06 February 2009

SBHG goes carbon neutral

Shepherds Bush Housing Group achieved the prestigious carbon neutral certification for our head office in Chiswick from the CarbonNeutral Company.

Last year we carried out a ‘Climate Change Impact Assessment’ giving us an estimate of the size and breakdown of our ‘carbon footprint’.

As a result we introdcued more green ideas and increased our recycling by 42%. We now recycle everything including plastics, paper, cardboard, cans, batteries and toners.

Our carbon footprint was 173 tonnes, which is better than the average office. However, we wanted to do more so we’re offsetting our emissions by supporting green projects way beyond London in Jamaica and India.

David Blackburn, Director of HR and Business Support at SBHG, said “This green accolade for our business is fantastic news and our aim is to do even more in the coming year to drive down our carbon footprint further.”

The project in Jamaica encourages people to use compact fluorescent light bulbs which use a quarter of the electricity of traditional bulbs and last ten times longer. But they are more expensive so through selling carbon credits the Eco-Tec project can offer the energy-saving bulbs at discount prices and run Environment Days to educate staff.

Near Kotmar, in India, we work with Indian Synergy Ltd and a steel plant to generate electricity from wasted heat emissions for on-site use and the local grid.

For more details please contact
Hannah Stokes
Tel: 020 8996 4237
Hannah.stokes@sbhg.co.uk

Notes
The CarbonNeutral Company is one of the world's leading carbon offset and carbon management businesses, set up with that single focus in the early '90s.