Offset inclusive carbon management to increase sales, reduce costs and engage staff

Bravington House, 2 Bravington Walk, Regent Quarter, Kings Cross, London N1 9AF T +44 (0)20 7833 6000 10 E. 40th Street, Suite 3110 New York, NY 10016 T: 1 646 367 5800 42 Jln Bumbong, Singapore 739927. T: +65 688 444 65 www.CarbonNeutral.com

Offset inclusive carbon management to increase sales, reduce costs and engage staff
In the transition to a low carbon economy, carbon management represents a new and fundamental challenge for businesses. How companies respond to this challenge is fast becoming a strategic issue. The business drivers for taking action on climate change will continue to strengthen. Companies with credible carbon management strategies will increasingly benet from taking strong action. The most effective strategies can deliver a number of benets beyond carbon reductions including an increase in sales, cost reductions, staff engagement and an enhanced corporate reputation. A growing number of companies are adopting an environmental strategy which incorporates carbon offsetting to realise these business benets. A carbon offsetting programme builds a real cost of carbon into a business and combined with internal reductions, gives clarity to a companys carbon management goals and the means to achieve them. Three companies who have experienced the multiple benets this approach can deliver are Simmons & Simmons, Commercial Group and Reed. Through their offset inclusive environmental programmes, these companies have reduced their emissions, resulting in considerable cost savings. In addition, such programmes achieve signicant revenue growth, an increase in staff motivation and recognition for being an industry leader.

Executive summary
At its London head ofce, Simmons and Simmons reduced electricity consumption by 27.3%, delivering savings that have more than met the cost of the companys CarbonNeutral programme Commercial Group has reduced its overall carbon footprint by 59%, delivering over 100,000 of cost savings. The company has also won over 4 million of new business as a result of its green credentials To promote carbon reductions throughout the business, Reed Group set up nine Green Flagship sites which achieved the companys four year emissions targets in 12 weeks.

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Bravington House, 2 Bravington Walk, Regent Quarter, Kings Cross, London N1 9AF T +44 (0)20 7833 6000 10 E. 40th Street, Suite 3110 New York, NY 10016 T: 1 646 367 5800 42 Jln Bumbong, Singapore 739927. T: +65 688 444 65 www.CarbonNeutral.com

Simmons & Simmons

Simmons & Simmons is a world class law rm providing advice to nancial institutions, corporates, public and international bodies through its ofces in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The rm became CarbonNeutral in 2006 and is the rst international law rm to achieve CarbonNeutral status across all its ofces.

Early Adopters
As the most knowledgeable group, the Early Adopters were enthusiatic about the rms CarbonNeutral status and formed the basis of the environmental committee. James Clark, Ofce Services Manager, who leads the Simmons & Simmons carbon management programme, says that this group is vital to ongoing carbon reductions innovation in the rm. However, he says that sometimes expectations need to be managed, as their suggestions may not always be practical or feasible. That said, he advises taking the opinions of all the participants on board as its essential for them to feel integral to the progress. Early Adopters at Simmons & Simmons respond positively to: The rms decision to go CarbonNeutral which demonstrated a strong commitment to GHG emissions reductions Positive and constructive responses from management teams to their carbon reduction suggestions Visible progress and innovation. For example, to help meet its CarbonNeutral internal reduction targets, Simmons & Simmons have introduced waste composting and plastic cup recycling initiatives Continual improvement with regular communication on progress.

What Simmons & Simmons did

In the beginning
In 2004, Simmons & Simmons realised its environmental policy needed improving: there was no measurement of CO2 emissions nor was anyone in the business identifying gaps for improvement. The decision to become CarbonNeutral was driven by employees who strongly believed that the rm needed to manage its environmental impact. Many individuals within the rm were already addressing their personal carbon footprints and some were offsetting their own CO2 emissions. Simmons & Simmons undertook a greenhouse gas (GHG) assessment and became CarbonNeutral in 2006. One of the key objectives behind the decision to become a CarbonNeutral company was to engage and educate the staff on climate change issues. Once the programme was launched, the rst initiative was to invite staff to join an environmental committee. The invitation received a mixed response which led the rm to create a three-tiered communications strategy which would address different levels of knowledge and belief.

Critical Mass
The majority of staff are interested and aware that GHG emissions need managing but require guidance and encouragement to do it. The Critical Mass at Simmons & Simmons respond positively to: Communication which is engaging and accessible: since 2007, Simmons & Simmons has held an Environment Week, providing staff with information on carbon offset projects and climate change competitions which have proved very popular Education on the rms CarbonNeutral programme and environmental policy which has been incorporated into the induction programme to raise staff awareness from the beginning Persuasion: energy, travel and waste reduction campaigns in the ofce provide examples and facts for staff to make environmental choices throughout their working day. The rm also implemented a travel policy to promote video conferencing and low carbon transport alternatives.

The inside story

Simmons and Simmons found that they had three main groups: Early Adopters (around 10%), Critical Mass (around 80%) and Stragglers (around 10%). Using this categorisation, Simmons & Simmons formulated messages and channels suitable to each group.

Being CarbonNeutral is a great driver for making deep internal emissions reductions because the cost of carbon is very visible and The CarbonNeutral Company provides a lot of support to embed the programme across the rm. Corporate responsibility is now a business critical activity and when our clients ask about our environmental credentials, the CarbonNeutral brandmark is easily recognised as a credible response to climate change. James Clark, Ofce Services Manager
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Bravington House, 2 Bravington Walk, Regent Quarter, Kings Cross, London N1 9AF T +44 (0)20 7833 6000 10 E. 40th Street, Suite 3110 New York, NY 10016 T: 1 646 367 5800 42 Jln Bumbong, Singapore 739927. T: +65 688 444 65 www.CarbonNeutral.com

How The CarbonNeutral Company helped:

Conducted a greenhouse gas assessment of Simmons & Simmons global operations Reduced Simmons & Simmons global carbon footprint to net zero through veried carbon offset projects in India, Jamaica, Germany and China Provided communications support to help secure national and trade media Created bespoke marketing collateral for Simmons & Simmons CarbonNeutral day, part of a World Environment Day initiative Co-hosted a CarbonNeutral Insight Series seminar on Motivating Staff to Drive Down Carbon and Cost

Stragglers
This is a small but inuential group within Simmons & Simmons, who are typically cynics and very questioning and challenging. James Clarks view is that their challenges are useful: it ensures any communication or initiative resulting from the companys CarbonNeutral programme is robust and can withstand their criticism. The Stragglers positively to: at Simmons & Simmons respond

Results
With the CarbonNeutral programme underpinning Simmons & Simmons strategy to motivate staff to reduce emissions, the rm has seen how small things really make a big difference. With a large number of staff over 1700 the challenge has been to reach and engage all individuals which has been achieved by avoiding a one size ts all approach. In four years, through good management and staff engagement, the London head ofce has reduced its annual electricity consumption by 27.3%. The nancial translation of this means that the cost for Simmons & Simmons to go CarbonNeutral has been more than met by this alone. Other savings have been realised through reductions in gas and water usage and international business travel. Across the company, the total emissions savings are: 19% reduction in electricity consumption in three years 15% reduction in business air travel in three years 17% less waste to landll in two years. With the combined results leading to an overall reduction of 27% CO2 in emissions.

Incremental and ongoing information based on concrete facts Transparent facts and gures: they want examples of how initiatives like the rms CarbonNeutral programme save money and jobs, as well as the world Being acknowledged: it may not be possible to know the answers to all their questions, but nd out and go back to them.

As a result of its CarbonNeutral status, Simmons & Simmons has been featured in international and national media. Aside from proling the rm and keeping environmental responsibility in the news, this has been important in reinforcing a sense of pride across all three groups.

Keeping momentum
At the beginning of every year the environmental committee meets to discuss and agree the objectives for Simmons & Simmons CarbonNeutral programme. The committee is dynamic and as new people come into the group they bring new ideas which stimulates the programme. The ideas generated by the committee are evaluated on the cost to implement and how much they are likely to change behaviour to contribute to the rms emissions reductions targets.

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Bravington House, 2 Bravington Walk, Regent Quarter, Kings Cross, London N1 9AF T +44 (0)20 7833 6000 10 E. 40th Street, Suite 3110 New York, NY 10016 T: 1 646 367 5800 42 Jln Bumbong, Singapore 739927. T: +65 688 444 65 www.CarbonNeutral.com

Commercial Group
Commercial is a leading UK ofce services and supplies company, offering IT services, ofce supplies, interiors, recruitment and print procurement. A member of Beacon - a portfolio of innovative companies in the South West of England - Commercial has ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certications. The company became CarbonNeutral in 2006. Having a climate change leader within the company became an important next step to ensure the programme kept on track. Simone identied a staff member who was already passionate about environmental issues and seconded him into the working group. With this climate change leader in place, Commercial could carry out a clear plan for carbon reductions with the appropriate allocation of management and resource. As part of the overall plan to put climate change and CarbonNeutral at the heart of its business strategy, Commercial repositioned its sales strategy to incorporate this message. This was good for business and continued to build Commercials prole with like-minded companies. There was an additional benet: both sales and support staff took pride in the companys CarbonNeutral position, providing a common goal for everyone to work to. In 2007, Commercial updated its brand to reect the companys environmental position, introducing the strapline Handled with Care, instilling the message that all operations are handled with care, from customer service to carbon emissions. The new look brought Commercials values to life, resonating with staff, clients and suppliers.

What Commercial did

In the beginning
Commercials CarbonNeutral journey began in 2006 with an invitation to see US Vice-President and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Al Gore, deliver his An Inconvenient Truth presention. On hearing the presentation, Simone Mann, Commercials Co-Founding Director, not only felt a moral urgency to act, but saw a huge business opportunity: stationery is very visible in many supply chains and larger corporate clients were increasingly asking about Commercials environmental credentials. It was clear that Commercial needed to implement a carbon management strategy and Simone knew her staff would be a critical part of its success.

The inside story

Simone went straight to the Board and argued that environmental responsibility needed to go right to the heart of the business. As a result, the company went CarbonNeutral in 2006 and the staff were integral from the beginning; voting for the offset projects that resonated with them most. Simone organised an educational screening of An Inconvenient Truth for all employees and at the end asked for 20 volunteers to help her implement the CarbonNeutral programme. To her surprise, this invitation was met with an overwhelming response. The volunteers were split into two working groups: a CarbonNeutral group and a waste management group, who were given four weeks to come up with and research ideas to cut emissions. By empowering staff to come up with the solutions, the teams become very competitive and the resulting proposals were extremely creative. The most viable initiatives were then submitted by the team to be accepted for action. The suggestions that gained the widest acceptance across the company were innovative and fun, helping to engage even the ercest cynic.
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Spread the word

With emissions reductions and staff engagement underway, Commercial began looking further aeld to convey its message. The emissions and cost reductions achieved through its CarbonNeutral programme won many commendations: C+ Carbon Positive Pioneer at the Prince of Wales May Day Summit; BP Car and Van Fleet Efciency Award; two Energy Saving Trust Fleet Hero Awards; Greeneet Private Sector Fleet of the Year and Gloucestershire Environmental Business of the Year.

Being CarbonNeutral and the carbon reduction programme that it inspired has been the most amazing journey. We have achieved more than I would ever have thought possible. It has been the best thing weve done in the 18 years weve been in business.

Simone Mann, Co-founding Director

Bravington House, 2 Bravington Walk, Regent Quarter, Kings Cross, London N1 9AF T +44 (0)20 7833 6000 10 E. 40th Street, Suite 3110 New York, NY 10016 T: 1 646 367 5800 42 Jln Bumbong, Singapore 739927. T: +65 688 444 65 www.CarbonNeutral.com

How The CarbonNeutral Company helped:

Co-hosted an Audience with Al Gore with The All Party Parliamentary Group on 21 June, 2006 at the Tate Britain which Simone attended Facilitated an annual audit of Commercials operational carbon footprint through an external auditor Reduced Commercials carbon footprint to net zero through veried carbon offset projects in Jamaica, New Zealand and China Held a strategy workshop with Commercial and developed a communications strategy for each of its stakeholder groups Held a preview screening of An Inconvenient Truth with Commercial on 5 September, 2006 at a Bristol cinema to engage clients, staff, suppliers and local businesses Organised hire of An Inconvenient Truth for screening at Commercials rst Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) day Provided speakers from The CarbonNeutral Companys executive team for the 2007 & 2009 CSR days Organised loan of a Smart car to Commercial to raise awareness of electric cars in the Cheltenham community. Involving Commercials staff has been central to its success. With this in mind the company launched a Green Ambassadors programme for staff in 2008. The aim of the programme is to support, encourage and reward staff to continually reduce their environmental impact. Staff are awarded points for reducing their personal climate impact with the highest achievers attaining Bronze, Silver or Gold status. 40% of employees joined the programme in the rst year and the goal is to get a further 20% involved by the end of 2009, with everyone attaining at least Bronze level. Rewards include an extra day of holiday and those reaching Gold status have the opportunity to speak to schools and community groups about how they can lower their carbon emissions.

Commercial worked hard on media communications which paid off with interviews on BBC News and BBC World about its CarbonNeutral programme, along with articles appearing across national and local newspapers. These media appearances not only helped to grow the companys prole with prospective clients, but made the staff proud to see they were part of a winning business. Commercial held their rst Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Day in 2007, inviting staff, customers and suppliers to discuss the business benets of embracing carbon management programmes and challenge others to get involved. This proved to be such a relationship building success that Commercial has repeated the event in 2008 and 2009, attracting around 200 delegates and guest speakers from Forum for the Future, BSkyB, Denso and The CarbonNeutral Company.

Results
Three years on, Commercial has achieved outstanding results: the companys carbon footprint has been reduced by 59%, the eet travels 140,000 fewer miles, waste sent to landll is down by over 90%, over 4million of new business has been won as a result of its green credentials and over 100,000 will be saved, making its CarbonNeutral programme cost neutral.

We have seen a complete culture change within our organisation. Being green has become part of our DNA its what we do, its who we are. Its no longer a choice; its simply the way we conduct business. Simone Mann, Co-founding Director

Keeping momentum
These are impressive results by any measure: the challenge for Commercial now is how to sustain them.

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Bravington House, 2 Bravington Walk, Regent Quarter, Kings Cross, London N1 9AF T +44 (0)20 7833 6000 10 E. 40th Street, Suite 3110 New York, NY 10016 T: 1 646 367 5800 42 Jln Bumbong, Singapore 739927. T: +65 688 444 65 www.CarbonNeutral.com

Reed
Reed is one of the UK's largest recruitment specialists, placing people into temporary and permanent opportunities across a number of disciplines and offering training and HR consultancy services. The Reed Group became CarbonNeutral in 2005. If this cost goes above a threshold, it needs to be signed off by a senior manager. At the end of every meeting all attendees must agree that the meeting could not have been done on a call. To bring these two travel initiatives in Reeds CarbonNeutral programme to life and visibly lead by example, the company held its quarterly update meeting on a conference call in December 2008. Organised by the Chairman and CEO, the conference call was attended by 140 of the most senior managers and proved to be a success; the average score in the post-event evaluation was nine out ten and now only one quarterly meeting a year is held face-to-face. This was a signicant cultural and operational shift which provided a clear signal to Co-Members that senior management was serious about the companys CarbonNeutral position. At the same time, Reed reviewed car mileage allowances and found that its rates were too high. This was encouraging Co-Members to choose their car over less carbon intensive forms transport. Allowances were reduced by a third and in turn the mileage dropped by 48%. The nal travel initiative in Reeds CarbonNeutral programme was the introduction of an online train booking portal giving Co-Members access to a straight-forward booking platform which incentivises registrations with vouchers. It has resulted in a third of Reeds Co-Members signing up for, and regularly using, the service.

What Reed did

In the beginning
In 2004, Reeds Chairman realised that the group needed to mitigate its environmental impact and the decision was made to become CarbonNeutral. From the beginning a key strategy in Reeds CarbonNeutral programme was to engage internal Co-Members (Reed employees) to change behaviour and drive down emissions and cost. In 2007, the company Chairman, James Reed, attended The Prince of Wales May Day Summit the UKs largest annual event for businesses committed to action on climate change - where he was inspired to strengthen the companys carbon reduction position. Consequently, the rst full time environmental ofcer was employed to spearhead Reeds CarbonNeutral programme and May Day commitment.

The inside story - lead by example

The theme that runs throughout Reeds CarbonNeutral programme is lead by example: all initiatives have the Chairmans support and are exemplied by senior management. Like many service-based companies, business travel presented the biggest opportunity to reduce emissions, contributing 87% to Reeds overall carbon footprint in 2007. Replacing travel with conference calls seemed like the obvious answer, but the company already had this facility in place and take up had been slow. To drive usage, Reed pre-registered 600 Co-Members for the service, from the board down to senior management and business managers. Removing this joining step, offering training and setting up a personalised intranet page, encouraged acceptance across the group and within two months conferencing use had doubled to 130,000 minutes per month; a level which has been sustained ever since. To coincide with this push on conference calls, a meeting cost calculator was also introduced: every inter-ofce face-to-face meeting has a value attached to it which not only accounts for the cost of travelling but the cost of time to travel to and from the meeting.
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Be led by example
To drive the CarbonNeutral programme across the Reed group, nine Green Flagship Sites were set up with a Site Champion appointed in each location to promote carbon reductions and encourage environmental consideration amongst colleagues. The aim is to develop best practice and knowledge with sites in competition with each other, which could then be rolled out across the rest of the company.

Reed has been an environmental champion for a long time and our focus is, and always will be, to reduce our environmental impact as much as possible and then efciently manage what is unavoidable. As such, carbon offsetting plays an important role - it offers an immediate solution while we improve relevant business processes.

James Reed, Chairman

Bravington House, 2 Bravington Walk, Regent Quarter, Kings Cross, London N1 9AF T +44 (0)20 7833 6000 10 E. 40th Street, Suite 3110 New York, NY 10016 T: 1 646 367 5800 42 Jln Bumbong, Singapore 739927. T: +65 688 444 65 www.CarbonNeutral.com

How The CarbonNeutral Company helped:

Veried greenhouse gas assessments of Reed operations Reduced Reeds global carbon footprint to net zero through the Unity Portfolio of veried carbon offset projects Provided communications support for brochure on CarbonNeutral Ofce Tips Provided co-branded carbon calculators available on reed.co.uk which Reed Co-Members and job seekers use to manage their personal emissions Organised a 2009 World Environment Day initiative, Cut Out a Kilo, which seven Green Flagship Sites participated in Organised seminars attended by Reed Co-Members which have provided information and inspiration for new initiatives.

The Green Flagship Sites programme runs for 12 weeks and the nine sites have targets set in line with the companys four year goals: a 10% reduction in energy; a 10% reduction in transport and 80% of ofce waste recycled. Each site has ownership of the reduction activities chosen to achieve the 12 week targets, plus the company sets common three monthly challenges. An example challenge was the World Environment Day Cut Out a Kilo campaign organised by The CarbonNeutral Company. Seven of the Green Flagship Sites took part and an additional 191 kilogrammes of CO2 were saved in just one day. At the time of writing, The Green Flagship Sites are on course to reach the 12 week targets; reductions the rest of the company has four years to achieve. This is a powerful example of the impact a motivated and knowledgeable member of staff can have on leading CarbonNeutral initiatives.

Results
Reeds CarbonNeutral strategy of engaging Co-Members to drive down emissions has paid off with impressive results: Conference call use has doubled 48% reduction in Co-Members vehicle miles (equal to 200 fewer miles per Co-Member per year) 51% reduction in train travel emissions 80% reduction in switched on time for thin terminals (From 8,760 to 1,748 hours per year) 46% fewer servers than 2006 Data centre is currently 20% more efcient.

And the results to date for the Green Flagship Sites are: 15% reduction in energy use 42% reduction in printing.

Avoid engagement
In some cases Reed took a bolder approach to meet its CarbonNeutral reduction targets by only involving the necessary people. A good example of this was the replacement of its IT systems: all standard desktop PCs were replaced with thin terminals which use 91% less energy and the companys data centre was overhauled including the installation of free-air cooling. Co-Members werent consulted to ensure rapid implementation, however a complete communication programme following the introduction of the terminals meant the transition was successful. Co-Members now benet from accessing their desktops anywhere in the ofce, client ofces or at home. This operational exibility has also further reduced travel emissions and increased Co-Members efciency.

Keeping momentum
To keep lowering emissions and meet the companys CarbonNeutral reduction targets, the Green Flagship Site programme will be rolled out to the rest of the group. Knowledge and lessons learnt from the rst programme will be carried over into the second phase and the aim is to instil positive environmental behaviour across the company. Reeds hard work and commitment to reducing emissions has been recognised with three accolades at the 2009 London Green 500 Awards Ceremony: the Trailblazer, the Engager and the Platinum awards. The company also won Computing for Excellences Green IT Project of the Year in November 2008 and the Sustainable Cities Award for Resource Conservation in February 2008. This has made Co-Members feel positive about the companys achievements, which in turn keep them motivated about Reeds CarbonNeutral programme.

To nd out how your business can benet from a carbon offsetting programme, please call us on +44 (0)20 7833 6000 or email us at info1@carbonneutral.com.
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Bravington House, 2 Bravington Walk, Regent Quarter, Kings Cross, London N1 9AF T +44 (0)20 7833 6000 10 E. 40th Street, Suite 3110 New York, NY 10016 T: 1 646 367 5800 42 Jln Bumbong, Singapore 739927. T: +65 688 444 65 www.CarbonNeutral.com