Environment
In practice
The Big Switch Off
Aviva Group Centre has achieved reductions in its electricity consumption through simple initiatives such as ‘The Big Switch Off’. Every night the St Helen’s security guards switch all non-essential lighting and equipment such as printers and photocopiers off. Other initiatives that have contributed include the regular energy-saving campaigns we have run on our green notice boards and the local intranet. St Helen’s also took part in the 2007 ‘Lights out London’ Campaign and Aviva Group Centre pioneered the switch off of vending machines over-night and at weekends.
Reducing CO2 emissions
In 2006, Aviva Group Centre committed to reduce its electricity consumption by 5%, water by 3% and gas by 4%. The reductions we achieved in 2007 exceeded all expectations with our electricity decreasing by 8.6%, water by 25.3% and gas by 32.7%. These substantial improvements were only possible through the contributions of our employees and partners.
Throughout the year, we have raised awareness of energy consumption and the effects it has upon the environment. We fully supported Energy Savings Week and World Earth Day, marking this event by showing Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ as well as providing reading material for employees (The revenge of Gaia and the transcript of the Channel 4 programme The Great Global Warming Swindle).
We continue to purchase renewable electricity and recently installed an electric car sharing facility at St Helen’s. We have also transferred our taxi contract to Addison Lee – which is carbon neutral.
When the new garden was designed for St Helen’s this year, we ensured environmental considerations were incorporated into the design, for example by selecting sustainably sourced trees and planting to encourage a diverse wildlife population.
Waste management
We continue to separate waste at source and in order to further encourage this have installed new recycling bins on all floors and created a dedicated recycling area in our café. St Helen's was awarded with Chairman's Cup in the Corporation of London's Clean City Awards for its waste minimisation initiatives which include:
- removing a skip
- setting printers to print double-sided
- increasing materials recycled
- using the Vivreau water bottling system.
Highlights
- 32.7% reduction in gas consumption