Carbon Reduction Policy Statement

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Carbon Reduction Policy Statement

It is the stated policy of The Leader Group to reduce its environmental impact where practicable.

Carbon reducing measures form an integral part of the overall Group strategy, helping us to improve both operational performance and a reduction in potentially harmful emissions to land, water, and air.

The Group’s ultimate aim is for a 0% carbon balance before 31st Dec 2048.

To help achieve this, the Group will:

• With all current energy legislation, seeking to meet or better legislative targets.

• Minimise waste, promote recycling and the use of recycled products to help reduce the burden on landfill, and corresponding methane generation.

• Continue to promote and support the objectives of the policy.

• Promote environmental awareness and responsibility amongst employees and others, and seek where practicable to continuously improve Group environmental performance.

• Actively promote telephone conferencing as a means of reducing travel requirements.

• Evaluate the potential benefits of home-working.

• Evaluate the potential Comply benefits of carbon off-setting.

Actions currently being developed include:

• Integration of environmental issues into all aspects of the decision-making processes.

• Sustainable sourcing procurement policies.

• Evaluation of energy efficient and correspondingly carbon reducing equipment, vehicles and equipment throughout the Group.

• Vehicle sharing and mileage reduction planning.

This Carbon Footprint Policy Statement underpins the existing Environmental, Procurement, Waste Management, Quality Assurance, Health & Safety, and Corporate Responsibility Policies already implemented throughout the Group.

This policy clearly identifies the responsibilities and procedures for achieving the Group’s stated objectives in all aspects of our activities, leading to improved environmental performance, inclusive of reductions in both CO2 and methane emissions.

Carbon footprint policy

The Leader Group recognises that our work may have a direct or indirect effect on the local and / or regional environment. We are therefore committed to reducing any harm that this may cause. Our carbon footprint – green policy is to constantly look for ways in which we can improve our green credentials, we are achieving this by holding regular meetings to explore ways to achieve our statement promises and to link with other likeminded organisations.

Our carbon reduction strategy is aligned with our company environmental policy and company sustainability policy and current codes of practice on waste and environment protection.

We will focus on:

• Reducing waste,

• Reducing materials at every opportunity,

• Repair rather than throw away where we can

• Recycle at any given opportunity.

As our “Green” culture becomes established and embedded we aim to:

• Encourage our employees and suppliers to be responsible, corporate green citizens,

• Utilise energies and water sparingly,

• Consider environmental impacts in our purchasing,

• Endeavour to work with partnering organisations that share our ethos on “carbon footprint”

• Reduce the need for transport and its impacts on the environment.

It is our intention to operate our business in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way as possible.

Already introduced and working well:

• We reuse, or recycle, all of our packaging materials such as cardboard, polystyrene, shredded paper etc. All materials that can be recycled are segregated into specific waste bins / skips and forwarded to waste transfer stations.

• We minimise the use of paper in our offices through the use of email, this has greatly reduced the amount of paper used within the workplace, and previously we would have sent hard copy correspondence in the post, letters in the post. Processing information electronically is also much more energy and carbon efficient than physically sending hard copy correspondence.

• We have installed multi-function devices to handle faxing, printing and photocopying demands in our offices; this greatly helps reduce energy and also reduces paper usage.

• We supply internal recycle bins for our office paper.

• Our consumption of fuel and energy is closely monitored and we take care that it is not wasted through inefficiency or casualness.

• We recycle old computers responsibly and will do so through our IT replacement strategy.

• We recycle mobile phones and printer cartridges.

• We have reduced the amount of our land fill waste by finding ways or recycling waste material more efficiently.

• We ensure that all our offices adhere to current environmental standards and energy conservation requirements.

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What we intend to do in the future:

• Where possible we will source our materials from suppliers who operate in an environmentally friendly manner and who are geologically local to us to reduce road traffic, road traffic costs and carbon emissions.

• We will choose vehicles with fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions in mind, when our current fleet of company vehicles are due for replacement. Fuel efficiency and mileage will be closely monitored with the help of tracker systems.

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

• We will encourage suppliers to strive for the same level of environmental care as we provide to offset their carbon footprint.

• We will deliver awareness training on green issues and sustainable development to all employees in order to inspire them to reduce their carbon footprint and encourage them to take action to offset their carbon footprint in innovative ways.

• We will strive to reduce our carbon footprint year on year by measuring and calculating current standards in each of our offices.

• We intend to identify the size of the current Carbon Footprint in accordance with the latest DEFRA reporting guidance and the World Business Council’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol

• We will identify and quantify the sources of carbon emissions.

• We will identify carbon reduction initiatives.

• We will carry out ongoing measurement of the impact of reduction initiatives in order to aid company reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.