Guide to writing an Environmetal Policy

The Ibex Earth Guide to writing an Environmental Policy...

At Ibex Earth we feel that every business should have its own Environmental Policy - for us this is so a business can improve its environmental performance and adopt a more environmentally sustainable business practice. For example, you can ensure that your procurement process takes into account ethical, environmental and sustainable considerations - thus placing pressure on suppliers to ensure that all of their goods are from respectable sources.

An Environmental Policy allows a business to demonstrate its 'green ethos' to the wider world or to show staff that you do actually take your environmental responsibilities seriously - an ever increasing necessity in today's market place, as 'green' issues continue to grow in importance upon the political, business and consumer agendas. Promoting your new 'green' policy can attract publicity and new clientele.

However, if you've opted not to have an Environmental Policy for whatever reason, you really should reconsider because by acting on becoming more sustainable / environmentally responsible you will actually save money e.g. by opting to reduce your carbon emissions you will in the process lower your fuel bill - the same can be said for water reduction and improving the amount of recycling your business can do.

So then, not only does an Environmental Policy help the global and local environment, it also has a great deal of potential to help you reduce your overall costs - surely it is worth considering adopting an Environmental Policy in today's financial market? Below is Ibex Earth's very own Environmental Policy, please feel free to adopt our own policy as yours - you will be surprised how easy it is...

Ibex Earth's Environmental Policy


We recognise the way in which we operate has an impact upon the environment and are committed to ensuring that we run a sustainable and environmentally responsible business practice. We also acknowledge that our environmental performance is important to our staff, clients and other stakeholders and we will look to minimise our impacts and continually improve our environmental performance.

In seeking to improve our environmental performance, we are addressing the following areas, in particular:

Energy Consumption

We will look to reduce our energy consumption and implement energy efficiency measures in our building when economically feasible.

Water Consumption

We will look to reduce our water consumption and implement water saving measures in our buildings when economically feasible.

Waste Management

We have introduced a reduce, reuse and recycle waste management system, in which we will look to minimise the amount of waste that our business produces and improve our recycling rates. We encourage that all correspondence is conducted via email in order to minimise the amount of paper that we use.

Transport

We will look to maximise the use of public transport and avoid private car use whenever possible. If there are alternatives to air travel, e.g. travelling by rail, then we will ensure that we choose the alternative travel method. We encourage all staff to travel to work via public transport

Procurement

We will take into account the environmental credentials of all suppliers when awarding contracts and purchase environmentally responsible products when possible. We will give preference to suppliers who

Communication

We will share our environmental policy and objectives by communicating both internally and externally.

Review

We will review our environmental policy on an annual basis and revise accordingly to ensure that we continue to improve our environmental performance.

Welcome to the Ibex Earth Blog...

Just a really quick intro - my name's Chris Livemore and I am the Founder of Ibex Earth, which is a not for profit organisation that was established back in 2008 to provide support, advice and assistance to environmental charities and other not for profits. This blog is really designed to provide an insight into all things Ibex Earth and future blogs will include information about our Environmental & Conservation Partners as well as other exciting environmental projects we are developing...

So where to start - this has probably been the busiest few weeks of our lives at Ibex Earth HQ, working twenty hour days, seven days a week and surviving on caffeine, sugar hits and the generosity of friends and Ibex Earth supporters.

We've been going through the final planning stages for www.thelostworldproject.org, which is our first major environmental project - if you haven't heard about it already we are taking a critically acclaimed film crew to the plateau that inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write what is arguably the most famous adventure novel of all time 'The Lost World' and has most recently been the major influence behind Walt Disney and Pixar's animated blockbuster 'UP'.

On August 20th 2010, ten students from the UK will be joining the film crew (which actually includes Rob Franklin, a BBC Planet Earth cameraman) to help shoot a fifty minute broadcast quality documentary about Mount Roraima and its urgent conservation needs. The final film will be premiered at the Royal Geographical Society in April/May 2011 at what we hope will be one of the environmental events of the year!

If you would like to know more about this project then why not come long to our event at the ZSL London Zoo on August 10th 2010 - the event starts at 18:00 and is being held in the Prince Albert Suite, Lawn and Terrace - it promises to be a great event and for more information please send me an email at chris.livemore@ibexearth.com and I will send you an invite!

The project is all coming to a head now, loads and loads of work, hundreds of phonecalls and some last minute fundraising - but to be fair it has been great fun, we've met people from the WWF, the Royal Geographical Society, National Geographic, the BBC and of course the ZSL London Zoo - wouldn't change this project for the world and will update this blog with photos, updates and more info about Mount Roraima over the next few weeks - we will also be getting other Ibex Earth Directors and staff to start writing up some blogs so we can give you a complete overview about our work.

Hope that you enjoy reading the blogs!