Lloyds TSB Group PLC
From Lauraibm
Lloyds TSB and the Environment
Banks have a direct impact on the environment and can affect it indirectly through the actions of their borrowers.
Effective environmental management reduces business risks, cuts costs and improves our efficiency. Our staff expect us to reduce our impact on the environment where possible and be a force for environmental good. We commit to reduce our total carbon emissions by 30% by 2012, and then offset our remaining emissions. (1)
Environmental Policy
The Lloyds TSB Group is a leading UK based financial services group whose businesses provide a comprehensive range of banking and financial services in the UK and overseas. It is a customer driven, service business.
Our potential impact on the environment stems from office-based operations and, to a large extent, this dictates where the bank can make progress in improving its environmental performance. Key areas where we can focus attention are property management, purchasing and contracts and lending activities.
We will:
- Minimise the amount of waste we produce by raising staff awareness and encouraging the recycling of office waste, such as paper and plastics
- Cut the amount of energy we consume by continuing to use energy-saving measures and by following recognised guidelines and codes of practice in our property management
- Incorporate specific environmental requirements into contracts with principal suppliers
- Wherever practicable, specify products from sustainable sources, products made from recycled materials or designed to be easy to re-use or recycle
- Continue to provide detailed guidelines to lending officials which will help them identify environmental risks in the UK and abroad
- Comply with all relevant environmental, health and safety regulations and legislation
- Report publicly on our environmental management
These commitments are backed by a programme of continuous assessment, checking our achievements against targets and seeking opportunities to raise awareness of environmental policy amongst our employees. Board responsibility for our environmental policy rests with our Deputy Group Chief Executive. This policy will be reviewed on a regular basis and revised as appropriate.
(2)
Looking after the little things
How taking small steps is an essential part of the long journey
to a better environment and a safe climate.
Can we really save the polar bears by switching off
the lights? The sheer size of the environmental
problems posed by climate change (see box) tend to
trivialise small actions to protect the environment. But
every action, no matter how small, is badly needed if
we are to contribute to making a better environment.
With over 2,000 buildings housing more than 63,000 employees, our direct
environmental impacts come mainly from energy use (air conditioning, computer
systems, lighting) business travel, paper use and office waste.
All our major buildings have comprehensive environmental management systems in
place, conforming to our environmental policy. We monitor energy consumption at all
times of the day and night, using our “smart metering” system that gives us online
readings every half hour. This enables us to monitor energy use and to identify any
abnormal patterns or faults with the automated management systems.
Most lighting systems automatically switch off after people have left the room. Staff
are required to switch off their computer screens at the end of the day. It is estimated
that a tonne of carbon can be saved in 10 weeks if an office of 200 people turned off
their screens overnight.
As director of Group Operational Services and a member of our Corporate Responsibility
Steering Group, Ian Thompson (pictured left) has more responsibility than most to see
that our commitments on the environment are met (see box right).
“Setting ourselves stretching targets is nothing unusual. But meeting our goals is much
easier when there is a passion in our people to get there.
“Our people are certainly passionate about the environment. This was demonstrated
last year when our employee CR magazine, Workout, challenged people to calculate
their own personal carbon footprint. The response was tremendous and people were
quite surprised at the results. Even those who travelled little and were careful about
their household energy use were shocked to see the amount of carbon they emitted.
“People need to be convinced that simple prescriptions on saving energy, water, and
waste and avoiding travel is enough in the face of climate change. And, of course, in
itself it is not. But you have to start somewhere and every little bit does count.
“Small actions have helped us make significant improvements over the last five years
and these actions will be vitally important over the next five.
“Personal effort gets translated into how we operate as a business. And it is in that
thinking – about property, purchasing, processes, operations and IT – where we will
see the step-changes necessary to reach our targets.”
“Setting ourselves stretching
targets is nothing unusual.
But meeting our goals is
much easier when there is
a passion in our people to
get there.”
11
Action from Lloyds TSB
Rather than simply offsetting, we feel it is better, first of all,
to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by better energy
management, buying renewable energy and cutting out
unnecessary travel.
Our carbon footprint
We have progressively reduced our carbon footprint over the past
five years by almost 36,000 tonnes of CO2. This was done mainly
by improving our properties and by buying renewable energy. The
amount of travel rose during that period as our business grew. But
in 2006, over 250,000 teleconferences helped us reduce car and
train travel by 20 million kilometres, or almost 500 round the
world trips.
We want to build on our strong track record and make a positive
contribution to the UK government’s target to reduce CO2
emissions by 60% by 2050. Using 2002 as the baseline, we have
set a target to reduce our CO2 emissions by 30% by 2012.
This will be achieved by a series of different measures, such as
carbon management. In 2006, we carried out a study with the
Carbon Trust – a government agency promoting energy saving –
to develop a carbon management programme that will save
4,300 tonnes of CO2 a year, over the next five years.
Having first of all set ourselves a reduction target, we will offset
those emissions we cannot reduce, commencing in 2007. This will
make our operations carbon neutral.
While climate change provides many challenges, it opens a range
of business opportunities, such as the provision of project
financing in the fast-growing market for renewable fuels. We are
developing a strategy to ensure that we contribute to finding
solutions to climate change. One of these will be to work with our
63,000 employees and 16 million customers to ensure that we all
take the small but important steps on what will be a long journey
to a safe climate.
C&G Travelshare scheme
Employees in the administration offices of Cheltenham &
Gloucester (C&G), part of the Lloyds TSB Group, can reduce their
personal carbon dioxide emissions by participating in the C&G car
share scheme.
The names of those who sign up are posted on a travel
information point. This provides information on working times and
travel routes, allowing employees to make their own
arrangements with those who live nearby. Special incentives are
given to encourage take-up including an entire week of free
lunches in the staff canteen.
Currently there are 74 reserved ‘green’ parking spaces split across
two sites, with nearly 90% taken up. The spaces are monitored to
ensure proper use, and people can nominate a car share cover
partner, ensuring even wider participation in the scheme.
Cutting waste at Gresham Street
Our headquarters are housed in a modern, nine-storey office building
in the heart of London’s financial district and close to the visible remains
of London Wall.
Most of the waste produced by the building is recycled. In 2006,
this included:
Aluminium cans – 52 kgs
Batteries – 19 kgs
Cardboard – 2.5 tonnes
Cooking oil – 1660 litres recycled into agricultural diesel.
Milk bottle caps – 5.25 kgs recycled by a charity
Paper -91 tonnes
Photocopy toners – 2 tonnes
Plastic drink bottles – 282kg
Plastic vending cups – 1.25 tonnes
Postage stamps – 4kgs recycled by Guide Dogs for the Blind
The building has been commended by the City of London (the local
authority) for its waste management, retaining its platinum status in
the Clean City Awards.
What is climate change?
Gases in the atmosphere prevent some of the sun’s heat radiated
off the earth from escaping back into space. These gases create
the natural phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect, keeping
the world warm enough for us to survive. Increased concentrations
of so called greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide from
burning fossil fuels, has boosted the greenhouse effect, making the
world warmer. This is causing changes to our climate, with
unpredictable weather, more droughts in some regions and floods
in others.
The consensus among scientists is that man is responsible for
much of the rise in the concentrations of greenhouse gases.
Politicians worldwide are taking action to attempt to stabilise
and eventually reduce these concentrations.
There are five main actions being taken:
• Use less energy by being more efficient and changing behaviour
(turning off unneeded lights)
• Switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy, such as
the sun and wind
• Stop destroying forests and reverse deforestation
• Prevent emissions from reaching the atmosphere, for example
by capturing and storing carbon
• Offset emissions in one place by investing in projects that prevent,
reduce or absorb emissions elsewhere, such as growing trees
and landfill methane flaring.
A number of companies have declared themselves to be carbon
neutral. This means they have no net impact on the concentrations
of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Offsetting forms a major
part of their actions, although there are concerns about the
effectiveness of many offsetting activities. Companies that simply
use offsetting without making any reductions to their actual
emissions will increasingly be accused of using carbon neutrality
as a public relations exercise.
Tonnes CO2 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Property 198,950 195,175 188,624 177,047 181,086
Property renewable N/A (730) (4,438) (14,606) (18,944)
Travel 26,333 26,998 29,499 29,540 27,231
Total 225,283 221,443 213,685 191,981 189,373
2012 Fact: Our sponsorship of the London 2012 Games supports our brand values. It is a journey we are all embarking on.
(3)
