Environmental Policy Overview

Workspace Technology is an environmentally conscious and responsible company. As an integral part of good business practice we recognize our responsibility to conduct operations in ways that help to reduce our carbon footprint and minimize adverse effects on the local and global environment.

The company operates in full compliance with the requirements of UK environmental law, paying particular regard to the Control of Pollution Act 1974, the Environmental Protection Act 1990, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 1999, Hazardous Waste (England & Wales) Regulations 2005, and all applicable statutory instruments, orders, regulations and industry codes of practice.

This Environmental Policy underlines our commitment to:

• Pursue energy-efficient and energy-saving options in our operations and solutions, including the use of non-polluting technology, to reduce energy consumption and optimise resource use
• Take account of the life cycle of materials and the need to reduce the environmental impact of waste generation by re-using and recycling materials
• Reflect sustainability-related impacts and sustainable development objectives in our assessment of environmental performance
• Strive for continual improvement in our environmental management system to provide a cost effective and considered service, sensitive to resource issues
• Eliminate reworking, so as to reduce waste generation and lost labour costs and minimise potential programme delays
• Assess and monitor our performance against environmental objectives
• Identify, source and use environmentally and socially responsible materials, including collaboration with providers of renewable, carbon-neutral energy
• Provide our staff with appropriate environmental training and actively promote development of good environmental practice within the company and its suppliers
• Continue to raise the level of awareness and importance of environmental issues among our staff, sub-contractors and suppliers
• Take all reasonable measures to prevent disturbance to those affected as a result of our activities by reducing significant emissions and pollution, including noise, air pollution and vibration at source
• Maintain awareness of the potential environmental effects of our operations by effective communication with our staff, customers and suppliers
• Monitor environmental system requirements through audits of our operations to ensure effective implementation of this policy, to identify opportunities consistent with continuous improvement, and to reduce the risk of system failures that may lead to environmental damage.
• Make our Environmental Policy freely available upon request, and work constructively with communities and regulatory agencies in the implementation of its objectives.

In implementing this policy, we apply best practice principles in all our data centre designs to help improve Data Centre Infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE) and Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), through energy efficiency ratings that exceed current industry standards. ‘EcoDesign’ is the term we use to sum up our approach to the deployment of energy-efficient technology and design in data centre infrastructure.

The European Commission has named Workspace Technology as an Endorser of the European Code of Conduct on Data Centres, with a responsibility to promote the Code of Conduct and disseminate information on its provisions.

Our Environmental Commitments

Our priority is to integrate sustainability into every aspect of our operations, as well as the way we do business with our clients, business partners and suppliers. Our collaboration with clients on sustainable and ethical business practices help us to achieve our environmental commitments to:-

• Reduce our overall C0² footprint by 20% by 2015 relative to the size of our business
• Improve energy efficiency in our client data centre by more than 30% by 2015
• Reduce C0² related to travel by more than 30% by 2015
• Send zero waste to landfill by 2015

Sustainability and Energy Efficiency

We recognize sustainability as an essential principle in our work. Through an informed and conscientious approach to sustainability we help our customers and service users achieve key strategic objectives:

• Cost savings, from more efficient use of energy and other resources, reduction of waste and carbon emissions, and less adverse environmental impacts
• Efficiency and value for money over the long term, taking into account whole-life environmental, social and economic costs.
• Joined-up delivery of services and solutions, through a shared framework for successful partnership working.

In our day-to-day business activities, we apply green, environment-friendly initiatives that include:

• Energy-saving office initiatives, such as minimizing the use of paper in office administration
• Reducing the need for business trips through video-conferencing and teleworking
• Encouraging the use of public transport for employee work travel
• Long-distance collaboration through document sharing technology
• Sourcing providers of ‘green’ energy
• Consistent use of energy-efficient lighting and equipment, for example using electrical products that have power saving features
• Ensuring a comfortable working environment for staff, with temperature and humidity levels that do not compromise productivity
• Using recycled paper and recycling all printed paper in the office
• Applying electronic media so as to print only when necessary
• Re-using and recycling office materials wherever possible
• Powering down equipment when not required for immediate use or to ensure continuity of braking or lighting supply
• Using toner cartridges that can be refilled
• Reusing older computer equipment wherever possible, or responsible disassembly, recycling and destruction if not
• Ensuring the prompt removal and safe disposal of waste resulting from our operations
• Maintaining efficiently all the vehicles and machinery we use so as to comply with emissions regulations.

We seek to enlist the participation of all employees in implementing this policy. We pay particular attention to the use of non-polluting technology, waste minimisation, reuse/recycling and the reduction of energy consumption.

The company’s management team is responsible for the formulation, communication, monitoring, review and update of this policy.

ISO 14001 Certification

Workspace Technology is an ISO 14001 certified company. ISO 14001 certification clearly demonstrates Workspace Technology is committed to fulfilling its environmental duties in a responsible manner.