In 2007, we won the Sustainability Award at the CoreNet Global UK Corporate Real Estate Awards for achieving Carbon Neutral status.
We have more recently been awarded the Green Property Adviser of the year at the EG Green Awards. For more infomation about these awards, click here
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The process
Working with The CarbonNeutral Company and its science partners, The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM), DJ measured its carbon footprint for 2005/06 which includes energy, waste and all business travel and, equates to 1,069 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per annum, the equivalent to 2.1 tonnes per employee and a 15% reduction in DJ’s emissions per employee from the previous year.
The process started several years ago with an initial energy audit of the firm, which began to quantify our carbon footprint - the amount of CO2 emissions created by our business operations. Since this time the firm has implemented a number of changes to reduce its environmental impact, including staff surveys to pinpoint areas where emissions reductions could be made.
The largest staff survey was a commuting study, which identified that DJ staff in London alone commute a total of 230,100 miles every year, which when linked with business travel accounts for 52% of our CO2 emissions. Initiatives are in place to reduce this figure, such as an encouragement for staff to cycle to work with the firm providing better storage and shower facilities, looking to work with other CarbonNeutral travel organisations, and investigating the opportunities around the implementation of video conferencing to reduce air travel. DJ has also changed taxi and hire car companies to energy efficient suppliers.
Other initiatives have been easier to implement, for example a switch of energy supplier to ‘green’ electricity at the Head Office at Grosvenor Street to Good Energy. In addition, our offices in Glasgow and Slough have also converted to ‘green’ electricity and other offices are following.
Nick Shepherd, Managing Partner says: “The demand for energy from renewables is outstripping supply in the UK, so changing suppliers was not as easy as you would suspect. I urge the Government to do much more to encourage and support alternative energy sources, because I am certain the demand is there already.”
Other initiatives underway at all of DJ’s offices include recycle points on every floor of every DJ building, extensive use of recycled copier paper and timers on copiers to shut them down after two hours if not used. DJ is also installing timers/sensors on office lighting to close down in the evening.
Although DJ has achieved CarbonNeutral status, the firm’s actions don’t stop there. Internal marketing has taken place with staff being informed of CarbonNeutral via posters, emails and the intranet. ‘Switch it off’ is an ongoing campaign at DJ, which includes printers, monitors and unplugging phone chargers, which still use 95% of the electricity even when not in use. DJ hope staff take the good habits that they learn home with them.
Having measured our carbon footprint and put in place an ongoing strategy to avoid and reduce emissions, DJ has offset its unavoidable carbon emissions by supporting four sustainability schemes: the Gold Standard Te Apiti Windfarm in New Zealand; an energy efficient lighting project in Jamaica; a Plan Vivo forestry project in Uganda and an indigenous reforestation project in Devon.
Nick Shepherd comments: “Achieving this status is much more than the warm glow of environmental smugness that helps me and staff sleep well at night; our CarbonNeutral policy brings real commercial benefits to the firm. We have been very active in advising clients on environmental and sustainability projects. Our recent appointment at Gallions Park for the LDA, selling 1.24 hectares of development land is one such example. This is London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s flagship development project, which he believes will set an example for other residential development projects to follow.”
Alan Lattimer, COO and ‘enforcer-in-chief’ at Drivers Jonas continues: “Achieving CarbonNeutral status was a key challenge set down for me 10 months ago, when I joined DJ. The changes implemented to date are only the opening skirmishes in what will be a long campaign to reduce the firm’s environmental impact. In the months ahead we will be running seminars to our clients and staff jointly with The CarbonNeutral Company as we aim to reduce our footprint even further.”
For more information, please contact:
Nick Shepherd, Managing Partner, Drivers Jonas
Tel: 020 7896 8393
Alan Lattimer, COO, Drivers Jonas
Tel: 020 7896 8039