London Calling

The London Calling Eco Group met again at the beginning of May to discuss ongoing initiatives. Some key points address below -

BS8555 Accreditation

Guy Smith explained that the three phases of the course have been completed and work is now needed on developing Environmental Management Programmes. Responsibility for each area has been allocated to individual members of the Eco Group.

Areas to be covered are:

1. Training

• Sustainability Policy to be promoted in the Staff Manual.

• A sustainability training sheet to be part of the induction process for all new staff – recycling / energy use / relevant information.

• All staff to receive regular briefings to understand ongoing sustainability projects and targets.

2. Measurable Targets

• Utility bills (Water/Gas/Electricity) – are we using less than last year?

• Fuel (Diesel/LPG) – reduction per annum?

• Recycling from warehouse (paper/cardboard)

• Recycling domestic waste (glass/tins/plastic)

• Use of copier paper per annum (reams per person)

• Bin audits in N1 and SE16 to ensure paper is not being thrown out with general waste

3. Site History

• Site map and office layout

• Water courses in surrounding area/Land Registry plan

• Any historic environmental issues?

4. Legal / Environmental information

• Subscription to a legal/environmental association to ensure regularly updated information

‘Switch Off’ Policy monitors

It’s been noted that some members of staff have been forgetting to switch off office equipment. In light of this Anita will cover Ardleigh Road and Guy will cover Bermondsey to ensure all equipment has been turned off every evening and to politely remind repeat offenders who leave their equipment on!

Twitter

Guy explained that a Twitter account had been opened for London Calling and it would be a great forum to highlight our sustainability initiatives. We have several followers already so must ensure that we regularly update our tweets! We can be found at http://twitter.com/LdnCallingArts

Here at London Calling we have an appointed Sustainability group. Members of staff from different departments volunteered to be a part of this group who meet every month or so to discuss issues raised and action ideas regarding Sustainability and London Calling. Here are some of the key points summarised from the last meeting, last month.

- The ‘switch-off’ policy is in operation across both office sites in Islington and Bermondsey. Computers were being left on over night for various IT updates, but now these updates are done automatically so there is no need for them to be left on. A ‘monitor’; is to be appointed in each office to ensure this happens.

- This Sustainability blog is being updated regularly with input from different departments. We are also putting together a list of links every now again with the best on the web of news, blogs and articles relating to Sustainability.

- Our Head of Distribution is attending the BS8555 Accreditation course aiming to create and implement a bespoke Environmental Management System for London Calling.

- We now have a Battbox (http://battbox.co.uk/home.html) in our office, which means we are able to dispose of old batteries. Staff are also encouraged to bring old batteries from home to be disposed of.

- Our Islington office now also has a recycling box for containers such us tins, cardboard and plastics so we can now recycle kitchen rubbish as well as paper.

London Callings bi-monthly eco group convened at our head office this month. Along with updates on ongoing initiatives, new agenda points feature Guy Smiths (Head Of Distribution) participation on the Global Action Plan course – Implementation of Environmental Management Systems. Once completed London Calling will be independently assessed and if successful will achieve the BS8555 standard in environmental performance.

Minutes can be downloaded here

The first meeting of our recently formed ‘Eco Group’ took place on Oct 8th 2008. The group, which is made up of 8 members from a cross section of London Callings staff, will meet bi-monthly to share ideas in order to continue evolving our sustainability strategy. The agenda for the meeting was to assess where we are now to where we want to be in terms of achieving our aims of reducing our carbon footprint and ultimately aiming for carbon neutrality. Areas for discussion included long-term objectives to be achieved, reasons for London Calling to be environmentally considerate in our operations, London Callings carbon footprint and how we can take a lead role in sustainability to hopefully inspire others in the arts to follow.

If you would like to read the meeting notes, they can be downloaded here