Environmental efficiency.
Our Group Environmental Policy statement sets out our commitment to the environment
and our expectations of our employees. Our operations impact the environment in
two main ways:
- Directly, through the operations of our buildings and business travel;
- Indirectly, through our investments and
supply chain.
We have measured our direct environmental impacts for over ten years, focusing on
energy, transport, water and waste, as well as addressing the risks and opportunities
associated with climate change. To do this we operate four certified Environmental
Management Systems (EMS) covering the areas where we can make a difference:
- UK Facilities
- UK Procurement
- Legal & General Property (two systems covering King Sturge and the post-acquisition
management of the Leisure Fund Limited Partnership buildings).
We were one of the first Financial Services companies to become certified to ISO
14001 and this programme has expanded over the years to cover our supply chain and
property investments. We don’t offset our impacts or make claims of ‘carbon
neutrality’ as our priority is to reduce our impacts.
We use benchmarking to measure our performance (see our
validation and verification section for further information) and we report
our performance through our environmental data sheet. Externally, our environmental
management is recognised through:
- Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index Platinum Rating.
- Membership of the Dow Jones World and European Sustainability Indices.
- Founding signatories and respondents to the Carbon Disclosure Project.
- Founding members of Climatewise, an Association of British Insurers (ABI), HRH the
Prince of Wales initiative on climate change.
To ensure long-term improvements, we set two three year targets at the end of 2008
(see targets/ performance section) to
tackle our two main environmental impacts, carbon dioxide emissions and waste. In
relation to what we produce, we look at our impacts in relation to the number of
employees or customer contracts we have. In 2010, despite taking on two percent
more business, all core natural resources have reduced (see table below), with the
following headline improvements:
- Car based business miles reduced by 8 million (55%) since 2006;
- Energy use (per contract) reduced 16% since 2006;
- 55% less waste (per contract) since 2006;
- 26% drop in landfill (per employee) since 2006 (and a 42% reduction since 2005);
- Office copier paper reduced by 43% since 2006 (and 54% per employee).
UK Resources used to manage our client contracts as at the 31 December 2010
|
Key Performance Indicator
|
2010
|
2009
|
% Change
|
|
No. live contracts (million)
|
8.053
|
7.885
|
+ 2%
|
|
Total direct CO2 (UK occupied properties & business travel) per contract
|
2.14
|
2.31
|
– 7%
|
|
Car based business mileage
|
7,050,767
|
8,188,152
|
– 14%
|
|
Energy per contract (kwh)
|
3.81
|
4
|
– 6%
|
|
Total waste per contract (grams)
|
119
|
154
|
– 22%
|
|
Copier paper per contract (sheets)
|
4.7
|
5.6
|
– 10%
|
|
Percentage of paper accredited or recycled source.
|
76
|
62
|
+ 14%
|
Water use is tracked (see data sheet) and having installed water saving devices
in most of our offices several years ago, we do not currently have any targets to
reduce our water use further at present. In 2010 we have seen our water consumption
increase. This is due to the inclusion of our overseas offices and the refurbishment
project which is underway at our largest office in Surrey. We will review our water
impacts in 2011 with a view to setting targets for 2012.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions
There are many ways that this type of information can be recorded and interpreted
so we continue to measure and monitor our office energy use and employee business
travel (road, rail and air) as transparently as possible along with our corresponding
carbon dioxide emissions (data sheet).
Historically we have focused on the core occupied properties (controlled by our
UK Facilities department) and our UK employee business travel. This is the basis
of the data which we used to set a three year target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
(5% absolute reduction on 2008 levels – see target/performance
section).
In the last two years we have reported progress against this target (target/performance
section and target data graphs below). In 2010 we have added Legal &
General Surveying Services Ltd, Legal & General Franchising Ltd and Suffolk
Life Ltd to the operations now included in the UK’s Carbon Reduction Commitment
Regulations (CRC). These regulations mean that all of Legal & General’s
energy use, including process emissions within Legal & General Investments and
Legal & General Property and those from our venture businesses, will be reported
together from July 2011.
Our global energy use (with the exception of our Ventures business and some void
SIPP properties (Self Invested Personal Pension) in Suffolk Life) is explained graphically
below along with details on our targeted Carbon Dioxide emissions. For further information
on our investment related emissions please see Legal & General Property.
View textual description
We have seen our emissions reduce nearly 15% since 2008. In our offices this reduction
has come through ISO14001 certification and headcount reduction. Business travel
is managed through our green travel policy, budget control and education.
It has been encouraging to see more staff using trains. Car based business mileage
is down 34% (in two years) compared to a 32% increase in rail use over the same
period. We have also seen a reduction in domestic air travel by 41% over the two
years offset by increases in European and long haul flying (up 74% and 37% respectively).
This was expected due to our overseas expansion programme.
The CRC has been a big driver in changing the way we report these impacts. In 2012
we will work further with our UK and overseas operations to improve the scope of
our targeting and to integrate this further with our financial reporting. For further
information on carbon, outsourcing and supply chain emissions please see Supply
Chain Management.
View textual description
Waste Management
Reducing waste, particularly landfill has been a key focus for Legal & General
over the years and we still find it an area where education, new technology and
innovation continue to help us to reduce our footprint considerably.
In the early years of our environmental programme, the focus with waste was firmly
on our UK Facilities department who successfully engaged with the business, installing
shared recycling points and other initiatives which pushed our recycling rate to
over 70% (at peak). In more recent times, we have seen a shift in waste management
and whilst UK Facilities continue to drive recycling and other means of disposal,
the business is now taking account for its waste which is helping us to achieve
huge savings (see graph below).
View textual description
Total Waste (Targeted UK Landfill and Recycling)
Our focus on waste has been at our core occupied properties (controlled by UK Facilities)
and this is the basis of the data which we set a three year target to reduce waste
by a 10% absolute reduction on 2008 levels. In the last two years we have reduced
waste significantly by over 40%, and so in 2011 we are looking at other areas where
we can make a difference. It has been recognised that there is a large amount of
waste generated within our supply chain either through insurance claims or through
destruction of paper at mail houses. Our supplier managers are working with our
General Insurance business to look at waste in the claims process in 2011 and we
are looking to set the business paper destruction targets to reduce the waste from
outside our offices – see supplier section.
Our businesses continually strive to reduce the amount of paper we send to customers
and we are implementing online measures in our General Insurance business to try
and reduce this further in 2011.
We are working with our other UK operations, including Legal & General Surveying
Services Ltd, Legal & General Franchising Ltd and Suffolk Life Ltd and also
our overseas subsidiaries to ensure they provide waste data going forward.