Work-from-home agency launched
20 March 2008
A new recruitment agency, Remote Employment, that solely supplies candidates who work from home is hoping to meet the demand of firms looking for remote workers. Accountancy, marketing and office management are among the sectors looking for people working from home.
www.remoteemployment.com
Ideas needed on ‘greening’ tribunals
20 March 2008
Law firms are looking to make employment tribunals more environmentally friendly. The Legal Sector Alliance (LSA), which promotes sustainability in the profession, is exploring ideas for reducing the legal sector’s environmental impact, including reducing tribunal paperwork and using technology to hold hearings remotely. Employment law firm Nicholas Moore is leading the LSA on the issue and welcomes suggestions from HR professionals on how the tribunal system could be greener: contact Stephanie Paterson sp@nicholas-moore.co.uk • www.legalsectoralliance.com
Government caps bottled water
20 March 2008
The government is to stop using bottled water for meetings, the Cabinet Office has announced. Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell wrote to government department heads suggesting they replace bottles with tap water from the summer onwards.
DHL gives staff recycled payslips
7 February 2008
Delivery and logistics firm DHL Exel Supply Chain has begun to make its 36,000 UK staff payslips from recycled paper. The initiative is expected to reduce its carbon footprint by nearly 10 tonnes of CO2 per year. Anne Parris, EMEA director of accounting for the firm, said the project was part of DHL’s plan to reduce its contribution to climate change.
Royal mail plants trees to offset CO2
7 February 2008
Staff at Royal Mail Group are signing up to a new scheme to offset their carbon emissions by planting trees. So far 130 workers have pledged to give money direct from their wages to the Woodland Trust, enabling the charity to plant 2,500 trees in its 1,000 UK woods. Royal Mail has designed a carbon calculator to help staff work out how much carbon they need to offset.
GE goes eco-friendly with ‘green week’
7 February 2008
Technology firm GE inspired staff to commit to environmentally friendly behaviours with a week of green activities, called Ecomagination. “Green wizards” were allocated to each of GE’s 48 UK locations to distribute energy-saving lightbulbs to its 15,000 staff. The week included the launch of a “carbon calculator” and green champion awards.
HR uses sustainable leadership exercise
10 January 2008
The HR department at property advisers Colliers CRE has rolled out a new leadership exercise in which staff have to construct ecologically sustainable school buildings. Together with staff from its client Nationwide Building Society, Colliers’ staff constructed two sustainable buildings for pupils at a junior school in Swindon in only
eight hours.
TFL’s pledge cuts its electricity use
10 January 2008
Electricity use at Transport for London’s head office has fallen by 9 per cent following a staff pledge to cut energy use. Since the initiative was launched in June, 10 per cent of the 21,000-strong workforce pledged to make simple changes to their working lives to help reduce the amount of energy the company used.
Electricals firm gets recycling director
10 January 2008
Electrical retailer DSG International has hired a dedicated “recycling, returns and re-use director”, Helge Amotsbakken. The group – which is responsible for brands including PC World, Currys and Dixons – has recycled a quarter of a million electrical appliances in the past six months. The scheme, introduced in July last year, asked UK customers to return unwanted appliances when buying a new product.
Infinis staff get help to go green at home
29 November 2007
Renewable energy firm Infinis is encouraging staff to take green principles home. Under the “Small steps” initiative, 10 employees have received payments of up to £1,500 and company loans of up to £5,000 to help them purchase either low-emission vehicles or domestic renewable energy technologies such as solar panels. “As well as the work we do here, we also need to think about how our employees live at home,” said Paul Gregson, head of HR at Infinis.
www.infinissmallsteps.com/smallsteps.htm
Accor employees clean up the Thames
29 November 2007
A team of 22 staff from employment benefits provider Accor Services got their hands dirty in a clean-up project in the River Thames earlier this month. The move was the latest suggestion of a dedicated staff committee to help the business go green. Accor also plan to plant 200 trees in the local community. “Employees told us they wanted to have a more immediate impact on their local environment,” said managing director Laurent Delmas.
Council wins top recycling award
29 November 2007
Preston City Council has won an award for an innovative recycling campaign that saw it give out free tins of baked beans with adapted labels showing recycling messages. The initiative, aimed at students at the University of Central Lancashire, won in the “best local authority initiative” category at the National Recycling Awards. Judges described the campaign as “something Saatchi & Saatchi might have come up with”.
Have your say on travel plans
26 July 2007
HR professionals’ views are being sought for a Department for Transport-funded research project into whether green workplace travel plans can boost recruitment. The research, being carried out for environmental transport body Transport 2000, also aims to find out if travel plans such as incentives for increasing cycling and walking to work bring other HR benefits, such as increased productivity or reduced sickness absence. Responses will be anonymous.
Calculate your carbon footprint
26 July 2007
A flexible benefits provider and a charity have teamed up to provide a carbon footprint calculator that allows employees to work out their household emissions. Staff can then make a donation through their payroll to offset their carbon footprint. The initiative, from Vebnet and Pure, the Clean Planet Trust, calculates household, road and flight emissions. Individuals’ donations are used to buy carbon credits from emission reducing projects that meet the Kyoto Protocol standards.
Imprint for sustainable success
28 June 2007
Recruitment firm Imprint has launched a scheme to donate money to offset carbon emissions each time someone is referred to a client business. The business will make a contribution of up to £1,000 to a good cause every time someone recommends a friend who is then placed with a client.
Ikea staff given low energy light bulbs
28 June 2007
Ikea is to give low-energy light bulbs to its UK workforce. The “bulbs for life” initiative will see all 9,600 workers get six bulbs, which can be returned for a replacement when they need renewing. The firm estimates that the bulbs could save more than £400,000 per year on total energy bills for the workforce.
Travel survey identifies green measures
28 June 2007
Support services firm Mouchel Parkman is surveying its 7,000 staff on their travel patterns to identify sustainable initiatives and incentives. “The nature of our business means that many of our staff travel regularly,” said Andy Sherlock, head of environmental management. “The survey will help to influence some of the measures under consideration, such as a company car share club and a tax saving scheme on bicycle purchases.”
Vodafone encourages recycling
17 May 2007
Vodafone has set up a national campaign to help businesses encourage their staff to recycle mobile phones, chargers, accessories and installation CDs.
A campaign pack, produced with phone recycling firm Fonebak, will be distributed to Vodafone’s corporate customers and will also raise money for charity.
Homebase helps staff to cut waste
17 May 2007
Homebase has launched an in-store staff challenge to help its workforce to cut energy use and waste.
Green points will be awarded to each store for reductions in waste, recycling improvements, efficient energy and water use and for cutting the number of plastic carrier bags used.
Each store will have its own “green champion” volunteer, and progress will be tracked on a special intranet site. The winning store will have an acre of woodland dedicated to it and will be named Homebase Green Store Champion 2007.
Lloyds TSB to go carbon neutral
17 May 2007
Lloyds TSB plans to become carbon neutral by the end of this year by offsetting those emissions that it cannot reduce, its chairman has announced.
Sir Victor Blank also said the bank had committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 30 per cent by the end of 2012, when the firm is sponsoring the London Olympic Games.
London leads on climate change
5 April 2007
The City of London Corporation has announced a multi-million pound project to put London at the forefront of investment into technologies needed to tackle climate change. The London Accord project will make a financial analysis of new initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions and their implications. The completed research will be unveiled in the autumn. • www.london-accord.co.uk
Budget encourages firms to go green
5 April 2007
Extra taxes to punish polluters and encourage firms to be more environmentally friendly were outlined in the Budget last month. Firms providing company cars will be hit by a hike in road tax for larger “gas guzzlers”, which will have their annual tax raised to £400. The “greenest” vehicles will have their duty cut to only £35. An incentive to minimise waste comes through a rise in landfill tax.
PUK needs to act to reduce CO2
5 April 2007
The UK has a green mindset but does not practise the behaviours needed to reduce the impact of climate change, according to the first national index of public opinion on green issues. The “Green Barometer”, launched by the Energy Saving Trust (EST), which tracked almost 1,200 households, reveals that 80 per cent of people believe that climate change is having an impact on the UK right now, but 40 per cent are doing nothing to reduce energy consumption. The barometer will be issued quarterly • www.est.org.uk
PwC gets personal
22 March 2007
Plans are afoot to make employees at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the world’s largest professional services firm, more environmentally aware.
Geoff Lane, partner for sustainable development services, told PM that the company plans to take its CSR initiatives a “step further” by encouraging all 15,000 UK employees to be “more green” at home.
This will involve advice, education and practical solutions, such as making it easier for staff to source equipment like solar panels for their homes, and guidance on carbon offset schemes for personal air travel.
Lane said: “We can’t force people to do it but we can help them cut through the huge amount of wrong information and understand the most sensible options.”
John Lewis to go entirely renewable
8 March 2007
Retailer John Lewis has announced plans to obtain all its energy from renewable sources by October. Half the power will come from hydroelectric generation, with the remainder made up of a combination of biomass, wind power, landfill gas and tidal power.
John Lewis, which has 26 department stores and 183 Waitrose shops, will also use sustainable materials in designs for new buildings.
New Zealand wants to be CO2 neutral
8 March 2007
Government agencies will be expected to lead the way in helping New Zealand to become greenhouse-gas neutral. Helen Clark, prime minister, said government bodies should become carbon neutral to help New Zealand in its aspiration to be the first nation to be truly sustainable. However, the country is currently struggling to meet its Kyoto target of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2012.
PwC wins cycle-friendly award
8 March 2007
The Edinburgh office of PricewaterhouseCoopers has won an award for being the most cycle-friendly business in Scotland. Ten per cent of staff there saddle up to get to work and receive an allowance of 12.5p a mile from their employer.
E.ON plans to reduce its cars’ CO2 levels
1 November 2007
Energy company E.ON UK has announced plans to reduce carbon emissions in its fleet of company cars.
The firm will now only order new vehicles with a CO2 rating of 165g/km or less. It is estimated that this will reduce average emissions by 12 per cent.
Derek Parkin, managing director of business services, said that the company was looking to reduce carbon on both sides of the business, having already set ambitious targets on the generating side.
“We need to change the way that our customers look at energy, and that means setting a good example,” Parkin said.
Tesco ships wine to cut emissions
1 November 2007
Tesco is to use barges to transport wine from city to city along the UK’s canal system. The retailer started the initiative with a route from Liverpool to Manchester, with three trips a week moving 132,000 gallons of wine. The plan will reduce carbon emissions along the route by 80 per cent, taking the equivalent of 50 lorries off the motorway.
UK employees add to paper mountain
1 November 2007
British office workers print an average of 22 pages every working day, adding up to the equivalent of a pile of paper 8,000 miles high every year, a YouGov survey has revealed.
More than half of workers admitted to mistakenly printing out the same document several times, and 8 per cent said they printed out emails before reading the content, said the research of 2,000 adults commissioned by Fujitsu Siemens Computers.