Environmental policy

The DPP recognises that it has a responsibility to the environment beyond legal and regulatory requirements. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and continually improving our environmental performance as an integral part of our business strategy and operating methods, with regular review points.

We will encourage our members, suppliers and other stakeholders to do the same.

Responsibility

The Business Director, who is a member of the DPP’s Management Team, is responsible for ensuring that the environmental policy is implemented. A Programme Delivery Manager will be assigned to help develop and execute the policy. However, all employees have a responsibility in their area to ensure that reasonable attempts are made to achieve the aims and objectives of the policy.

Policy aims

Our Environmental Policy statement communicates our policy internally within our organisation and externally to our members and suppliers.

We will:

• comply with, and wherever possible go beyond, all relevant regulatory requirements
• measure our impact on the environment and set targets for ongoing improvement; focussing on energy, waste, and emissions
• monitor and improve our environmental performance
• incorporate environmental factors into business decisions wherever we can
• increase employee awareness and training

Paper

We will:

• work as a paperless team, and this will be our default approach for all activities. We will only print in exceptional circumstances, and where there is no reasonable alternative.
• where paper-based materials are the most sustainable option for promotional material, nevertheless seek to minimise its use
• buy recycled and recyclable paper products for our publications, and promotional materials wherever possible
• source a sustainable alternative to traditional paper business cards
• recycle all paper waste generated in the office using the provided recycling bins
• invest in digital signature technology to reduce the need to print out documentation that requires signing

Energy

We will:

• find out how the energy is being supplied by the landlord of our facilities and estimate the amount of energy consumed by Q2 2020
• seek to reduce the amount of energy used (recognising that we work in a managed office environment where most of the energy use is out of our control)
• switch off lights and electrical equipment when not in use
• replace technology such as laptops, when they come to the end of their useful life, with energy efficient variants

Travel and transportation

We will:

• implement a flexible working policy to enable staff to work from home or other locations, allowing them to reduce their travel
• offset carbon emissions from all flights taken for business travel
• provide tools to our staff to allow remote communication, including mobile phones, video conferencing, and team chat
• use public transport wherever practical
• promote ride sharing when members of the team travel together
• use green couriers where possible

Monitoring and improvement

We will:

• by end of Q2 2020, develop metrics and reporting capability to monitor our environmental performance, focussing on energy, waste and emissions
• track these metrics over time and work to improve our performance
• require all employees to attend training to increase their awareness of environmental issues; with at least half of the team to have completed their training in the first 3 months of 2020, and all staff expected to complete their training by summer 2020
• review any necessary updates to this policy and any related business issues at our monthly management meetings

Culture

We will:

• require all staff to read this policy, and involve them in its implementation
• ensure that our policy is made available on our website
• be transparent about our performance, reporting key achievements and progress on our website
• review and update this policy at least once annually
• adopt environmental criteria for our procurements, including only using venues with sustainability policies
• issue reusable cups to staff, and encourage them to use them in place of paper cups
• work with our members and the broader media industry to improve their environmental performance, through our Committed to Sustainability programme
• review and minimise the environmental impact of DPP events by considering our use of paper, plastics, carbon emissions, and food menus
• provide, where possible low carbon food options for DPP events
• source and only use eco-friendly banners and other similar promotional materials
• work to eliminate single use plastics in our workplace and our events
• take reasonable measures to offset the carbon emissions generated by DPP event speakers who take international flights solely to attend a DPP event
• take part in the DPP Committed to Sustainability programme, and work towards maintaining and improving our score