COMPANY ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
The EFM Group recognises that our day-to-day operations and other responsibilities impact on the environment in a number of ways. We are committed to achieving continuous improvement in environmental performance and to limiting pollution.
Improving our environmental performance in all our operations is a major priority. To show our ongoing commitment to improving our environmental performance, we will work with our Investors, clients, staff, tenants and contractors to follow the guidelines and work towards the standards specified for ISO 14001. The International Environmental Management System, for our properties worldwide.
Policy
- Integrate environmental management into each aspect of our day-to-day business operations to ensure environmental issues are addressed.
- Ensure compliance with all relevant legislation, voluntary or corporate adopted policies (including this policy statement). Where no regulations exist we shall set our own exacting standards.
- Minimise the environmental impacts of current activities, chemical products, products and services and reduce, wherever practicable, the level of harmful emissions.
- Seek to reduce our use of natural resources such as energy, water and raw materials, and maximise the efficient use of such resources, reuse rather than dispose whenever possible, promote recycling and the use of recycled materials.
- Where possible, design energy efficiency into new services, buildings and products and manage energy wisely in all operations, in order to prevent unnecessary environmental impacts in the future.
- Ensure that all employees are trained and have an understanding of their responsibilities in relation to the Environmental Policy and Environmental Management System.
- Encourage the implementation of sound environmental practices by all people within the organisation.
- Ensure that suppliers and contractors minimise the impact of their operations on the environment and actively support our environmental programmes through an environmentally sensitive purchasing policy.
- Openly communicate progress on environmental issues to internal and external parties and respond appropriately to reasonable requests for information, which may relate to the environmental performance of our business or to our Environmental Management System.
- Where appropriate, support through community programmes the promotion of environmental protection by relevant external groups and organisations.
- Monitor progress on a regular basis to identify strengths and areas for improvement and to highlight actions required to prevent potential deficiencies.
- In particular, in order to implement this policy we will address a comprehensive set of objectives and targets identified as a result of our environmental review, which relate to the environmental impacts of our organisation.
We intend to reduce our environmental impacts through improvements in:
Energy use
- Waste reduction, including the disposal of goods and raw materials.
- Recycling initiatives, including office paper schemes.
- Business and commuter travel.
- Our use of high impact coolants and refrigerants.
- Purchasing and contract management.
- Staff training and communication on environmental issues.
- Establishing a system, or systems, which meets the standards of ISO14001.
The EFM Group has identified a number of significant aspects, which include:
Change
- Implementation of change.
Energy & Environmental Committees
- Introduce energy committees and convene regular meetings.
Environmental Questionnaire
- Invite all external contractors, tenants and suppliers to complete a questionnaire.
Energy
- Consider purchasing renewable energy consumption.
- Control, monitor and police energy efficiency.
- Wean off from the use of Non-renewable energy consumption.
People
- Provide staff training.
- Provide for external communication.
- Provide for internal communication.
Transport
- Consider employees method of travel to work, car, bus train plane.
- Control fuel consumption of company vehicles.
- Control emissions of company vehicles.
Waste & Raw Materials
- Control waste and identify the producer.
- Control waste disposal.
- Control and manage effective separation and recycling practice.
- Campaign with tenants and staff to reduce waste disposal.
Water
- Control, monitor and benchmark water consumption.
- Consider water saving device equipment on existing & replacement equipment.
- Consider harvesting rainwater to water landscapes and service washrooms.
Targets
- Calculate carbon footprint for The EFM Group and all properties within the property portfolio and reduce by 25% by January 2009.
- Reduce electricity, heating, cooling, and gas demand by 20% by January 2009.
- Reduce waste disposal by minimum 25% by January 2009.
- Reduce water consumption by 20% by January 2009.
- Sweden implement carbon neutral by December 2009.
- Eradicate disposal of waste to landfill sites by January 2013.
- Reduce and aim to eliminate the use of all chemicals and substances hazardous to health CO2 CH4 N2O HFCs PFCs SF6 and asbestos by June 2010.