Content

News

Did you know that Steps to Work has its very own Environmental Team?

Posted on 02 September 2011.

It takes 24 trees to make 1 tonne of newspaper!

Did you know that Steps to Work has its very own Environmental Team?

In order to make the company and its employees more aware of environmental issues the team was set up in March 2010.  Our original goals were to assess the whole company in terms of how what we do on a day to day basis could affect the environment.  For example, disposing of inks and toners in the general waste bin leads to them being dumped in a landfill site, taking 1000 years to decompose!

 

This exercise resulted in a series of Work Instructions being created for the whole staff to follow.  They included guidelines for using less paper, recycling as many items as possible and reducing fuel consumption by car sharing where appropriate.

 

Since those early days, Steps to Work has become much more passionate about saving the environment.  We encourage double sided printing and photocopying and reuse scrap paper as notepads.  We have recycling bins at each site for all manner of things from paper to batteries to ink cartridges.  It has sometimes been difficult to identify ways of disposing with the waste once we have collected it, but the team are committed to reducing our actual waste as much as possible.  We are currently looking into donating waste to local charities to help them raise much needed funds.

 

Some of our customers take part in environmental projects, from cleaning up the waterways to gardening and recycling projects.  We hope that in the future all customers on our programmes for those ‘Not in Education, Employment or Training’ will be involved in at least one such project.

 

Steps to Work has also gained ISO14001 accreditation for our Environmental Management System.  This has involved setting targets such as reducing the amount of paper used per person by 2% and reducing the amount of electricity used per site by 5%, both of which have been achieved.

 

Each site now has its own Site Representative who staff can liaise with for any advice on environmental issues, and staff have been trained in what to do in the event of an emergency.  This proved invaluable when the Mobile Information Unit sprung a petrol leak whilst parked up at a community venue.  The staff dealt with the issue promptly and effectively, meaning that there was no risk to the environment.