Our Commitment To The Environment

Connect supports wholeheartedly the philosophy which emerged from the Rio Earth Summit as Agenda 21. We are committed to making choices for less environmentally destructive developments, and accept the challenge to translate understanding into action in developing sustainable lifestyles.

We believe that "thinking globally and acting locally" can make a difference and that our actions today should take account of tomorrow's world and not put the future of the next generations in jeopardy. We are dedicated to operating in a manner that causes the least amount of negative impact on our ecological environment, and to continuous improvement to reduce, re- use, recycle and create sustainable solutions.

Our main business revolves around the use of ICT in the growing Information Society and the use of electronic rather than paper means of communication. We encourage our clients to consider their own paper needs and not to duplicate the creation, issue and storage of paper, or indeed of data held in any form.

Our company policies cover:

Transport

o Using public transport, or walking/cycling whenever possible both for work at our business premises and for meetings at clients’ premises

o Sharing cars on business journeys when it is possible

o Siting our business premises on a brown-field site and in walking distance or accessible by public transport for the majority of staff

o Connect operates one motor vehicle which is serviced regularly to ensure that emissions are within legal limits and that the fuel system is running efficiently

Energy

o Keeping office temperatures at the lowest comfortable level

o Using shared monitors to access servers

o Regularly servicing heating systems and other equipment

o All our workstations take advantage of ACPI power saving features. The machines are shutdown overnight, unless being used. All printers, scanners and additional hardware is switched off when not in use

o Our premises have inbuilt environmental measures. For example, all lights in the building are automatically activated using movement sensors, ensuring that they are automatically extinguished when not required. All heating and air conditioning is centrally controlled to obtain the most environmentally and energy efficient output

o Use rechargeable batteries for all mobile appliances

o Waste minimisation and recycling

o We communicate electronically wherever possible, using paper and other hard media only where necessary

o Staff are encouraged to print only on an as needs basis

o Connect uses environmentally friendly printer paper where possible

o We also encourage double-sided photocopying where possible to reduce paper consumption

o We operate a strict recycling policy re-using all paper and then recycling it

o We also recycle all plastic and metal waste via the local collection

o Recycling spent toner cartridges

o Where possible, we donate hardware and components left over from repairs and upgrades to charity for auction or use

o We have processes in place to manage energy and resources related problems are identified, reported and resolved quickly. This would apply for example to dripping taps etc

General

o Purchasing supplies locally where possible

o Request environmental policies from our suppliers, using a compliance preference to like by like suppliers

o Provision of fair trade tea and coffee to customers and the use of environmentally friendly cleaning products are being explored

o Ensure all employees know and understand the policy and what is expected of them

o Ensure all trainees and customers are made aware of our policy and understand how it relates to the activities they undertake

o Connect’s premises provide a non-smoking environment

o Comply with environmental legislation, regulations and government guidance

o Constantly seek to improve our environmental performance through monitoring systems, target setting, annual reports and policy reviews

o Actively promoting our policy via the website

o Have an Environmental Officer to oversee this