Green issues

We all know that the environment, climate change, global warming or carbon footprints are big news these days.  You can't switch on a television, read a newspaper or often have a conversation without the subject cropping up.  Most of us have probably calculated our own personal carbon footprint and if you haven't you can with the WWF or the Carbon Trust calculators.  But have you ever looked into the carbon footprint of your house?

I've just been searching the internet for some interesting facts and figures on the number of trees cut down for paper production each year, but there appears to be such a wide range of 'guestimates on different websites that I've given up!

One thing that I do know for sure is that over the past 12 months, at Atlantic we've managed to reduce paper consumption by 12% compared to last year's figures.  This accounts for a reduction of several million sheets of A4 and A3 paper in our offices.

Those well known words of Les Dennis on Family Fortunes very often followed hilariously embarrassing answers from over-eager contestants.  The large 'X' and it's infamous accompanying noise which followed just emphasised how ridiculous some of their answers were.

At Atlantic, we like to ask our employees about their views on green issues, which could be potentially embarrassing for us too.  As a company which prides itself on it's green credentials, it would be slightly humbling to find that our employees didn't share our views.

As you may already know, we're always looking at innovative ideas to improve our green credentials.  But the number and diversity of the sustainability initiatives going on throughout the company never ceases to amaze me.  Here are a few that I've noticed in the last week...

According to current predictions, there's a 30-40% chance of a white Christmas in Britain this year.  Whilst there's not much we can do to bring the snow, we can make Christmas 'green'!

I've got some handy tips to help you prepare for the approaching festive period!

You may be aware of the recently launched '10:10' campaign which aims to commit individuals, organisations and businesses in Britain to a 10% reduction in CO2 emissions by the end of 2010. The big question is, how can you as an individual best achieve this reduction?

Ten Perth & Kinross primary schools have achieved their first Eco-School Green Flags.

They have been supported by the Scottish Hydro Electric Perth & Kinross Eco-schools Action Fund, set up by Scottish Hydro Electric in partnership with Perth & Kinross Council and Perth and Kinross Quality of Life Trust. The fund provides a cash award of £750 for each school achieving a first Green Flag.

Atlantic held its first ever company-wide Carbon Footprint Challenge in early June. Hundreds of employees calculated their footprint and submitted it for inclusion in our inaugural Carbon Footprint Superleague. Encouragingly, 93% of the people who submitted their footprint also made pledges to reduce it!

We also asked colleagues what they had done over the past year in order to reduce their footprint. Here are some stories to inspire you!

Atlantic’s parent company, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) plans to spend £3 billion on renewable energy generation over the next five years. But we’re not neglecting the benefits which smaller-scale renewable technologies can also offer us.

If you’ve read some of my previous posts on the Atlantic Forum, you’ll have noted that environmentally friendly travel is one of the big things we try to promote to our employees at Atlantic.

The ‘Big Green Commuter Challenge’ is one such initiative which was established several years ago.