International Specialist Banking Group Investec has won a Platinum Award in the City of London’s Clean City Awards Scheme for 2009 - the third year in a row. The award is given to companies with an effective waste management system in place.

The award

Launched in 1994, the Clean City Awards Scheme aims to develop partnerships with City businesses by raising the profile of responsible waste management and recognising and rewarding good practice by encouraging businesses to follow the 3R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

There are three levels of awards, Merit, Gold and Platinum and an overall winner for a Small, Medium and Large Site. In total there were 1,650 city contestants for the 2009 awards and only 9, including Investec, achieved the Platinum level. Investec won the overall prize, the Chairman's Cup, in 2006 out of 1,320 contestants.

Commitment

Investec are committed to reducing their impact on the environment. They undertake regular initiatives to follow the Reduce Reuse Recycle mantra including schemes such as replacing their vending machine plastic cups with re-usable Investec branded mugs, setting printers to duplex print and introducing food waste composting.

Achievement

In 2006 Global Action Plan ran a year long programme with Investec looking at the environmental impact of their head office in London. Over twelve months and using innovative communications campaigns such as building a 3D paper tower display, Investec achieved:

• A 28% reduction in annual waste per employee, achieving levels of a Good Practice Office
• Increasing its recycling rates from 46% to 70% including furniture and clothing
• 6% reduction in paper use = 48 trees a year
• 43% reduction in canteen consumables
• Increasing the number of photocopiers switched off at night from 5% to 97%

How we helped

Many of the initiatives Global Action Plan helped set up are still in place including their team of environment champions, ‘Team Green’ who were set up to oversee the campaign and communicate with staff internally. Team Green now have their own webpage, email account, Internet and intranet sites which enable them to continue to communicate environmental messages to the organisation.

Only the beginning

Investec is continuing to improve their environmental performance. Team Green initiative has been rolled out to other Investec offices globally and they are striving to keep up the momentum of what they have achieved to date.

 

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