Environmental Policy

Purpose and Commitments​

The Heart of England Community Foundation believes that we all have a responsibility to protect the environment for future generations. We all have a responsibility to reduce our environmental impact, especially in reducing carbon emissions, the main driver of climate change.

We recognise the importance no matter how small, of the impact of our activities on the environment and that there is a need to constantly consider ways in which we can conserve energy and minimise waste in all activities that we undertake.

Heart of England Community Foundation actively acknowledges our responsibility in protecting the environment in all areas of our work, from the projects we fund to the campaigns we support, the journeys we make, actions within the office and printing our publications.

We are committed as far as possible to:

• Purchase products and services that do the least damage to the environment and encourage others to do the same.
• Assess the environmental impact of any new processes or products we intend to introduce in advance.
• Use local suppliers wherever possible, to not only reduce the environmental impact, but also to support the local communities in the West Midlands and Warwickshire region.

We remain committed to reducing our impact upon the environment in the following ways:

Minimise and Manage Waste

We work as a team and with our office hosts to ensure that our waste is to a minimum and any waste we do have is disposed of in line with legal and environment requirements this includes:

• We actively recycle products including paper, plastics and cardboard.
• Promote minimal waste solutions- encouraging staff not to print and where we do default black and white is set for printing.
• Circulation of documents electronically where applicable, only print when needed.
• Minimise the use of paper, actively use the electronic systems for document management and storage.
• Only print in colour when required.
• Actively recycle IT equipment and toner cartridges etc.
• Reduce printing- default print setting is double sided.
• Buy recycled paper where appropriate.
• Use e-mail campaigns and digital media as opposed to physical post where appropriate.
• Confidential waste is cross shredded and then recycled.

Recycling and use of Recycled Materials

We work with our office hosts and suppliers to utilise and promote the use of recycled materials wherever possible, ensuring that materials are disposed of in an environmentally safe manner.

Support and Improve Energy Consumption

In our hosted offices we make efficient use of the natural light within the building and conserve energy by adopting an ‘only turn on when using’ approach to equipment.
We do this by:

• Ensure all our electronic devices are run in energy saving mode.
• Ensure all electronic devices are switched off, or powered down, when not in use
• Ensure all lights which are not sensor controlled are switched off when not in use.
• Where applicable, use air con/heating control responsibly, turning down/off when not in use.

Water Use ​

Encourage employees to conserve water when not in use- most taps in our hosted office are automatic so shut off when not in use.

• Encourage the use of existing water supplies, minimise the provision of bottled water. Cooled water taps provided by office hosts and glasses available for use or staff can use own bottle.

Reduce Travel and Subsistence

We have a travel and subsistence policy which details the Foundation’s expectations around these areas. This includes:

Travel

• Only travel if absolutely necessary- consider use of Team, Zoom etc.
• Encourage staff to use online systems and teleconference to minimise travel to meetings.
• Actively review business mileage and expenditure.
• Embrace flexible/ remote working.
• Use of pool car as appropriate (ideally electric).
• Use public transport where possible, unless this significantly increases cost or inefficiency.
• Lift share where appropriate.

Food and Catering

• Avoid plastic and disposable cutlery where possible
• When providing refreshments use, or choose a locally based supplier or caterer that uses, wherever possible;
  o Locally sourced produce
  o Seasonal produce
  o Fair trade products, if available
  o Rainforest certified products, if available
  o British Farm Standard assured products
  o Organic produce where possible
  o Meat products that meet animal welfare standards.

Grant Making and Impact ​

We are currently working on a new impact framework for our grant making. As part of this we will be looking at how we continually evaluate and learn from our grant making and how we share this learning with our West Midlands and Warwickshire communities.

We recognise from our evaluation that the environment is an area where communities identified we could do more to support them. We are actively seeking programmes and opportunities to support sustainability and green initiatives across the region and actively promoting the programmes that fund environment issues.

As part of this work we are working with UKCF to explore the many ways in which our work aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The alignment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the work of community foundations is clear.

Funder Commitment on Climate Change

The Foundation has committed to the Funder Commitment on Climate Change, will take actions against their five goals.

• Educate and Learn
• Commit Resources
• Integrate
• Steward our investments for a post carbon future
• Decarbonise our operations

Our actions against these 5 goals will be tracked as part of our Climate Crisis Action Plan. We will report our progress annually against these 5 goals.

We will use this action plan to develop our learning and practice, actively learn from others, and share our learning with others across our communities and our network.

Green Champion- Jenny Whateley

Jenny is our Green Champion and actively encourages staff to undertaken actions within this policy. Jenny attends training and national activities led by our affiliated body UKCF and feeds back to the team, considers implementation and new ways of working for us.

Policy Review Box

The Foundation will monitor the effectiveness of this policy regularly to ensure its suitability and effectiveness. Any improvements identified will be made as soon as possible. The policy will be reviewed by the Management Committee every three years.