The environment

Helping to combat climate change by reducing our environmental impact - particularly our greenhouse gas emissions - by consuming less, recycling more and disposing sensitively of what remains. And encouraging our people and other stakeholders to do their bit too.

Consuming less

Our priority in this area is reducing consumption of the world's resources. Our biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions is the energy we use in running our buildings. We reduced this by a further 5% in the UK last year and have achieved a reduction of over 40% in the last decade. Our second biggest environmental impact is paper - so we've changed the specification of our letterhead and photocopier paper as well as reducing consumption by 20% in 2007. Almost all our marketing literature is now 50% recycled and 50% from sustainable sources. We began moving to 100% recycled letterhead and copier paper in 2007 and will complete this transition in 2008.

Dealing with waste

By recycling and re-using more, we've reduced the proportion of waste sent to landfill. Our German business no longer measures the percentage going to landfill because it is so small. We are now working towards achieving the same in all our businesses. By the end of 2007 we were recycling nearly 60% of all waste.

Engaging our people

In 2007, we launched InvolveMe to help our people do their bit for the environment. A new intranet site explains what everyone can do to reduce their carbon footprint - and invites them to 'make a pledge' to cut their impact by changing everyday things. Within a few months, our people have pledged to save nearly 1,000 tonnes of carbon a year and that figure is growing