Sustainability
Southdown has a long-standing commitment to sustainability and we recognise our responsibility in ensuring that we limit the impact we have on our environment. We have a four-year strategy in place with an over-arching goal of becoming carbon neutral by the end of 2012. The strategy is split into 4 key themes:
1. Climate Change and Energy
Southdown recognises that climate change and energy consumption are challenges facing everyone in society and that we can make a difference through the way we conduct our business and use resources. To do this we need a greater understanding of what our carbon footprint is and where we can work to reduce or offset emissions. We have already commissioned a carbon and energy survey and will use this as a baseline against which we can measure improvements. We will use a mixture of achievable changes in the way we conduct our business and the use of technology and innovation to work toward becoming carbon neutral by the end of 2012.
2. Waste
Waste is a problem that costs time and money and has many negative impacts on the environment. The majority of people and organisations are unaware of all the waste they produce, what happens to it and what it is costing them. Southdown will use the themes of: avoid, reduce, re-use, and recycle to drive a plan of identifying and reducing the waste we produce
3. Travel & Transport
We are determined to reduce the impact of our travel and transport activities, focusing both on how our staff get to and from work and on travel and transport related to the delivery of our services. This will reduce carbon emissions, which has a positive impact on local air quality and global warming. It will also help local communities by reducing traffic congestion. Achievement of these benefits will be managed through a Southdown travel plan, which will set out targeted changes in how people travel to work, including a reduction in single occupancy trips, increases in public transport use, cycling, walking and car sharing. We will also target reductions in business travel. We believe that these changes will have benefits for Southdown, our employees and our local communities.
4. Community & Wellbeing
We are fully aware that as an employer and provider of community based services, we have a corporate social responsibility to take into account the needs and wellbeing of the people who work for us, those we provide services for and the communities in which we work. We will take this responsibility into account in every aspect of the way we run the organisation and plan and deliver our services.