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Environment

To continue to improve the governance, control and environmental performance of the business this year, HomeServe has continued to deliver several existing initiatives while developing several new environmental initiatives and projects.

Governance

The Environmental Steering Committee, which was set up in 2008 and chaired by Brian Whitty, continued to meet on a quarterly basis throughout the year. The steering committee has provided direction for the environmental strategy of the Company and senior level support for the changes which have been made to improve the environmental management and performance of the business.

Going forward the environmental steering committee will become a key part of the corporate responsibility steering committee.

Environmental management system

As an essential business tool which supports the business to operate in a controlled and compliant way, HomeServe is continuing to develop its environmental management system and plans to have the system operating across the UK business this financial year.

The benefits of having an environmental management system will include; having environmental objectives which the Company will commit to achieving, having a clear environmental statement and policy which the Company will commit to delivering against, ensuring that environmental management is embedded across the Company as part of business as usual operations; improved control through the integration of new or enhanced processes which will prevent environmental incidents arising.

Fleet initiatives

The commercial fleet of HomeServe contributes the highest proportion of carbon to our carbon footprint. We are therefore focusing on reducing the impact the fleet has on the environment by improving the fuel efficiency of the vehicles which constitute our fleet.

The initiatives which have been implemented this year and will continue during 2010/2011 include the following;

• Every van will have a telematics system installed to enable the business to monitor, amongst other measures, speed and the distance it has travelled in any given period.
• A league table of the commercial fleet drivers, showing the fuel efficiency levels each person is achieving, is used to encourage employees to drive more efficiently. A prize incentive will be given to the employee who achieves the highest fuel efficiency levels over the year.
• A move to newer and more fuel efficient commercial vans from 2010.

In addition, our current company car list has been reviewed, with the highest carbon dioxide emission levels per kilometre vehicle being reduced from 225gCO₂/km to 180gCO₂/km. Employees can now select vehicles with emission levels as low as 118gCO₂/km.

Energy efficiency

Reducing the amount of energy our offices consume is a key area of focus this year. HomeServe will be seeking to invest in projects which will lower our total energy consumption and our carbon footprint by 320 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. To enable us to achieve this we are aiming to:

• Implement software which will ensure that PCs and monitors are automatically switched off at the end of the working day.
• Invest in the heating, ventilation and cooling system at our head office by installing centralised control over the whole system, which will ensure a more efficient use of energy.
• Continue to install passive infra red sensors in our offices so that the lighting goes off when the offices are unoccupied.

Recycling

At the start of 2010 we reached an agreement with a waste management company that is now working with HomeServe to support us in recycling as much of our waste as possible, with the aim of diverting all waste away from landfill by 2012. Now that we have recycling facilities in place across the UK business we aim to set recycling targets this year and to further drive the “reduce, reuse and recycle” message to employees to ensure we achieve the targets we set.

Reducing our paper consumption

As a business which relies heavily on direct mail to communicate with our customers we utilise thousands of tonnes of paper each year. However we are continually looking into ways of reducing the impact of the paper we use. All of our direct mail packs are made using sustainably sourced wood (PEFC).

Employee travel

To encourage our employees to travel to work using low carbon modes of transport we launched the HomeServe Cycle2Work scheme in partnership with Halfords in the summer of 2009. The scheme is a tax efficient way for employees to purchase a bicycle which they use to travel to and from work for some or all of their journeys. The scheme has been well received and will continue to be offered to employees this year.

HomeServe’s carbon footprint

At HomeServe we are committed to measuring carbon footprint. Analysis of the data will enable us to focus attention on the areas which when improved, will benefit both the business and the climate. In 2009/10 we emitted 16,048 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e). Of this 9,897 tCO₂e was emitted by the membership businesses and 6,151tCO₂e by the discontinued operations.