Environmental Policy

SHEARWATER GROUP PLC ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

What is being done?

At Shearwater Group plc we are committed to doing as much as we can to help protect our environment. We are undertaking a number of activities to ensure that the whole business we operate is as ‘green’ as possible and actively promote a number of green policies in line with ISO 14001 as detailed below. Together the team at Shearwater regularly review, initiate and facilitate environmentally friendly policies throughout the business.

Shearwater’s Environmental Objectives and Policies

Switch it off!

Shearwater ensures that desktop PCs, monitors, printers, any other electronic equipment and lights are turned off at night. We also regularly review equipment that may be powered down.

Cut down on travel

At Shearwater we use telephone conferencing and web based collaboration wherever possible to avoid travel. We find that many of our client and manufacturer meetings can successfully be managed in this way, cutting down on travel and also on time wasted. At times when travel is unavoidable, we encourage our staff and visitors to travel car-free.

All Green at Shearwater

We recycle as much paper, card, plastic, aluminium, glass and computer consumables as we can.

No paper-based direct mail campaigns will be issued for marketing purposes.

We also encourage staff and clients not to print emails, purchase orders and documentation so as to minimise the use of paper.

Waste

We also recognise that our activities produce waste and so we strive to reduce, recycle or re-use this where we can. For the waste that we are unable to eliminate, we make sure that this is disposed of in a safe and responsible manner.

Noise

Noise will be kept to a minimum at all times as will all other preventable factors that could cause disruption and pollution.

Web Meetings & Website

We encourage the use of web based meetings to present information on the company and products we promote. Through the use of new technologies we are broadening the capabilities of web based meetings which now include live video conferencing and online presentation with both user and presenter control.

The majority of our product brochures, whitepapers and corporate information is available online which minimises our use of paper.

Company Car Policy

Shearwater do not offer company cars to employees. We have reviewed our options and indeed considered emissions from both diesel and dual fuel alternatives. Following discussions with our staff, we have decided that any type of company car still encourages unnecessary journeys. We are actively encouraging the use of public transport where possible to attend meetings. As an organisation, we are not anti car but we do understand our responsibility to environment and our surroundings. We would like to thank our employees for their support and ideas in this area.

Monitors

All our monitors and PCs are turned off every night to minimise energy wastage. Statistics vary but the power consumption of combined PC and monitor can be up to 3kWh per week,

As in most organisations, we have an assortment of various aged computers, operating systems and monitors. We do not leave any non essential equipment on standby to reduce both our electricity consumption and our overall carbon footprint.

Desktop Purchase

Where appropriate we will utilise equipment with few moving parts and therefore low power requirements and heat output and to centralise data requirements in order to reduce power input and heat output. To ensure that the power requirement at the desktop is appropriate for the tasks undertaken and have appropriate or zero standby / non operational running costs.

All the above without affecting service standards, performance or growth.

Green IT Box

Shearwater offers a secure and fully compliant recycling service for redundant IT equipment. The Green IT box service is cost effective, convenient and easy to use and ensures that companies meet their legal IT disposal requirements at a much lower cost-per-item than the nearest comparable service.

The Green IT Box is:

• Quite simply a box on a pallet, delivered to your required location(s). Place in your IT department, branch offices and any other suitable location, for employees to fill with their old IT equipment
• An all-inclusive service with no hidden extras – one single price includes delivery, collection and recycling charges
• The most cost effective way for you to dispose of your redundant IT equipment
• A fully compliant and certified recycling service managed via our trusted-partners dedicated IT disposal centre