How green is Sheffield Homes?
Sheffield Homes gets its first environmental benchmark!
In January 2010 Sheffield Homes submitted our first ever entry into the Business in the Community Environmental Index 2010. This is a scheme which helps organisations measure the impact it has on the environment and compares its performance with other companies in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
The survey is free to enter and provides us with feedback on the following areas:
- Current performance
- Identifies gaps where it can improve its environmental impact
- Measures progress on implementing and improving environmental performance.
In May 2010 we received the news that we had scored 39%, which for a first time submission is a respectable score. The average score for first time entrants is 30%.
First time entrants very rarely make it straight into one of the higher performance bands; bronze, silver, gold or platinum, generally falling into the ‘All other’ category of scores less than 70%. As some first time entrants score as low as 5% this score puts us in the top half of first time submissions.
The report identified the areas where we need to improve. These are:
- Recycling our office waste – although we do recycle paper, and where possible, glass, plastics and metal, we do not measure how much we are recycling. We need to put in place a formal recycling collection service which will allow us to do this.
- Provision of an environmental management system (EMS) – a system for recording, in one place, all our processes and procedures relating to any environmental issues within the organisation.
- Review how we identify, record and monitor the environmental risks arising from the services we deliver.
We will be working on these areas over the coming year in preparation for the next submission in 2011.
