The purpose of this environmental policy is to indicate our organisational commitment to addressing environmental issues within [organisation name] and through the services we deliver. This document outlines what Blended U.K. Limited will do to identify our environmental impact, how we will adapt to reduce our impact, and the responsibilities of team members in this space.

Scope

This policy applies to employees and contractors, both full time and part time. The policy will be shared with suppliers, potential partners and consultants wherever appropriate to indicate our commitment to environmental action.

Action

Blended U.K. Limited is committed to accelerating a just transition to net zero and reducing the impact on the environment from our operations and service delivery. We will address this through the following areas of work:

Staff engagement

We will promote responsibility for the environment within the organisation, and communicate and implement this policy at all levels of our team. We commit to ensuring key members of staff have the time necessary to embed this work into our operations and providing further resource where possible and necessary.

We will encourage and support staff to set up a staff climate working group for those with a personal or professional interest in the area, making sure that this group is representative of all levels of the organisation.

We will support staff wellbeing by considering how we promote positive, action-led messaging about climate breakdown and provide opportunities for them to change the ways they work for [organisation name] in line with positive climate behaviours. We will provide space for staff to discuss this issue, including their own concerns and worries about environmental breakdown, through any wider wellbeing programmes in place.

The senior management team of Blended U.K. Limited will:

·       Share its expectation of responsibility for the environment to employees, board members and secretariat service providers.

·       Demonstrate clear commitment to the environment and lead by example, to ensure that the protection of the environment is promoted to all employees.

·       Support team wellbeing and work to combat hopelessness by committing to driving action in the organisation, and setting a positive example.

The employees of Blended U.K. Limited will:

·       Be familiar with all the environmental requirements relevant to their role and responsibilities, including exploring the carbon footprint/environmental impact of specific areas of work;

·       take responsibility for their own impact on the environment while [in the workplace/working from home], sharing ideas with other staff members on how to reduce personal impact.

·       The employees of Blended U.K. Limited will:

Be responsible for measuring the carbon emissions of our fleet of vans; and ensuring not printing agendas

The board of trustees will:

·       Recognises that climate breakdown is a strategic and systemic risk challenging the charity’s ability to meet is objectives in the long term;

·       Supports senior management and the wider staff team in addressing climate breakdown.

Operations

Our mission is: to make education accessible. The sustainability of our services is important for the people/places and communities we work with.

As part of delivering our mission in line with our values and charitable objectives, we will assess the environmental impacts of our operations and set objectives and targets annually in order to improve our internal carbon emissions. We will review these targets annually. This work will include:

·       Monitoring utilities consumption in office buildings and home working

·       Promoting, encouraging and rewarding green travel choices from employees [including Cycle to Work scheme, public transport, and reducing flying wherever possible]

·       Conscious consideration of the amount of travel necessary for our services to go ahead, encouraging green transportation modes and/or providing remote access to events

·       Review our waste and educate employees about effective recycling and reducing use of single use plastic where possible

·       Communicate with the communities we work with about climate breakdown and how it is relevant to our mission, vision and values

·       Generally increase communications about the climate crisis, to encourage awareness within our networks and the communities we work with

·       Comply with all relevant environmental legislation and regulations

Governance

Our board of directors have overall responsibility for Blended U.K. Limited and its strategy. We commit to exploring on an annual basis the impact climate breakdown will have or is having on the communities/people and places we work with. This work is led by the board of directors and include, but is not limited to:

·       Discussing at one board meeting per year how our mission, vision and values intersect with climate breakdown. This discussion should include how our beneficiaries will be affected by climate breakdown; where there is opportunity to collaborate and support wider climate action; and how to embed climate actions in our strategy, business planning and organisational goals.

·       Providing a short statement in our annual report each year outlining the discussions we have had around climate breakdown and any action we have taken, alongside our aims for the following business year.

·       Making time to discuss practical strategic actions at one board meeting per year/with our risk committees . This could include but is not limited to:

·       Including the climate breakdown on our risk register/s, in terms of the risk it poses to finances, reputation and service delivery, and decide on mitigating actions;

·       Reviewing our pension funds and explain to all employees how they can move their pension to an ethical fund if they wish to, in line with our values;

·       Considering the risk of climate breakdown to staff retention/recruitment and exploring how we can improve in this space.

Suppliers and procurement

The suppliers of Blended U.K. Limited will:

·       Share environmental policies or describe planned actions if a formal policy is not in place when entering into any contract or agreement with Blended U.K. Limited. This will be done via questions provided on our supplier form/independently through our due diligence processes.

·       Work with us to reduce the impacts of the goods and services purchased from them wherever possible.

We recognise that although we may not be able to reject suppliers based solely on their sustainability credentials that asking questions raises the profile of this issue, and that we may partly influence behaviours through this action alone. Our engagement with suppliers is designed to identify suppliers with values which align with our own, and we will make public our preference to work with organisations who minimise their environmental impact wherever possible.