Why did Globe Go for Green?

As a planning and development consultancy with a track record of assisting sustainable development ‘Going for Green’ was an obvious decision for Globe. The Investors in the Environment Green accreditation audit process has clarify the organisation’s thinking about the environmental priorities for the business.

When the company was set up in 2006 environmental issues were high on the agenda for themselves and their clients, so one of the earliest tasks was to adopt an environmental policy and arrange for a social enterprise to collect and recycle their paper.

Since then the business has grown, contracted, merged, changed and stabilised but throughout that it has managed to keep a grasp on its early environmental objectives. By early 2014 they decided it was time we look for some external assessment of their environmental performance. Their first thoughts were focused on ISO14001, having obtained ISO9001 certification three years earlier, but the time commitments and costs were difficult to justify so their Business Manager led them to iiE and the idea that we could go straight for the Green Award.

So what have they done to deserve it? Alongside a range of day to day monitoring, saving and recycling activities they emphasised the following in their submission:

• Globe was an early adopter of the HMG’s Planning Portal Low Carbon Pledge and at current work levels are saving one tree a year.
• In the last five years they have reduced their business mileage by 50% as a percentage of turnover.
• 50% of employees now walk, cycle or take public transport to work.
• They have reduced printing by 42% as a percentage of turnover in the last 5 years and in 2013 invested in a single Energy Star-certified printer to replace three separate printers and copiers, reducing both electricity, toner and paper use. At the same time they altered all computer settings to default to double sided and black and white printing.
• Investment in Plug-in Electric Hybrid cars in June 2014 will reduce CO2 from directors commuting by over 3,000kg in 12 months, with further savings to be made from essential business travel.

How did we help?

Working through the audit process has been a interesting experience and allowed Globe to discuss with iiE some of thier own ideas about the best way to relate environmental performance to economic performance by measuring the use of resources in relation to business turnover – they hope to develop those discussions further with the team throughout next year but for the moment the high point for them in the iiEE Award process was reading in the audit report the comment that:

“Globe Consultants Ltd have shown that they already have environmental impact minimisation as a core value which is deeply embedded into the organisation.”

Key Achievements

• 50% of Globe employees either walk, cycle or take public transport to work.
• Printing has been reduced by 42% in the last 5 years.
• Electric Hybrid cars were purchased in June 2014 and will reduce CO2 from directors commuting by over 3,000kg in 12 months.
• In the last 5 years business millage has been reduced by 50%.