Our own actions, business decisions and supply chain is important to us and undergoes continual review. To achieve this we believe that positive change needs to be driven by a management approach, upheld and nurtured by shared values company wide and communicated to our clients and suppliers whenever necessary.
Our carbon emissions reporting includes a full end-to-end analysis of our operations and includes scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions where we aim to make meaningful reductions every year.
We map our emissions to our client projects and offset the unavoidable emissions via a range of nature based, carbon avoidance, renewable energy, and community projects.
In addition to offsetting the carbon emissions for every project, we also plant a tree for every day we work for our clients.
We purchase our energy from 100% renewable sources including wind power, solar, biomass and hydropower. Our renewable energy enables us to operate our offices with 0g of CO2 emissions and 0g of radioactive waste. While all of the energy we use is from sustainable sources, we still monitor and actively reduce our energy usage where possible.
All of our web servers which deliver customer content online are located in carbon neutral data centres. While the energy they use is not yet from 100% renewables, significant work is underway to make them 100% hydro-powered in the near future.
Our offices use low energy LED lighting throughout. They require less electricity than a standard lighting system with 95% of the energy converted in to light and only 5% wasted as heat. This low energy use decreases greenhouse gas emissions.
We continually monitor our energy usage via smart metering, enabling us to identify opportunities such as optimising our internal data and infrastructure servers, enabling us to dramatically reduce the energy used to cool them.
Our offices benefit from smart low energy heating systems allowing us to control temperatures remotely and efficiently. Using a mobile app, we target which areas need heating and when so that our energy consumption is limited to only when we need it and how long we need it for.
During the temperate months, we use fresh air systems which are a more efficient means of creating a comfortable environment without the need for air conditioning.
It is mandatory for all our staff to be committed to recycling waste. We do not use our local authority waste service but instead use an alternative and innovative waste provider that guarantees a zero to landfill policy. All recyclable materials are made into new products, while contaminated or unrecyclable materials are used for energy generation to power homes. We also compost 100% of our food waste in an aerobic hotbin digester, producing compost for our own gardens.
In addition to the waste generated from within our own office, we believe that Fourleaf as a business can play an important role in helping to reduce our own personal waste from home. We therefore also provide specialist recycling streams which we call BYOW stations.
These can be used by all staff for both business and personal recycling from home enabling us to pool our more difficult to recycle items and benefit from volume. Additionally, our combined recycled waste is then exchanged for cash for local charities and schools.
Batteries
Toners and ink cartridges
Crisp packets
Confectionary wrappers
Bread bags
Oral care packaging
Beauty and skin care packaging
Home laundry packaging
WEEE electronics (Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment)
“Most single-use items get used for a few minutes and then get discarded. I think it’s possibly the most ridiculous misuse of resources that humans have ever come up with.”
300 billion single use cups are made each year with the UK alone using 2.5 billion. As these paper cups are lined with plastic less than 2% will ever be recycled. But not at Fourleaf! Single use coffee cups are not permitted in any Fourleaf office, with reusable and sustainable bamboo or rice husk alternatives supplied.
We actively discourage all other single use items wherever possible and as a business we will always purchase recycled plastics or plastic alternatives if there is a viable option available. By sharing our sustainability vision and ethics, each and every employee is encouraged to consider every item used in their work and home life.
It only takes 2 million people choosing to re-use once a week to stop 104 million single use cups going to landfill. By choosing to re-use 7 days a week, we are making a big difference.
We consider the environmental impact of any product we buy or service that we procure. Our toilet rolls and hand towels are all made from bamboo - but don’t worry, not the kind that cute pandas like to chomp on! The bamboo used is from a huge surplus harvested once a year and which grows back 30 times faster than trees.
Other general office supplies and cleaning products all come with strong green credentials. Even our teabags are 100% biodegradable. They are delivered via a fleet of over one hundred environmentally friendly vans from a supplier whose environmental approach spans right across their business, including having a 55,000m2 solar array and half a megawatt of battery storage capability
Our general policy is that we only buy or procure sustainable print solutions for our clients. However, there is no ‘one size fits all’ where print is concerned and we pull from a variety of different sustainable options depending on a client’s needs. This could include both recycled or virgin paper from sustainable sources, the use of vegetable or soya inks or even the carbon neutral credentials of the printing factory and delivery methods
Sustainably sourced paper
Recycled paper
Vegetable inks
Soya inks
Carbon neutral factories
Carbon neutral deliveries
Each week we dedicate one lunch time to our ‘Lunch and Learn’ programme where one of the team presents on a topic with time allowed for discussion during which any extra knowledge or information can be relayed to the teams in both the UK and NL. Recent topics have covered rising sea levels, threats to biodiversity, deforestation and the Sustainable Development Goals.
We believe that by continuously sharing and transferring knowledge, we ensure our entire team knows as much as they can, not only about our clients and their needs but also the environment and how we can maximise our sustainability.
All presentations are video recorded so that absentees or new joiners can be brought up to speed and have equal knowledge to the rest of the company. This continual learning programme enables us to successfully deliver on our present sustainability goals and our continuing vision for 2020.
Led by four senior members of staff across our UK and NL offices, the Fourleaf sustainability team meet every other week to discuss and implement all our sustainability measures. We know we can always do more to safeguard our planet and through this team endeavour we stay informed and add new sustainability goals to our office life.
Making sustainable choices is not only beneficial to the environment but they are also beneficial to our business.
We are continually looking to develop and improve our own sustainability credentials
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