Visit London is the official visitor organisation for the capital and in a position to influence millions of visitors to be more environmentally aware during their stay.The organisation therefore feels it is important to run their own operations in an environmentally responsible manner.

Visit London wanted to gain a certified environmental management system (EMS) and raise awareness among staff to create improvements.

Global Action Plan supported Visit London through a programme tailored to deliver an independently certified EMS, while achieving measurable improvements in actual performance through a practical employee engagement project.

Key savings and achievements

• a 63% reduction in paper use per employee
• recycling rate increased by 30%
• a 50% increase in the number of PCs switched off when not in use

How did Visit London achieve this?

Full support from the chief executive for the ‘green challenge' was invaluable to motivate staff and achieve change in policies and processes at an organisational level.

Visit London created 2 teams, an EMS team to work towards creating the formal management system, and an Environment Champions team to raise awareness among staff, showing them how they can each make a difference.

Training

The EMS team took part in 3 specialist training sessions delivered by Global Action Plan to learn how to install the management system. This included:

• identifying and prioritising environmental impacts
• creating action plans to reduce impacts
• writing an environmental policy
• ensuring the organisation is fully compliant with environmental legislation

Staff awareness

At the first Environment Champions meeting the team were presented with the results of a baseline audit carried out by Global Action Plan on the environmental impacts of the office. Using this the Champions were able to plan practical actions and prioritise issues to communicate. They ran a staff awareness campaign which included:

• a ‘green day' with on-site information stands provided by Global Action Plan and the Energy Savings Trust, and showings of the Al Gore film ‘An Inconvenient Truth'
• all waste bins were removed for 2 weeks and staff had to empty their waste paper into a pile in a spare office, soon filling the office and creating a giant paper mountain
• a surprise spot check of computer monitors was carried out at Easter and those who had switched off were rewarded with a chocolate egg!

Results

A second audit carried 6 months after the first, clearly showed that awareness raising had been effective and added significant environmental savings. Results included:

• a 40% improvement in staff switching off personal IT equipment
• a 31% increase in the rate of recycling
• a 63% reduction in paper use per employee

Other improvements by the team:

• upgrading of old printers with models that could duplex print
• replacement of the vending machines with energy efficient versions stocked with organic and Fairtrade products
• all marketing materials and stationery are now produced on recycled paper using vegetable inks

Officially green

In July 2007 Visit London was audited by an independent assessor and awarded certification of their EMS to Phase 3 of the BS8555 Acorn Scheme.

Contact us

Email business.support@globalactionplan.org.uk.

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