Our Performance

 

Transport

Due to the size of the organisation, the primary source for environmental impact relating to transport is from travel to work and business-related travel. In a year, we typically travel approximately 50 million business miles by air and 30 million business miles by road. It is estimated our employees travel over 6 million miles to and from work.

 

Environmental Perspective

Travel by air or by car results in global warming and impacts on local air quality and as travelling to work involves a large number of employees travelling to the same location, it can add to local traffic congestion.

We estimate that our total European travel-related carbon dioxide produced is 30,000 tonnes per year*. This is around 25% of that related to our energy use at a site like Sandwich, making travel a key target for impact reduction.

*All European operations.

Management

We encourage our employees to leave their cars at home and travel to and from work by alternative methods of transport. We operate a car share database, whereby employees can identify colleagues who are looking to car-share, and provide prioritised parking spaces for car sharers. We also provide showering and changing facilities for employees who cycle.

Although travel is still essential for many face-to-face meetings, we have made significant investment in state-of-the-art videoconferencing facilities. This maintains some of the benefits of personal interaction, while reducing the need for travel.

In 2007 we continued to partner with Buzzlines for the provision of a high quality bus service for our staff at both Sandwich and Walton Oaks. In the last two years we have seen a significant rise in employee uptake in these services with average daily passenger journeys. This has resulted in over 10,000 additional passengers taking advantage of a clean, safe, reliable and environmentally preferable method of commuting to work, equating to around 7,500 commuter miles saved every working day.