Environment Policy

GBdirect believes that businesses have duties and responsibilities that go beyond narrow corporate definitions of profitability. In particular, being staffed by educated people with scientific backgrounds, we share concerns about wasting resources and our use of carbon-intensive energy. Because of this, we are committed to the following steps to actively reduce our impact on our environment:

• We continually seek to reduce our wastage of packaging, paper and energy
• Our staff are encouraged to use public transport and reduce car mileage whenever possible
• We avoid the use of air transport for UK journeys and will use it only as a last resort
• Lights, desktop PCs and monitors are never left on in our buildings
• New equipment is sourced with energy efficiency as a key concern
• Long-life equipment is preferred over cheap disposable alternatives
• Staff are encouraged to propose ways in which our policy can be improved and implemented

Concrete Examples

Policies are easy to draft; the real question is how well they are implemented. Examples of the policy in action at GBdirect include:

• Our last two office relocations have both been specifically selected to reduce aggregate staff commuting distances
• Our continuing use of thin-client desktop devices substantially reduces power consumption (and air conditioning costs) and by prolonging the life of computing devices reduces our production of electronic waste
• Our choice of operating system and software for servers means that hardware systems at GBdirect are replaced on a 6-8 year cycle rather than every three years or so, again reducing waste. We also believe that the efficiency of the software allows to use lower-powered equipment than the alternatives would require
• Our expenses payment policy supports our view on modes of transport and encourages our subcontractors to follow our policy
• We make use of telephone conferencing in preference to face-to-face meetings to reduce transport usage
• We produce no printed brochure material whatsoever. If that loses us sales, we live with it
• We use only electronic fax communications. Our incoming faxes have no paper or toner to use
• We never use mailshots or printed materials for promotion or advertising

We welcome suggestions on how our policy may be improved and try our best to adhere to good practice wherever we can.