more information on Brother’s environmental practices, visit www.brothergreen.co.uk

Green from the ground up


The use of individually replaceable colour cartridges keeps waste to a minimum

* Brother survey of UK businesses conducted in association with YouGov.

Mike Dinsdale, Communications Director, Brother

cover story


The Videoconferencing solution

Videoconferencing connects people at different sites together using video and audio communication, enabling a productive meeting without the need for travel. All participants can see and hear each other as if they were in the same room. Furthermore, they can also share key business information, such as documents, presentations, whiteboard annotations and even video streams from an external network camera.

Whatever your line of business, a videoconference allows you to do almost everything you could do in a face-to-face meeting - except maybe shake hands! Plus, you save on the cost, inconvenience and environmental impact of all that travel.

What’s more, videoconferencing has recently taken massive strides forward in terms of its quality and reliability. With the Internet changing the way all of us work, there is now huge bandwidth availability to

support high-quality video, voice and data transfer. This means you can hold productive videoconferences without the fear of broken links, frozen screens and content that is out of sync.

Sony offers three different types of videoconferencing solution, catering for the specifi c needs of different user groups - each of which offers industry-leading features and technologies:

Desktop

videoconferencing

Sony’s PCS-TL33P desktop system allows you to see and speak to colleagues and customers anywhere in the world, right from your desk. As a replacement for your normal PC monitor, it takes up minimal desktop space and offers a high contrast ratio and excellent WXGA resolution. It’s also highly versatile, with multiple display

modes such as full-screen, picture-in-picture, picture-and picture, split-screen and three-window. While KIOSK mode turns it into a convenient remote-consulting or distance-learning device.

Get closer with 1080i HD high quality

affordable videoconferencing

The new Sony 1080i HD PCS-XG80 videoconferencing system delivers four times the detail of standard defi nition. See every glance between your customers, view pin sharp data from colleagues and accurate images from partners. Enjoy natural meetings as if everyone were in the same room together.

Another world-fi rst from Sony… Dual screen functionality enables you to send two separate streams of live

HD information in parallel, creating a live camera view at the same time as sharing live data from your laptop with astounding clarity. Performance speeds up to

1080i HD video at 60 frames per second, crisp stereo

audio and unique Sony BrightFace technology all combine to create

high quality, affordable videoconferencing like

you’ve never experienced before.

3D Telepresence

Sony has recently introduced a range of unique 3D TelePresence

solutions - based on its PCS-XG80 HD videoconferencing system - that offer real eye-to-eye contact and 3D projection of the remote site, so you really do feel like you are meeting in person.

The PCS-XG80 recently won the prestigious Frost & Sullivan Innovation Award in April 08.

Videoconferencing: the environment’s new best friendAs the cost and environmental impact of travel increases, many

organisations are turning to videoconferencing as an alternative

to the traditional face-to-face meeting.

advertorial

Consequences for our planet

Green issues are always high on the business agenda these days, with multiple pressures to reduce your carbon footprint. Cutting back on business travel would help dramatically.

And modern videoconferencing

solutions now make this possible – without impacting productivity.

Smaller footprint

A single videoconference could replace the need for multiple phone calls, e-mails and faxes or – worse still – using a courier, which has further environmental impact.

The Bigger Picture

Sony 1080i HD PCS-XG80

videoconferencing system

Certain videoconferencing displays from Sony can help reduce the amount of power your business consumes, thanks to special design characteristics such as low standby. As well as being good for reducing your energy bills and operational costs, this is also good for your environmental profi le and shrinking your carbon footprint.

For more

information on

all Sony’s video

conferencing

products

simply visit

www.sonybiz.net/vc


Enlightened Management

Today’s wide choice of offi ce

lighting options can be bewildering

to the uninitiated. Faced with a

choice of halogen, tungsten, metal

halide, LED, crown refl ectors,

uplighters, downlighters, gullwings,

fl uorescents, sensor controls,

daylight controls and even the

sun itself, many buyers take the

easy route and opt for a standard

specifi cation. Four hundred lux levels

throughout an offi ce will provide

a good basic level of light at low

cost, but taking this approach may

be counter-productive in a number

of ways, not least in terms of its

environmental impact.

The problem can be systemic. Often, decisions about lighting design are left too late in the design process so that designers are forced to accept what the diminishing budget allows rather than what’s right for the space or the environment. Cost is often the most signifi cant factor, which explains the enduring popularity of the fl uorescent tube.

One of the most important developments in this area in recent years is the much publicised 2006 Building Regulations, which set certain duties and standards for energy effi ciency. However, there is scope to develop schemes that easily exceed these requirements, and the DFES

has already issued guidance for new and refurbished schools that goes beyond the regulations. Offi ce lighting (lamp, luminaire and control gear) will determine results so it is worthwhile getting professional advice for individual schemes.

A good fi rst port of call for extended guidance is CIBSE, although it is also wise to consider relevant Standards such as EN15193-1 Energy performance of buildings - Energy requirements for lighting - Part 1: Lighting energy estimation; or EN 15251: Indoor environmental criteria for design and calculation of energy performance of buildings.

When it comes to making decisions about lighting, the good news is that a well designed and managed lighting scheme will not only be good for the environment but also for an organisation’s balance sheet. Simple decisions about light fi ttings and building controls can have an enormous impact. For example, by specifying eco-tubes instead of standard fl uorescent tubes, you can expect to save around 10% of your energy costs. Refl ex eco-tubes direct more light downwards to give around 50% more useful light per tube, saving both installation and running costs.

Similarly, never assume that all areas within an offi ce require the same

specifi cation. The provision of natural light should infl uence decisions, but so, too, will the type of work being performed. Many modern offi ces have different areas for computer work, meetings, break-out space and relaxation, all of which will require different types and levels of light. Intelligent decisions taken on this basis can have a signifi cant bearing on energy costs.

The management of light fi ttings is equally important. At the most basic level, we should all use as much natural light as possible and remember to turn lights off when they’re not needed. Certain products do this for us: motion sensors turn off lights in unoccupied areas and daylight compensation controllers can vary light levels automatically depending on the availability of daylight in different parts of the offi ce.

Cost, cleaning, maintenance and asset management are other big factors.

You should also look at issues such as whole life costing and performance, as lamp performance can deteriorate over time, and take care that specifi cations are not so complex that you need to stock 35 types of lamp.

There is a strong business case to be made for effective lighting schemes. Enlightened management will look at the fi nancial and environmental cost of different lighting choices throughout their lifecycle and not just at installation.

General guidance on lighting in

a number of types of buildings is

available from the Society of Light

and Lighting, a part of CIBSE.

www.cibse.org/

Mike Lear of RS Components argues that businesses should consider the total lifecycle costs of lighting technologies when specifying offi ce lighting schemes

COMMENT

Different areas of the

offi ce benefi t from

different types of

lighting

Left: United Utilities’ new offi ces at Lingley Mere in Cheshire, designed by Claremont Group.Right: Kaupthing Bank offi ces in the City, designed by Modus Group

RS Components is Europe’s leading industrial distributor. It provides a single source of supply for parts as diverse as power tools, process control equipment, transistors, lighting equipment, plumbing supplies and protective clothing, via a choice of purchasing channels. The RS range includes 135,000 products from over 1300 suppliers, with a further 100,000 electronic & electromechanical products available online.www.rswww.com

Furniture removal

From eco offi ce stationery to washroom solutions, companies now have the opportunity to turn every aspect of their business green. One area that is often overlooked is the disposal of unwanted offi ce furniture. Many businesses fail to realise that their furniture can be disposed of responsibly, as there are very few companies that offer a comprehensive and transparent service that ensures furniture is genuinely diverted from landfi ll and dealt with sensitively from start to fi nish. There are a number of routes that redundant items may follow so it is important for companies to understand what happens to their furniture once the removals van drives away.

A desk reincarnated

Colin Crooks, CEO and founder of Green-Works (www.green-works.co.uk), explains the different routes unwanted offi ce furniture can take when disposed of in an environmentally sensitive way.


The sorting process

The main route for redundant furniture is still to landfi ll. However, there are a number of furniture recycling services that aim to stop this happening. The services vary considerably but each will look to sort and group items before they can proceed to the next stage. At Green-Works, this initial ‘triage’ stage is carried out at a warehouse and determines where the furniture will end up. A contractor that takes furniture to a warehouse has more time to grade it and put items to good use. It also reduces the time spent on site and reduces the noise and disturbance to a client’s offi ce. In Green-Works’ case, the warehouse provides an opportunity to employ people from marginalised or disadvantaged backgrounds, helping to make a difference to local communities. In some cases, sorting furniture on-site is practical but in all cases an effective distribution network is necessary to ensure that furniture fi nds a suitable home.

Redistributed in the UK

It is important to choose your recycling contractor carefully if your company’s unwanted items are to gain a useful second life. Green-Works actively looks to redistribute furniture and equipment to businesses in the third sector, such as charities, schools and not-for-profi t organisations. These types of organisation cannot afford new furniture and in many cases even second hand furniture is out of reach, so selective procurement can give your redundant items a much wider impact. By selling directly from the warehouse, Green-Works is in total control of the process and can offer a complete record of all organisations that have benefi ted from the low-cost furniture it provides.

awardGREENinitiative

WINTER 08/09SustainableTIMES

Green-works


Making a difference overseas

Another aspect of Green-Works’ ethical approach is its donation of furniture to worthwhile projects in Africa, which is helping to re-build communities in some of the poorest countries in the world. Third world countries are desperately in need of support in terms of basic equipment and facilities for their schools, hospitals and other public buildings. Something as simple as your redundant offi ce furniture can have a huge impact in helping to reconstruct a war torn community or improve a child’s education.

Lengthening the lifecycle

If an item of furniture cannot be redistributed to a new home, the next best option for the environment is for it to be remanufactured into something new. Some companies remodel old furniture to fi t a new space or demand. However, a lot of furniture is not capable of such remodelling. Green-Works has embarked on a programme of remanufacturing old furniture into something new, so that it can make use of even these items. At Green-Works, pieces suitable for remanufacture get sent to the in-house joinery where an enthusiastic team will plan out how they can be reused. Often the best items of furniture for the remanufacturing process are large old-fashioned desks, for which it is hard to fi nd new homes. Any items that cannot be reused or remanufactured will need to be recycled. Whilst recycling is a viable and successful route for unwanted or disposed of items, reusing or remanufacturing uses far less energy and should therefore be pursued wherever possible. For Green-Works, landfi ll is simply not an option.

A sustainable solution to a national problem

Depending on whom you engage with, your redundant equipment could take any number of paths once it has been removed. Many businesses are now looking to address multiple issues simultaneously. Redirecting unwanted furniture away from landfi ll and to a good cause helps the environment and boosts a company’s CSR. Not many companies offer a fully comprehensive furniture removal and recycling service, but Green-Works has many years’ experience in dealing with a job from start to fi nish. It operates ethically and honestly and because it is a social enterprise, businesses know they are in good company.

Green-Works is an environmental charity and social enterprise

that manages and recycles offi ce furniture. More information

about furniture removal or provision can be found by calling

0845 2302 231 or by visiting www.green-works.co.uk.

Lexmark’s new Print Less, Save More

strategy holds out the promise

of cost savings of up to 40%

and a lower carbon footprint for

organisations that implement a

managed print service from Lexmark

Global Services or one of its resellers.

In order to demonstrate the

benefi ts of managing and controlling

offi ce printing, the printer company

is applying its four-step programme

in its own offi ces, including those

of Lexmark UK in Marlow, Bucks and

Lexmark France in Suresnes, Paris.

The combination of a global recession and growing environmental awareness means that there has never been a better time to gain control of print costs that Gartner estimates could amount to as much as 1-3% of an enterprise’s turnover. According to Lexmark, this works out at about £300 to £1,000 per employee, depending on the nature of the business.

Print costs include the cost of the devices themselves, toner cartridges,

paper and energy consumption, plus hard-to-measure values, such as the cost of support and lost productivity caused by ineffi cient printing practices and machine downtime.

In addition to the fi nancial cost of offi ce printing, there is an environmental one. Unlike furniture, which has a negligible impact on the environment between manufacture/distribution/installation and disposal at end of life, printers are at their most damaging during the usage phase, largely through their use of paper.

“If you look at the lifecycle of a printer and measure its impact on the environment, 94% of that impact is due to paper, toner cartridges and energy

use,” explained Lexmark France general manager Renaud Deschamps.

According to Lexmark, the lion’s share of this fi gure – 80% – is accounted for by paper alone. This explains why paper reduction strategies are such a key component of its four-step MPS proposition, encompassing printer rationalisation; unifi ed device management; the implementation of more effi cient printing practices to reduce paper consumption (e.g. two-sided printing); and streamlined document workfl ows.

Print Less, Save More

To show how its Print Less, Save More programme can be implemented in even small organisations, Lexmark took Sustainable Times on a tour of its new offi ces in Suresnes, Paris.

Located on fi ve fl oors of a modern but unremarkable building in a quiet street off a main thoroughfare beside the Seine, the offi ces include meeting rooms, a showroom of Lexmark products and offi ce space for 120 workers.

On the day of Sustainable Times’ visit, the offi ces were quiet, neat, spacious and remarkably empty. Perhaps because of this – or as a result of Lexmark’s waste reduction strategies – there was almost no paper to be seen, not even in the output trays of workgroup printers and MFPs.

It was not always like this. Lexmark France’s old offi ces in La Defense, Paris were fairly paper-intensive. Each of the four fl oors had 17 personal and workgroup printers for just 30 people. In total, there were 67 print devices (one for every two employees), producing 508,000 pages per annum.

When Lexmark moved to its new offi ces it had three choices: to replicate the existing printer infrastructure; to replace the 17 devices on each fl oor with one high volume A3 MFP; or to implement a balanced deployment of four devices per fl oor.

It chose the third option on the basis that the second would have required workers to walk too far to collect prints, making the re-introduction of personal printers more likely. Lexmark believes that 6 or 7 metres is the furthest you can ask people to go to pick up a print without adversely affecting morale and productivity.

Another benefi t of having more than one device per fl oor is that there


Paper Cuts

Sustainable Times visited

Lexmark’s new Paris offi ces

to see what it is doing

to reduce the cost and

environmental impact of

printing in its own offi ces

continued on page 24...

Paper Cuts...continued from page 22is always backup should a printer fail. This has both productivity and fi nancial benefi ts, as it removes the need to pay for expensive support contracts with four-hour response rates.

Lexmark has standardised on A4

devices on the four fl oors of offi ce

space, as they cost less to buy, take up

less room, consume less energy than

A3 devices and meet 95% of print

requirements. Each L-shaped fl oor has

two B&W MFPs (with colour scanning);

one B&W printer and one colour printer.

In addition, there are two A3 devices

on the ground fl oor that can be used for

longer print runs or the small minority

of print jobs that require A3 paper sizes

or advanced fi nishing options, such as

colour marketing documents that are

now printed on-demand.

The results

By reducing the size of its printer fl eet

from 67 to 20 devices, Lexmark has

cut direct costs by 44%. But the new

infrastructure also has on-going savings:

the cost of consumables is down by 25%

per annum and energy consumption is

55% lower.

Further savings have come from

more effi cient printing practices that

have helped Lexmark reduce paper

consumption by 43%, from 508,000 to

288,000 pages per annum.

These savings have been achieved by

setting two-sided (duplex) printing as the

default – “We have pre-click duplex and

because we are lazy we never unclick it,”

Deschamps said – and by implementing

Secure Printing to eliminate unnecessary

printing, maintain data security and

provide a record of printer usage.

“We cut the number of pages printed

from 508,000 to 403,700 by eliminating

the pages we didn’t need to print. Then

duplex took this down to 288,000 sheets

of paper,” Deschamps explained.

Secure printing

Secure print is a key element of Lexmark’s managed print services, and not just because it eliminates wasteful printing. According to Deschamps, it also helps overcome one of the most common objections to printer rationalisation – the loss of confi dentiality.

“Data security and confi dentiality is a focus of IT departments. You have to go through fi rewalls and passwords to get to data but then you can print on a device that can be visited by anyone. There is a disconnect between the effort that has been put into IT security over the past 30 years and the amount that has been focused on the printed document,” he said.

Deschamps believes that this “disconnect” is a major cause of wasteful printing practices.

“Confi dentiality is the number one blocking factor for rationalising a printer infrastructure,” he said. “If you want to replace desktop printers with workgroup MFPs, the fi rst thing people will tell you is that they want a personal printer for confi dentiality reasons.”

Lexmark’s solution is a Secure Print system that keeps print jobs on the server until the user has identifi ed himself at the printer of his choice. Secure printing has three benefi ts: it guarantees data security, as print jobs will only be printed when the originator is there to collect the hard copy; it prevents people from printing documents and then forgetting to pick them up or leaving them too long in a shared output tray where they can become mixed together and need to be reprinted; and it stops people from printing documents just for the sake of it – research carried out by Ipsos for Lexmark indicates that one in fi ve pages goes straight to the waste bin without ever being read.

The simplest form of secure printing – entering a PIN code on the device itself

– is a standard feature of many printers. However, at Suresnes, Lexmark uses a more sophisticated and seamless system based on the swipe cards that employees use to enter the building.

When someone wants to print a document, he clicks a single, universal print icon and the print job is sent to the server where it remains until the user swipes his badge at any device on the network. If the user is at a printer with a touch-screen display, he will be able to select the print job he requires from a list, but if he is at one without an e-Task interface, all print jobs in his personal queue will be printed.

At Suresnes, Secure Printing is applied to all devices but as Eric Crump, Lexmark EMEA manager of Large Accounts Solution and Services Support, points out, there is no reason why it can’t be limited to specifi c devices on which it is important to monitor and control usage. “One customer put a badge reader on their colour printer and the number of colour pages printed declined by 50%,” he said.

Effi cient workfl ows

Step four of a Lexmark managed print service is the on-going appraisal of existing processes to see how workfl ows can be redesigned to reduce paper consumption, for example by using the scanning capability of MFPs to implement electronic workfl ows.

The benefi t of this exercise will be greatest for businesses that have paper-intensive processes, such as loans approval, but any organisation will have tasks that can be streamlined. For example, at Suresnes, Lexmark has removed the need for photocopying by setting up a shared hard drive where people can store PDFs of scanned documents that others can access and download.

Conclusion

In the current economic climate, it is not easy to square the need to economise with the desire to introduce more sustainable business practices. Gaining control over print costs allows organisations to satisfy these sometimes incompatible demands. The larger and more dispersed the organisation, the greater the potential benefi ts, but as Lexmark demonstrates at Suresnes, even small businesses can achieve signifi cant fi nancial and environmental savings by choosing to Print Less, Save More.www.lexmark.co.uk 01628 480503


According to Anthony Robinson,

managing director of business

moving specialists Robinsons,

facilities managers do two things

with their offi ce furniture when

moving premises: they either put it in

a skip or they put it in a dark corner

and forget about it.

In many cases, these ‘dark corners’ are Robinson’s own warehouses, where clients store as many as 200 tonnes of old desks and other equipment that will never see the light of day.

Robinson argues that keeping furniture in storage or sending it to landfi ll is both fi nancially and environmentally irresponsible, as there are organisations that can make productive use of unwanted items and will even pay to take them off people’s hands.

In order to help organisations realise the value of unwanted furniture, IT equipment, vending machines and other items and reduce the estimated 500,000 tonnes of furniture sent to landfi ll each year, Robinsons is supporting its business relocation service with a new range of intelligent recycling solutions that can help businesses cut the cost of relocation and meet corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies.

“Di-Vert is an intelligent, sustainable recycling solution that unlocks hidden value for end of term furniture, IT


Putting your

waste to work

equipment and vending machines,” explained Robinson.

“We will take unwanted items away and make sure they don’t go to landfi ll. We will fi nd someone to pay money for them. Or, if that’s not possible, we’ll get them broken down for re-use. The main benefi t is that instead of losing cash, some money will be coming back to an organisation from second-hand or scrap value.”

Fully audited

Another benefi t of Di-vert is that it is fully audited. By providing clients with a full audit trail of what happens to items once they have been collected, Robinsons helps them demonstrate compliance with corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies.

“Disposing of unwanted items

responsibly doesn’t have to be costly and it can bring fi nancial rewards as well as CSR benefi ts because we give facilities managers a full audit trail and a certifi cate showing this is what will happen to the old vending machine or whatever it is,” Robinson said.

“Most furniture will have a use for someone else who might not need the ultimate in a brand spanking new image, such as second- or third-tier organisations that don’t have the budget for the very best but who can take 200 desks that are seven or so years old. When furniture gets to 20 or 30 years old, you are looking at charitable donations or shipping it abroad. But if it does have to be broken down, the materials market is buoyant, so the metal chassis can be recycled, as can the wood itself, which can be turned into cabinets or pulped down and used for horse bedding for example.”

Landfi ll savings

One of the fi rst organisations to benefi t from Di-vert is Salford Royal Foundation Trust, which contracted Robinsons to remove bedroom and offi ce furniture from 160 rooms in a 10-storey block prior to its demolition.

Robinsons arranged for the furniture to be donated to a number of local charities including the Tree of Life Centre, Age Concern, Salford Community Transport and Wesley Furniture. By making use of old furniture in this way and by providing an audit trail, Di-vert has helped the Trust meet its CSR obligations and save money on landfi ll taxes.

“There is a commercial reality here,” explained Robinson. “We can actually make money from unwanted items. Di-vert provides businesses with a process for disposing of furniture and equipment in a responsible way that also gives them the opportunity to make savings and generate revenue.”www.di-vert.co.uk 0800 833 638

Di-vert is a new service

designed to minimise the

environmental impact of

offi ce moves and release the

hidden value of unwanted

assets. Sustainable Times

spoke to Anthony Robinson,

managing director of business

moving specialists Robinsons,

to fi nd out more

…pulped down and used for horse bedding…

“

”

A printer like no other

Don’t let looks deceive you: the Epson EC-01 is unlike any other inkjet printer. Instead of

taking user-replaceable cartridges, it comes with its own non-refi llable ink supply. Far from

being environmentally irresponsible, this system is designed to eliminate the waste and

expense of cartridge-based devices. Once the printer’s 8,000-page ink supply has run out,

the customer is encouraged to return the whole printer to Epson who will refi ll it and sell it

back to the customer at a discount. Each printer can be refi lled twice, after which Epson will

recycle it. Whether this system works in practice remains to be seen, but it is an interesting

alternative to cartridge-based devices. The Epson EC-01 is initially being made available to

education organisations. It is available from www.rm.com for £279. www.epson.co.uk


What’s

New…

File under recycled

Acco is expanding its range of 100%

recycled polypropylene products with

a 10-strong range of document fi ling

wallets, expander fi les, folders and

binders. Like the Rexel ecodesk range

of desktop accessories introduced

last year (see pic), ecofi ling products

are made from 100% post-consumer

waste. Many other recycled

polypropylene products on the market

are merely made from manufacturing

off-cuts and trimmings. All ecodesk and

ecofi ling products are 100% recyclable.

www.acco.co.uk

Paper-free reading

The paper industry has more than enough

problems without having to contend with

a potentially disruptive technology like digital paper.

It is still early days, but digital readers from the likes of

Sony, BeBook and Amazon (the Kindle) are becoming

more common. To encourage more people to take-up

paper-free reading, iRex Technologies is offering its

new iRex Digital Reader 1000 series with subscriptions

to a choice of 800 newspaper titles, including The

Daily Telegraph, Independent, Observer, The Guardian

and the Evening Standard. Aimed at business users,

the iRex DR1000 has a large display that allows

e-newspapers to retain their original layouts.

www.irextechnologies.com

www.irextechnologies.com/press/downloads

Green marks

Stabilo, which in 1998 became the fi rst pencil company to gain FSC certifi cation,

has established a new GREENrange of pencils, crayons and drylighters. All

GREENrange products are 100% FSC-certifi ed indicating that they are made

from wood that comes from forests managed according to the highest

ecological and social standards. The pencils feature an environmentally friendly

matt varnish. www.stabilo.com

Boxing clever

Eco-boxes is the responsible way to

move house or offi ce. The new internet

company supplies what it describes as

‘gently re-used’ moving boxes both to

individuals and removals companies.

Once you have fi nished with the

boxes, Eco-boxes will pick them up

and give them to someone else

to use. In this way, it hopes to

reduce the estimated 18,000

tonnes of cardboard boxes

thrown away when people

move home. ‘Eco moving

packs’ contain a selection

of 16 different size boxes;

10 metres of oxo bio-

degradable bubble wrap; non

toxic bio-degradable parcel

tape; and a marker pen made

from recycled products.

01756 795962

www.eco-boxes.co.uk



Acco

No hiding from BBS Professional

Businesses can take their fi rst steps to reduced energy consumption by installing BBS Professional, an appliance-level smart meter management solution from Bye Bye Standby. The system reports the energy use of individual appliances back to central analysis software, giving organisations real-time and historic views of the energy consumption of employees, air conditioning systems, lighting and other electrical items. Because BBS Professional is an appliance-level solution, it allows managers to see the contribution of individual employees or devices making it easier to set individual targets. The system can be used with 13 modules, ranging from simple plug-in sockets to wired-in air-conditioning monitoring units. All incorporate a remotely operated switch that enables devices

to be turned off remotely. 01844 337 801

www.ByeByeStandby.com/professional


Wrapper’s delight

Much of the 83km2 of wrapping paper used in the UK this Christmas is non-recyclable and will have ended up in landfi ll. Reusable fabric Wrapsacks from Onya Bags are being promoted as a green alternative, as they can be passed from person to person until they wear out. Each one is individually numbered, which enables its life story to be tracked via the global WrapSack website (assuming users take the time to update the system). Prices start at £3.20.

www.onyabags.co.uk

Right on the button

One For All’s Energy Saver remote control and Power Plug is just what you need if you regularly leave the TV and associated

equipment on standby overnight. To turn off attached equipment and reduce energy consumption to 10% of stand-by levels, all you need to do is press the little green button on the remote control.

The £34.99 plug can cut electricity to up to four devices including a TV, DVD and satellite/cable digibox. A typical set of AV equipment uses 9.7 Watts an hour if left on standby: by using the ‘Energy Saver’, this can be cut to 0.9 Watts. www.oneforall.com/energysaver

Second life

How long before all those games consoles given as Christmas presents end up at the local dump? And what will happen to them after that? Thanks to the recycling efforts of businesses like Pli, many will be remade into useful products, like the 100% recycled and 100% recyclable REEE stacking chair, each one of which contains 2.4kg of plastic from the casings of games consoles. The fi rst product to receive the Eden Project’s Waste Neutral mark, the REEE chair is available in black or grey as standard: custom colours can be supplied for larger orders. www.plidesign.co.uk

The better letter

UK Mail has launched a national postal service that is claimed to reduce the carbon impact of mailings by 80% and costs by as much as 60%. Suitable both for consumers and businesses, imail lets users send mail from their PC for next-day delivery nationwide. Mail is sent electronically to the UK Mail sorting centre closest to the delivery address, removing much of the travel associated with traditional postal collections and deliveries. It is then printed (with a scanned signature), put in an envelope and sorted. The price of next-day delivery starts at 51 pence per item, which includes all stationery, production and fi rst class delivery.www.ukmail.biz

What’sNew…



BBS ProfessionalBBS Professional

Many thanks to everyone who entered the Sustainable Times/Konica Minolta competition.

We asked readers to send in their

own energy-saving/waste-reduction

tips and it is clear from the number

and quality of entries received that

sustainable practices are entrenched

in many of your businesses.

Unsurprisingly, given Sustainable Times’ readership and the competition sponsor, most suggestions related to printing and paper consumption.

The most common suggestion was to print on both sides of the page (duplex) to reduce paper consumption. This was followed by the recommendation to re-use paper printed on one side, either by placing it in a designated printer tray for memos, drafts and internal documents or by cutting it up and making notepads for phone messages, doodles etc.

Other suggestions for reducing paper consumption were only to print when you need to and to use the printer preview feature to eliminate printing errors.

Also on the subject of printing, Martin Evans of Bristol advised readers NEVER to accept that a default setting is best for your business, stating that ‘it is always a compromise’. In other words, make use of draft printing settings to minimise toner usage when printing

internal or short-lived documents.Another tip, from Mr Baker of Cardiff,

is to print in black and white rather than colour – an interesting suggestion as the debate around colour tends to focus on its cost and rarely touches on the environmental consequences of extra toner use and the additional cartridges that colour printing entails.

Andrew Cakebread of Chatham, Kent has some good advice for inkjet printer users, viz. to unclog cartridges that have dried up by placing them in a cup of steamy hot water; while Howard Carpenter of Peacehaven suggests recycling ink cartridges via organisations such as Traidcraft and Oxfam or refi lling them with a refi ll kit and then using the plastic syringe supplied to feed small animals or apply bleach to areas of fabric.

Peter Whittle of Fakenham took a slightly different tack by addressing not only how we produce paper but how we consume it too. His energy-saving/waste-reduction tip is to read E-books rather than paper-based publications that use up large amounts of pulp, water and greenhouse gases.

ENERGY-SAVING

As expected, many readers sent in energy-saving tips, the most common of which was to turn off devices and not leave them on standby.

Melanie Robson of Hexham, Northumberland highlighted the fact that chargers consume energy even when the appliance they work with has been detached and advised people to switch off phone chargers and adapters at the wall when they’re not in use.

Sylvia Martin, managing director of Library Supply International, provided a different perspective on the on/off debate, pointing out that strip lights use very high levels of power when being switched on, so there are certain areas where it is better to leave them on (e.g. toilets) rather than constantly turning them on and off.

She also suggested leaving food recycling bins outside offi ces to create humus to put on bee-

friendly, nectar-bearing shrubs and trees recommended by the British Beekeepers Association.

This was far from the only horticultural suggestion. Others included mixing shredded paper with green waste to make compost for company plant containers; and the following energy-harvesting tip from Derek Harrison of Swinton, Manchester: “Fill old 2-litre plastic milk containers with water. Place them around the base of the greenhouse. They will absorb heat during the day, which will be transferred during the cool of the night.”

The energy-saving category also includes the strangest suggestion, which is to “Put your air freshener on a timer so that in the night it switches off”. Surely, penned by a satirist of the highest order.

Among the more mainstream suggestions were to buy a laptop for your next computer upgrade as they use less energy than desktop computers; to turn the heating down; to install motion sensor switches; and to share a bath – though perhaps not in the workplace.

Underlining the extent to which energy-saving is often simply a matter of common sense and good

management, Mr M Stead, project manager for

ONS, suggested de-cluttering cars and vans to improve fuel

effi ciency; while Mrs Tina Hunt of Bromsgrove advised readers to

“always make sure that your light fi ttings, bulbs/neon tubes and

shades are cleaned regularly. If you allow dust and dirt to build up, you can lose up to 20% of emitted light and may feel like

putting on another light.”Another common-sense suggestion

was supplied by Hazel Rea of Colchester, who wrote: “During the winter months pull blinds on the South side up to make use of solar gain - and encourage staff to wear warmer clothes (offi ce staff often dress in the same weight of clothes throughout the year) so that the thermostat can be turned down a degree or two.” CATERING

Tea-making is one of the more important offi ce activities and this was refl ected in the high number of catering-


Your suggestions for creating a more sustainable workplace.

continued on page 30....

gre

en

tips

An enterprising new way to workSmall and medium businesses (SMEs) looking to increase productivity, improve their appeal to current and potential employees and raise their corporate social responsibility (CSR) profile are turning to Enterprise, a free workplace travel planning scheme.

Created by Transport for London (TfL) especially for the

Capital’s SME sector, Enterprise aims to help organisations

make better use of London’s transport system through the

development of a workplace travel plan.

A workplace travel plan is a business management tool

focused on improving access to your site and delivering a

range of organisational benefits. It enables staff, visitors

and customers to make sustainable travel choices with

confidence alongside increasing efficiency within your

organisation.

One of the key factors behind the scheme is its

commitment to professional support throughout the

process. Tim Carter, Workplace Travel Planning

Relationship Manager at TfL, comments, “We have

professional, experienced and enthusiastic travel planners

and marketing personnel across London all focused on

this project, ensuring each business in Enterprise has a

travel plan devised that will work for them.”

Chris Parrott, Director of Journey Latin America – one

of the first organisations to sign up to Enterprise – agrees,

“The support we have received has been far reaching and

I have been really surprised by the impact of the initiative.

I didn’t imagine that it would be so easy to convince

people to change the way they travel to work. Amazing

what a bit of promotion can do!”

The workplace travel plan process first involves a site

audit and survey of staff (and potentially visitors or

customers depending on the business). This ensures that

relevant information and data about the organisation and

its employees is collected at the outset.

Tim Forrester, Travel Plan Coordinator at WESTTRANS

(one of a network of local coordinators promoting

Enterprise) explains, “We can help with this by providing

access to on-line surveys to reduce the time and effort

needed to collect and analyse the information. Plus we

can provide incentives to encourage as much feedback

as possible”.

The results and detailed analysis of the data by the

experts, informs the organisation’s workplace travel plan.

“Each travel plan is tailor made for every business, to

meet their individual transport concerns, travel needs

and location,” explains Tim Carter, “The recommendations

included, which are developed in consultation with each

business, are then implemented through a variety of

measures supported by the Enterprise team.”

Chris Parrott says he was surprised at how much

interest was generated by the Enterprise merchandise,

“There was a real buzz about the place – like excited

children waiting their turn for a luckydip.”

Cycling is often a popular mode with employers and

employees, mirroring the 91 per cent increase in cycling

across London since 2000. Through Enterprise, the cycle

support package can provide employees with helpful

items to get them pedalling, such as cycle repair kits and

reflective slap-wraps. It can also help improve facilities at

the workplace through the offer of free cycle stands.

Tim Carter explains, “Enterprise will give you and your organisation all

the advice, information and support needed, tailored to your strategic

business needs, and delivered in a flexible way that helps you the most.

By implementing a workplace travel plan, and developing a better

understanding of your employees’ travel needs, you’ll make your

organisation even more employee-focused. Plus, you will help support a

shift towards walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing to the

benefit of your company, the local environment and London’s economy.”

“We’re here to answer any questions that you may have about Enterprise,

the process of developing a travel plan, or how you can get the most out

of it.”

To get in touch with the Enterprise team call 0870 094 9011Email: [email protected] Web: www.anewwaytowork.org

“There have been business benefits from the travel plan

– we send people half way across the world, so it's

important for us to emphasise our green credentials.

One additional unexpected benefit is that cyclists get to

work on time, since journey times are easily predictable.”

Chris Parrott, Director, Journey Latin America

related tips. Replacing disposable plastic cups with china mugs was a popular suggestion, on its own and in conjunction with advice about washing up.

Beverley Kerry wrote: “We have a sign above the sinks stating ‘PLUG IT!’. This reminds everyone to put the plug in the sink before washing the cups and cutlery, instead of running hot water down the drain. This saves energy and keeps the bills down!”

David Barry of Downings recommends the use of a dishwasher, and not just for environmental reasons: “A sink full of unwashed crockery is a demoralising sight, common towards the end of the day – often the reason for using disposables in the fi rst place. That, and the fact that washing-up is a really tedious chore that, when done by hand, will use MORE electricity and water than one of the new dishwashers with ‘eco’ or ‘saver’ washing programmes. All one needs to do is set up a routine whereby all staff know to use fresh crockery from the cupboard and to put dirty crockery straight into the dishwasher. Then all that is required is for someone to take responsibility for putting in the detergent and turning it on at the end of the day.”

MISCELLANEOUS

Among the large number of miscellaneous suggestions, special mention should be given to M.M. Roper whose waste-saving tip demonstrates the benefi t of small acts of kindness: “To save petrol I give friends a lift to work. They repay my kindness by giving me

their magazines to read. Once read, I shred them and give them to

a friend for her hamster’s cage. Once used, she

mixes the paper with kitchen scraps to make compost and then digs it into her allotment. The result is delicious leeks, which makes scrumptious

soup, which we sample at our charity

barbecues.”

CARROT AND STICK

From the competition entries received, it is clear that offi ce workers know what they need to do to reduce their employer’s

carbon footprint. The challenge lies in implementing initiatives at a corporate level. For this reason, the competition judges, James Goulding, Editor of Sustainable Times, and John Howard, Head of Marketing at Konica Minolta UK, were drawn to entries offering advice on implementing and sustaining greener ways of working.

Roger Stonelake points out that 70% of the material printed in offi ces is junked by close of business. In order to reduce unnecessary printing he advocates the removal of waste paper bins and a hardline approach to enforcement. “Imposing reduction targets for each department may help, but forcing them to pile up their weekly mountain of dead forest before they must personally take it for shredding / recycling might concentrate minds somewhat,” he suggested.

Michael Coupar favours the carrot rather than the stick. His recommendation for multi-site operations is to “run a competition to see which site can reduce its electricity consumption the most, with monthly prizes of wine/chocolates etc., and a larger annual prize (maybe a half day off – to save some more energy!). All you need to supply is 2 or 3 inexpensive energy monitors so that each site can fi nd out where their electricity use is highest, and a suitable fund for upgrading lighting etc... Then sit back and watch the bills fall and your employees bond.”

THE WINNING ENTRY

We like Michael Coupar’s idea – and the suggested rewards – but in the end we picked the following entry from Darryl Martin-Schrader, Director of Cameravaria in Norwich, as our winning entry. It has just the right degree of competition and is not limited to one type of activity.

“Reward Employees with ‘Greenie Points’, like Brownie points but given to employees who make energy/waste saving suggestions, i.e. use more energy effi cient ways of getting to work: bike good, car bad, bus OK etc. These points could be exchanged for energy-saving promotional gifts.”

The only thing we would change is to award points to those who implement a green activity rather than just suggest it.

Congratulations to Mr Martin-Schrader. We hope he enjoys his Konica Minolta bizhub C10P colour laser printer and gets much use out of it. And many thanks to everyone else who entered the competition.


Competition runner-up

Checklist for Green Meetings

Mr M. McKaig, senior partner at

MRM International, offered the

following advice on holding

sustainable and eco-friendly

meetings.

Select a local venue- Choose a venue that can easily be

reached by public transport- Choose a venue with an environmental

policy- Choose venues and hotels within

walking distance of each other- Choose naturally lighted meeting

rooms- Choose a location that already offers

recycling systems

Preventing and Reducing Waste- Avoid and reduce the amount of waste

produced as much as possible- Use cups, glasses and cutlery rather

than plastic disposal utensils and plates- Work paperless rather than printing out- Make sure that recycling bins are

conveniently located- Use recycled products such as paper

and pencils

Organising the Transfer- Offer transfer by low-emission or

alternative energy vehicles- Make sure the venue is conveniently

located for public transport- Offer directions to the venue by

public transport to make it easier for

participants to use mass transportation

Arranging of Food Service- Purchase locally-sourced food- Provide healthy options- Offer fair-trade coffee, tea, juices and

fruits- Purchase organic food where

appropriate- Compost food waste- Provide water from jugs rather than

bottles

Organising paper and signage- Control the paper fl ow- Print sheets double-sided- Reduce the number of handouts

- Use recycled paper

Conserving Energy & Water- Choose a location in terms of energy

supply such as biomass, wind or renewable energy

- Pay attention to water saving measures

gre

en

tips

Reducing your carbon foot print does not just make environmental sense; it makes sound business sense.

Minimising your impact on the environment means reducing the resources that your working activities consume…

and less resources, more efficient technologies or better working practices all mean lower business costs.

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If your organisation is one of them,

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w w w . i k o n . c o . u k

One call could help your business to save the environment and money.

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sustainable times issue 2

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