Environment and Waste

corporate responsibility

All businesses have an impact on the environment. Arqiva operates over 8,000 sites around the UK and we are conscious of the importance of behaving responsibly, particularly as many of these sites are in rural locations.

We adhere closely to the requirements laid down by the Woodland Trust and the Butterfly Conservation Agency as regards the maintenance of relevant sites so that they remain areas where the natural inhabitants can flourish.

At our major sites we pride ourselves on our close relationships with our immediate neighbours. Our philosophy is to support our local communities by addressing any concerns they may have and helping as much as we can with local initiatives.

Some key environmental achievements to date are as follows:

  • Identification and management of the aspects of Arqiva’s business which could have an impact on the environment
  • Changeover of Arqiva’s 540-strong vehicle fleet to more environmentally friendly models, reducing our CO2 emissions by a total of 284 tonnes per year. We continue to keep this area under review as more environmentally friendly options become available
  • Video conferencing launched across Arqiva. with webcasting due shortly, minimising the amount of travelling required for meetings
  • Car-sharing scheme launched for employees
  • Planting of 70,000 trees in the Brazilian rainforest to sustain environmentally important tree corridors.

It is Arqiva’s policy to follow the waste hierarchy:

  • Minimise waste produced
  • Reuse any redundant items
  • Recycle waste
  • Dispose, as the last resort

In addition, during 2009 we awarded a new waste contract to ensure all waste across the company is handled consistently and in a more environmentally responsible way.

We recently completed an audit of the printers across our main sites to consider their usage and consumption (toner, paper etc). As a result we’re replacing many of the older printers with more efficient Multi Functional Devices. These devices also serve as photocopiers and scanners. They will be automatically set to two-sided printing, hence cutting the amount of paper used. They will also use far less consumables than our current printers and have many new features that could save wastage.