Responsibility to Our Environment

As a company we are concerned about the impact we are having on climate change and we want to take responsibility for this and be supportive of efforts to improve.

We want to raise our peoples, clients and suppliers' awareness of their environmental impacts, both through the work they do for us and in their day-to-day lives, so that they are inspired to be less wasteful, and more conscious of their energy usage.

We are determined to do this by engendering in our stakeholders a feeling of responsibility and ownership, by improving their knowledge so that we are creating a greener generation for the future. We have put together a Corporate Responsibility committee, chaired by the CEO, with volunteers from around the business. The committee meets to discuss the steps taken to date, as well as new ideas and methods which we believe will really drive forward our positive impact. We see this as a key way of getting our people to really engage and become ambassadors of environmental change.

Cycle to work scheme at Black Sun
Recycling at Black Sun

Black Sun also recognises that Corporate Responsibility is becoming even more important to our stakeholders too. Given this, we want to ensure that we are reporting our progress against our targets, which we believe are ambitious. To date, we are making significant advances against these.

Our aim is to ensure that we are not just talking about improvements, but that we make them happen.

What are we doing to make Black Sun a green place to work?

Reducing Energy Consumption

  • Our computers have a power-saving mode which kicks in after 15 minutes of inactivity.
  • We don’t use air conditioning and instead we make the most of natural ventilation.

Increasing Recycling and Reducing Waste

  • We recognise that our paper consumption is high and we have defaulted to double sided printing to reduce this.
  • We have switched all of our A4 paper to 100% recycled paper.
  • We have standardised our internal waste system so that there is only one side bin per room and all other bins available are recycling bins.
  • Used toners are not just thrown away, they are given back to suppliers for recycling.
  • Our old computers are given to a local charity who recycles them and gives them to low-income families and the unemployed.

Greener modes of Transport

  • Less than 15% of our workforce drive to work; the remainder take public transport, cycle or walk to work.
  • We offer the Cycle to Work scheme to our people to encourage them to take a green mode of transport to work and there are bike racks and showers to facilitate this.

Reporting on our Progress

  • We have started a communications plan which gives our people ways to save energy, reduce paper consumption and increase our recycling efforts.
  • We are now monitoring our consumption levels so that we can start quarterly reporting.

Objectives for 2010/11s

  • Reduce energy consumption by a further 5%
  • Reduce paper consumption by 10% year-on-year
  • Produce quarterly updates of our environmental impact so that our people can see the progress we are making

Did you know?

  • All of our light bulbs are energy efficient
  • Currently 22% of our people are enrolled on the Cycle to Work Scheme

Quotes from our people

  • “At Black Sun, we as employees are mindful of the impact of our operations on the environment. Our management team has put in place clear targets for us to meet as a company and we are actively involved in attaining these.”
  • “We try and only use ethically sourced products at Black Sun; from our coffee beans to our chocolate we try to use Fairtrade products.”
  • “Updates on our energy consumption and recycling usage help keep us motivated to improve!”
  • “Our old computers are recycled and then used for training the unemployed and low income families in our local area, which we think is not only great for our environment but helps our community.”

Responsibilities update

12 March 2012
Paper consumption per head continues to decrease, with the latest quarter being 13% lower per head than the same time last year..

29 February 2012
We are looking to trial a move from bottled water to a plumbed in water filter during Q2 of 2012. We hope this will reduce our environmental impact as we will no longer require frequent water deliveries or the plastic bottles, which are difficult to recycle.

31 January 2012
Electricity consumption has decreased by 15% per head year-on-year, showing that our energy saving approach is working.

© BLACK SUN PLC 2012