At Finders we are committed to doing our best to make our business as environmentally friendly as possible. In addition to our usual business rates and council taxes, we pay extra to ensure our paper and plastics and any discarded or redundant office equipment is properly recycled or disposed of in a responsible manner. As part of our environmental and sustainability strategy, we will implement further methods to reduce our carbon footprint. Below are examples from our current strategy which we will apply to this contract.

• Reducing pollution – By using renewable energy we have cut Carbon Dioxide emissions from our building by 1,652kg per year. Any remaining CO2 deficit if ‘offset’ through the World Land Trust’s Carbon Balanced programme, which creates ‘offsets’ through the protection and restoration of important wildlife habitat in the tropics. In this way we have become Carbon Balanced

 

• Minimising carbon emissions- To minimise our environmental impact, we have one fully electric company vehicle

 

• Optimising fuel use- To lower our carbon emissions on the road, we optimise our fuel use by efficiently scheduling Agents and Regional Representatives routes on all contracts.

 

• Electrical equipment- To reduce energy and pollution, Finders International work to a strict ‘Switch it off’ policy. All staff switch off computers and equipment at the end of the day, and/or when not in use. Computers are set to hibernate after 10 minutes of inactivity.

 

In 2016 we made a contribution of £113.76 to the world land trust carbon balance fund to offset the equivalent of 7.5839 tonnes of carbon dioxide

 

Finders International will continue to reduce their water consumption by:

Monitoring water consumption through analysing utility bills Using push taps around the facility to eliminate the risk of taps being left on

Installing flow-restricting devices, such as dual-flush toilet systems Working in line with industry best practice

Reducing water use

Finders International will continue to reduce our water consumption by:

Monitoring water consumption through analysing utility bills Using push taps around the facility to eliminate the risk of taps being left on

Installing flow-restricting devices, such as dual-flush toilet systems Working in line with industry best practice

Reducing waste

Finders International will continue to minimise waste by:

Developing project-specific environmental risk assessments Minimising waste by using the principles of Repair, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Shredding and recycling all our paper waste Maximising our use of environmentally aware suppliers

Recycling through our waste management scheme Recycling printers and fax toners Recycling all of our general waste through our waste uplift contractor Using appropriate waste segregation and disposal systems

Repair, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

To reduce our environmental impact, reduce costs and work more efficiently, we ensure the values of Repair, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle are used throughout our organisation. We also have a waste uplift contract with First Mile, who collect mixed recycling and our confidential waste. For our mixed recycled is taken to a sorting facility in Bromley-by-Bow where it is sorted into 14 separate material streams ready to be used in re-manufacturing. Our confidential waste is taken to a BS15713-accredited secure destruction facility where they are securely shredded. We receive a certificate for every collection.