VISIT LONDON

Sector:  Travel & Entertainment 

Number of employees: 100 

Region of UK:  London  

Summary 

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

Background 

Visit London wanted to gain a certified Environmental Management System (EMS) but at the same time raise awareness amongst their staff to create improvements in their day to day environmental performance. Global Action Plan supported the organisation through a programme specifically tailored to implement an independently certified EMS whilst at the same time achieving measurable improvements in actual performance through a practical employee engagement project.

How They Do It 

Training

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

• identifying and prioritising their environmental impacts;creating action plans to reduce these 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 information the Champions were able to plan practical actions and prioritise issues to communicate to the rest of the staff.  They ran an 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 just two 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 illustrating how much is wasted
• A surprise spot check of computer monitors was carried out at Easter and those who had switched off were rewarded with a chocolate egg!

What Impact It Has 

Results

A second audit carried out by Global Action Plan 6 months after the first, showed clearly that the awareness raising had been effective and added some significant environmental savings to go with the newly implemented management system. Results included  a 40% improvement in staff switching off personal IT equipment  and a 31% increase in the rate of recycling and a 63% reduction in paper use per employee/  Other improvements brought about by the team were:

• The upgrading of old printers with models that could duplex printReplacement 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

Business Benefits

Officially Green

Finally, 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.   

Quote “Being located in a tenanted building we thought that we were limited when it came to managing our environmental impacts.  However Global Action Plan helped us to not only change our systems and processes so that they were more environmentally friendly, but also to get staff involved and on board with these changes and to alter their day to day habits to help reduce our impacts.”