Environment
Sage is an office-based organisation and as such or environmental impacts are less than those of some industries. Our role in automating business processes helps organisations reduce their environmental impacts by use of electronic transactions for example.
In addition our businesses are reducing the amount of paper documentation included with our software and maximising use of electronic downloads both for software and supporting materials.
We are introducing carbon emissions reporting and waste measurement across our businesses. Our goal is to reduce our impacts. However, first we must understand what these are. This year we have put in place a process to begin measuring the carbon impact of our major offices and wholly owned or leased premises. Our aim has been to
- Understand better our impact in terms of carbon emissions;
- create a benchmark set of data for our business;
- require operating companies to begin measurement;
- build awareness inside the organisation of environmental impact; and
- identify opportunities for reduction and cost-savings
Data
Data collection took place over a sixth month period in order to get a benchmark set of data. We have based our calculations on UK Defra conversion factors or local government published carbon conversion factors where these were available within that country.
The data collected was for a 6 month period. From Aug 1st we will collect on an annual cycle.
|
Operating Company |
Total carbon emissions from energy (tonnes) |
|---|---|
|
UK & Ireland |
2,965 |
|
France |
3,771 |
|
Spain |
866 |
|
Germany |
621 |
|
Poland |
99 |
|
North America |
5,433 |
|
South Africa |
1,270 |
|
China |
12 |
|
Total |
15,037 |
Wholly owned or wholly leased buildings for which energy data is available.
Energy Awareness
Our operating companies are encouraged to seek ways to minimise impact through employee education and awareness. This year one of the principle means of doing this was through Sage Day, our annual event which enables our employees to spend time connecting with one another and with their local community in meaningful ways.
Our theme this year was ‘being green’ and our offices took part in a variety of local activities to educate and enthuse people about making changes at work and at home. These included:
- Distribution of environmentally friendly shopping bags
- Car pool programmes
- Promotion of recycling
- Clothing collections for re-use
- Cleaning up the local environment by collecting rubbish from parks and beaches
- Reduced packaging
- Measuring your carbon footprint
- A ‘green’ quiz
- Freecycling schemes
- Charity fundraising
- Promotion of the Sage Principles
Case Study
During 2008 our UK & Ireland business undertook a full carbon footprint estimation exercise. This included emissions produced as a result of:
- Energy consumption (gas and electric)
- Air conditioning use
- Business Travel (including hotel stays & fleet vehicles)
- Commuting
- Waste
It included all six main office locations in the UK & Ireland but did not include our training centres.
The overall footprint for the UK & Ireland business for the 12 months from April 2007 to March 2008 was 9,874 tonnes of C02. The sources of C02 were broken down as follows:
