Environmental Policy

Aims
We aim to operate our accountancy practice with as little environmental impact as is possible. We recognise that our business has impacts on the environment both directly (e.g. electricity use, travel and paper use) and indirectly (e.g. web hosting).

We monitor all aspects of our business including environmental impact on a quarterly basis.  We will always aim to reduce impacts where possible.

Environmental legislation
We have a good understanding of environmental legislation.  We fully comply with all areas and will remain aware of our duties.

Office
We use two rooms in a detached house which has solar panels installed.

The building was built in 2011 and is highly insulated (the windows are double glazed and the loft is highly insinuated).

We refurbish and purchase recycled equipment where possible.  One of our desks was purchased second hand avoiding landfill and manufacture of new desks.

Transport
Most of our work is based at our office which is where our director lives and also less than 100 yards from our employees’ home.  So no transport is needed to commute to the office.

We do travel to our clients for meetings and bookkeeping work using private cars but do research each journey to see if there are any practical alternatives.

Training for staff is usually in Glasgow or Edinburgh to which all travel is by either bus or train and by foot.

We use our Vauxhall Astra car to travel when there is no bus service or public transport would take three or more times longer.  This car has emissions of 99g CO2 per km (£0 per year road fund tax).  We monitor car use and related carbon emissions carefully.

We never fly as part of our business.

Electricity
We monitor and minimise the amount of electricity used.  We have purchased photo voltaic (pv) solar panels (3.75KW system).  This generates more electricity than we use in the office over an annual cycle.

Paper
We try to run as near to paperless as possible.  Some forms and reports do still require original signature creating an unavoidable use of paper.  We purchase paper and envelopes made from 100% recycled waste.

Waste and recycling
All paper waste is shredded and then sent for recycling.  We use our coffee grounds in the garden as a mulch and our tea bags are collected each week for recycling along with any fruit peals and other food waste.  All plastic and cardboard are recycled.

Clients and customers
We provide our services to any business; many of our clients do not have environmental policies.  We encourage consideration of the environment but do not allow this to distract from our main service of accountancy, business and taxation advice.  Those clients that are interested in environmental issues benefit from our knowledge of environmental conservation.

Participation in environmental projects
We plan to participate as volunteers in a range of environmental project in the local area.

Review procedures
We review each item within this environmental policy on a quarterly basis.