Before The Sunday Times has even announced the 2010 league table itself, Canon UK has been pleased to hear that it has climbed 22 positions in this year’s Sunday Times Best Green Companies, to an impressive tenth place. The company was also delighted to have come in third in the ‘bigger companies with a medium environmental impact’ category.
Working in conjunction with Bureau Veritas, the environmental consultants and Munro Global, the market research group, The Sunday Times last year founded the Sunday Times Best Green Companies rankings. To enter, companies must have at least fifty full-time employees, or part-time equivalents that are based in the UK.
The selection process comprises two parts – a detailed assessment stage of an organisation’s environmental performance and an employee engagement survey. Assessing an organisation’s performance is an extensive process. Information on environmental policies, systems and controls as well as performance metrics such as energy consumption, waste output, recycling policies/performance and carbon footprint is all gathered up and meticulously evaluated.
Secondly, and this is where the Sunday Times really sets itself apart from other green rankings, there’s the employee survey. The Sunday Times asks an organisation’s employees what they think about their organisation’s environmental standards and performance, allowing it to identify corporate culture, the impact of aforementioned policies and how procedures filter down onto the shop floor.
Each employee within an organisation is asked to score a series of statements on a seven-point scale, ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". These cover everything from attitudes of employees and managers to an organisation’s perceived track-record on recycling and other green commitments to the overall level of green awareness in the workplace. Only when a company has completed both the company assessment and the employee survey are they eligible for entry into the Best Green Company Awards.
After verification of the results, both sets of data are combined. The company assessment phase accounts for 70% of the final ranking and the employee survey contributes the remaining 30%. This allows The Sunday Times to report a single green score for a company which both reflects environmental performance and staff perceptions.
Scoring 81% in the staff survey, Canon UK & Ireland, employees showed themselves to be very well aware of the importance of environmental responsibilities within the organisation. 81% believed that they have been provided with at least adequate environmental training; 86% understand what IS0 14001* was; and 87% of Canon staff believed the company’s green credentials are becoming increasingly important to their customers.
The survey also revealed that most of Canon UK ’s employees considered green issues one among a number of other everyday considerations for the company (79%) and that overall, employees feel they are given the right encouragement to try to reduce their individual environmental impact, both at home and in the office. For example, instead of bins by individual employees’ desks, Canon UK provides its staff with central recycling points for paper, cardboard and plastics, as well as battery recycling points that can be used for home waste as well as waste that’s generated within the organisation. One quite innovative approach Canon UK has adopted in an attempt to reduce staff members’ carbon footprints on journeys to and from work has been the free coach service Canon has set up, which runs from the nearest local train station to Canon’s UK head quarters in Woodhatch, Surrey. It’s been a great success, both on the environmental front and that it obviously works out much more economically getting to and from work for those employees who can take advantage of the scheme. This year Canon is in the process of replacing its entire company fleet with low-emission VW Golf BlueMotion estates for those members of staff who require the regular use of a vehicle for site visits. And furthermore, Canon UK also takes part in the government led ‘Cycle to Work Scheme’, with its employees able to purchase bikes and safety equipment for both work and leisure, completely tax-free.
Canon UK’s Corporate Communications Manager, Jason Sullivan, has commented on the company’s even higher ranking in 2010,
To see our hard work rewarded with such a great result is fantastic, and we believe this will continue to provide further motivation for our employees to always consider their individual environmental impact, both at home and at work. Despite the tough economic conditions of the past year, we have not let the environment drop off our agenda. If anything, we judge the success of our business on the long-term economic, environmental, and social impact of our business practices, so a sustainable and environmentally sound business model is key to our success.
Falcon Document Management is extremely pleased to hear how well Canon has performed in this latest, Sunday Times Best Green Company ranking and is doing everything it can to place itself amongst the best-ranking companies within its business sector.
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