Environmental Policy

With 5 offices around Australia, 40 employees, a large contracted workforce and Asia-Pacific wide recruitment activities we appreciate that our activities can impact the environment.

As recruitment providers we partner with companies who employ millions of people, have large scale manufacturing plants and complex supply chains, and who consume large amounts of energy, utilize vast resources and generate significant waste.

Working in healthcare, we have a responsibility to understand environmental issues, to take corrective action and to educate others.

Our Environmental Policy incorporates the Guiding Principles of: Educate, Reduce, and Offset.

Educate

Educating our employees, clients and suppliers about environmental issues.

We do this by transparently conducting our operations in compliance with applicable environmental laws, regulations and standards; continually reviewing and improving our environmental policies, programmes and performance, taking into account customer needs, technical developments, scientific understanding and community expectations, and then promoting an awareness of environmental concerns, actions and responsibilities.

Reduce

Reducing our environmental impact.

We do this by operating our facilities and conducting our activities taking into consideration the efficient use of energy and materials; and reducing and where possible eliminating waste through recycling and handling and disposing of all waste through safe and responsible methods.

Offset

Offsetting the impact of greenhouse emissions.

We do this by purchasing renewable energy sources, participating in airline carbon offset schemes and sponsoring the planting of native forests.

Specific Guidelines

These guidelines are provided so that our employees, clients and suppliers understand their collective responsibilities with regards minimizing the ecological footprint of our operations and business relationships.

Utilities

  1. Turn off lights when they're not needed.
  2. Turn off computers, monitors, printers, and photocopiers overnight and when not in use for long periods during the day. Use the 'standby' settings to minimise power consumption in these items for short periods of inactivity.
  3. Ensure that office equipment is not positioned near air-conditioning thermostats. Printers and photocopiers produce heat when operating which can lead to false readings on thermostats, causing air-conditioning to work overtime.
  4. The building’s thermostat is set at an energy efficient level. Rather than requesting changes please consider layered clothing and the use of individual fans.
  5. Ensure dishwashers are only used with a full load - they use the same amount of water whether full or almost empty of dishes.
  6. Facilities (showers, change rooms and lockers) are provided for staff who walk/cycle to work, or who exercise during lunchtime.

Waste

  1. Reduce your consumption wherever you can. This will reduce both the embedded energy lost and the amount going to waste.
  2. Rather than printing read the material off the computer screen instead.
  3. Consider printing on both sides of the paper.
  4. Direct your clients and candidates to the material on our website and mention that this replaces glossy brochures and company reports.
  5. Monitor the amount of food you use during meetings and order less next time.
  6. Repair, refill and re-use items where possible. If you do upgrade, your older products may still be useful to a school or community group.
  7. Recycle materials by placing them in the containers provided.
  8. Buy recycled products, or those with some recycled content, whenever you can.

Freight and Logistics

  1. Consider whether the ‘urgent’ package really needs to be immediately delivered (and hence an additional trip), or can it wait for a regular scheduled delivery.
  2. Plan your deliveries outside of congested peak periods to save fuel.
  3. Use rail freight for interstate packages – it offers significant emissions savings over air-freight.

Travel

  1. When interacting with your interstate colleagues consider alternatives to face-to-face meetings eg phone conversations or internet-conferencing.
  2. Consider walking or using public transportation to work appointments.
  3. Catch the airport bus / train between airports and cities where they operate; or share a taxi with someone.
  4. Carpool to meetings. Look at the carpooling section on the Intranet to identify someone who lives near you.
  5. Contribute to airline Carbon Offset programmes when making travel arrangements.
  6. Consider active forms of commuting to work eg walking, running, cycling.

Environmental Support Program

Through our sponsorship of Greenfleet, we donate one tree for every recruitment assignment we work on.

We chose this on the basis that when candidates visit us to discuss employment opportunities, or when they attend interviews with clients, they will be using transportation (private cars or public transport) which consume fossil fuels and produce pollution and CO2.

The planting of native trees via Greenfleet absorbs this CO2 and offsets the emissions. As at June 30, 2010 we have contributed 1639 trees.

About Greenfleet

Since the Greenfleet program commenced in 1997, they have planted more than six million native trees on behalf of individual and business supporters. These trees are helping to revegetate around 300 degraded sites throughout Australia. Greenfleet works to create forests in areas of environmental concern, putting back the mix of native species that would have been present in the local area prior to land clearing. In addition to absorbing greenhouse gases, these biodiverse forests also help to: reduce salinity and erosion, improve water quality in rivers and streams, provide habitat for native wildlife, and provide windbreaks and shelter for crops and livestock. Greenfleet was a recent finalist for the Biodiversity Award in the 2010 UNAA World Environment Day Awards.