At Harrison Drury we recognise the importance of working in an ethical and sustainable way, and in a matter that has a positive impact on the environment in which we live and work.

We recognise that whilst we do not produce a tangible product, the delivery of our service can have an impact on the environment. Harrison Drury is committed to reducing the environmental impacts of our business and will at all times observe aspects of environmental legislation.

More recently we have taken steps to ensure that as far as possible all tea, coffee and hot chocolate provided in staff kitchens is certified as fair trade, along with the weekly fruit delivery to staff which is sourced from local providers and farmers.

In 2017/2018 Harrison Drury’s head office in Preston underwent a large refurbishment to provide additional space for our growing team. As part of the refurbishment the firm looked at ways to reduce our carbon footprint. One such measure was to install energy saving lights in all offices, meeting rooms and communal spaces. Ethical and sustainable furniture was also purchased for each of the offices, along with the inclusion of reduced flush toilets to save on water usage.

Each of our offices are dedicated to reducing and recycling all waste produced. Each office therefore is equipped with a paper recycling bin, along with confidential waste paper bins, both of which are then recycled. In the kitchens we provide plastic and cardboard recycling bins for waste to be disposed of and taken away for recycling. The introduction of these has seen an increase in the amount of waste we are now able to recycle.

Environmental Policy

Carbon Management

• The firm operates a car sharing scheme, details of which are included within the staff handbook. Staff members are encouraged, where possible, to share their daily commute with others who live close by.
• The firm strongly advocates the use of Public Transport. Unless authorised by a manager mileage claims will only be paid for travel between branch offices where no direct train link is available. Details of this are included within the staff handbook.
• Harrison Drury operates a Cycle to work scheme – bike storage areas are provided at all offices, with changing areas and facilities also available to those who choose to cycle/run to work.
• Flexible Working/Duvet Days – the firm allows staff the option to, within reason, work from home thus reducing the need to use any form of transport to travel to and from work. Requests for flexible working should be submitted through your line manager and may require the authorisation of the HR manager.
• Remote working/Teleconferencing – the firm are beginning to develop the use of teleconferencing in favour of several staff travelling to one office for a meeting. Staff will be trained in the effective use of teleconferencing tools along with guidance on where this can be used appropriately.
• Low Energy Light bulbs/Electronics – The firm is committed to using ‘energy-saving’ bulbs. During our regular maintained lights will be placed on a sensor to ensure that they only come on when in use, and turn off automatically after a short set amount of time.
• Double Glazing/Temperature Control – the majority of our offices are fitted with thermostatic radiators and boilers. This allows for radiators in the infrequently used rooms to be turned off. It is the responsibility of all staff to make sure that energy is not used in a wasteful or unnecessary manner. Where available our offices are fitted with double glazing.
• Turning devices off – all the printers across the firm are fitted with a ‘Standby mode’ whereby a period of inactivity will ensure the printer is put into standby and not left on. Devices such as radios are also all turned off overnight. All staff should shut down and turn off their laptops and computers overnight. Lights in the offices are turned off overnight and then only used during the day where necessary – the large windows in our offices mean that electric lights are often not used in the summer months, in favour of the natural light.

Waste and Recycling

• Metals, Plastic and Paper recycling – we operate plastic and paper recycling across all offices. Plastic recycling bins are located in each kitchen, and paper recycling bins are located in each office. These are then collated in larger recycling bins which are collected by the council every week for recycling.
• Paper-lite working – we operate a paper-lite ethos at HD and encourage all staff to only print where necessary. All our printers are default double sided/black & white printing to reduce the amount of paper needed to print a document and reduce waste.
• Battery recycling – all batteries are recycled within the firm. We have a central collection point for them and once full this is taken to the local recycling centre for correct disposal.
• Confidential waste – a confidential waste bin is located on each floor of every office across the firm. The contents of these bins is collected by a 3^rd party and shredded. The company we use for confidential waste, Secure Archive Solutions, disposes of our waste in accordance their ‘Green Document Disposal’ Protocol ensuring that, after shredding, all paper is recycled.
• Printer Cartridge recycling – Printer cartridge recycling is in operation across all offices, with an external party coming to collect the empty cartridges from our printers and recycle these safely.
• We work with a company called The Senetor Group, who collect and recycle our unwanted office furniture. They use the constituent parts of old chairs, desks, storage units (and the list goes on!) to create new products in a closed loop cycle.

Water Use

• Toilets are fitted with dual flush buttons, allowing for different amounts of water to be flushed depending on preference. All staff are encouraged to use the smaller flush button to reduce the amount of water used per flush.
• In the offices which use dishwashers, these are only put on once a day on a short 30 minute cycle.
• Offices are currently being fitted with on-demand boiling water taps (Zip Boilers), to ensure that no unnecessary water/energy is used.

Procurement

• Fruit Supplies – we provide fresh fruit to staff from a supplier based locally to each office. The fruit they provide us with, where possible, is always locally sourced from sustainable suppliers.
• Milk – across all sites we work with local dairy farmers who deliver our milk in glass bottles which are re-collected and reused.
• Drinking water is provided by Aquaid. A social enterprise who donates a percentage of its profits each year to clean drinking water initiatives in Africa.
• Tea & Coffee – We work with Clipper Teas who supply all our offices with sustainable, plastic-free and Fair Trade tea and coffee. We also use Fair Trade sugar across all the offices.
• The paper supplier we use across all office, Antalis, is accredited with the EU Ecolabel and prides itself in sourcing it’s wood from responsibly managed forests. The company has also been recognised for its contribution to the environment in the following ways: certification to ISO 14001:2004 for environmental management, PAS 2020 for direct marketing and chain of custody to both FSC® and PEFC certified standards and awarded the Carbon Trust Standard in December 2010.
• Office furniture, where available and reasonably priced, will be sourced from our preferred provider – Triumph, who have an impressive environmental commitment: “Everyone on the Triumph Furniture team is integrated into a system of sustainability, from design through to installation. We are committed to a programme of continuous improvement and align our policies with Environmental Agency guidelines. Triumph Furniture has an internal goal of zero waste to landfill. We have achieved a reduction of 3% in our waste going to landfill in the last 2 years. The organisation is also FSC® and FISP (furniture Industry Sustainability Programme) accredited. A further example of sustainability within our products is the fabric used for our desk dividers/screens which are made from 100% wool meaning no man-made products were used in their production.”
• Toilet Roll – In 2020 we took the decision to ‘get cheeky’ with our toilet roll, hand towels and tissues across all sites, now only using sustainable bamboo products from a fantastic company called Cheeky Panda.

Click here to go back to the Harrison Drury Community page and to discover how we work with charities and good causes across the North West.