Employees at Guernsey Electricity have committed to minimising their impact on the local environment by reducing waste and increasing recycling throughout the company.
Recent initiatives include providing reusable 500ml water bottles to all 211 employees, centralising recycling in-house and replacing all single use kitchen items.
Alex Herschel, environmental sustainability manager at Guernsey Electricity, confirmed progress has been made recently and the company is looking at introducing other eco-friendly ideas.
‘We are committed not only to reducing the impact of power station operations but also to supporting the States’ initiative of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’. Like many other businesses, we accept there is a way to go to achieve this, but we are making great strides.
‘There is a real sense of community within the company, with employees being encouraged to cycle to work and join in with environmental initiatives. If every employee used a plastic bottle on each working day of 2019 that would be more than 53,000 bottles used in one year, so we are sure we can make a big difference through the reusable water bottles.’
Guernsey Electricity recognises its role in environmental protection and implements an Environmental Management System (EMS) of an internationally recognised standard. The key elements of the EMS are to help everyone do their part to increase compliance with legal standards, reduce the risk of an environmental incident and reduce waste.
‘Equally important is ensuring all employees understand and are engaged with what the business is trying to achieve. To help facilitate this Guernsey Electricity has set up an Environmental Working Group, which consists of volunteers who are actively looking to improve the environmental impact of the business,’ added Alex Herschel.
The company has installed additional recycling points in the power station and offices along with food waste collections and is looking into ways to work with the local community.
