A responsible approach to the environment is essential to ensure the future sustainability of our business and the role that we play in the communities that we serve.
Our view is that care for the environment goes hand in hand with our work as a media business. We continually develop and revise our sustainability approach to satisfy our ambitions, and encourage and empower everyone who works at The Channel Company EMEA to be aware of how the work we do affects wider society.
We co-operate with our suppliers to reduce our environmental impact wherever possible.
It is important that our suppliers comply with our core principles, including that employment is freely chosen, that working conditions are safe, that child labour is never used, and no discrimination is practised. Where possible, we will choose a supplier that has environmental accreditation.
Definition
The Channel Company EMEA follows the Brundtland report’s definition that sustainable development is ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Brundtland Report for the World Commission on Environment and Development 1992) and we are conscious of the environmental impact of our activities.
Scope and Objective
This policy explains The Channel Company EMEA’s approach to sustainability and clearly communicates this to our employees, readers, clients, and partners.
Printing and paper
Our print suppliers actively work towards reducing their carbon footprint and environmental impact. They only use soya-based inks and recycled, FSC or PEFC-compliant paper, and 98.5% of all waste is recycled.
Our printers possess ISO14001, ISO9001, PEFC, and FSC accreditation. They are members of the Paperpak scheme and have invested in the Cutstar system to reduce paper wastage.
100% of the paper we use was sourced from either recycled fibre or sustainable forests where at least one tree is planted for every tree felled.
We are looking at ways in which we can replace the plastic film we use to wrap our magazines with an environmentally-friendly alternative.
Our offices
We are reducing our carbon emissions through a focus on:
Improving the energy efficiency of our buildings and IT, consolidating our office space, and increasing the proportion of renewable electricity we purchase.
Our air-conditioning system is programmed so that it does not run outside normal working hours (7pm to 7am weekdays, and all day on Saturdays and Sundays) to reduce energy consumption.
Our lighting-control software switches the lights off outside normal working hours unless triggered by movement sensors. When triggered, only the bank of lights controlled by the movement sensor will switch on.
We are reducing unnecessary business travel and use audio and videoconferencing to replace face-to-face meetings where possible.
We are actively limiting our use of paper in the office by reducing the amount of photocopying and printing, and only use recycled paper for photocopying, business correspondence and marketing.
We are working to ensure the maximum amount of our office waste is recycled and none of the remainder is sent to landfill.
We have replaced single-use plastic cups with reusable glass cups and have issued our staff with reusable coffee cups and water bottles to reduce wastage.
Supplier audits
We undertake environmental and ethical audits of our main suppliers, which include aspects such as the processing and disposal of effluents, emissions and waste materials, and the use of labour.
Carbon footprint
We are working towards reducing our carbon footprint over the next three years, and to deliver carbon offsetting to cover the footprint of our office activity and events.
