The Carbon Steering Team at ALS Environmental are a group of individuals who are committed to reducing the carbon footprint of their business and finding ways of supporting sustainability. Recently the team had a 6 year review and were proud to report the success that has been achieved. ALS has remarkably reduced the Total Carbon Footprint of the company by almost a third over the past six years.

In 2011 the Carbon Steering Team was created with the objective of promoting the efficient use of fuels; namely gas, electricity and diesel. All of the sites under review have dramatically reduced their carbon usage, most significantly in gas and electricity, for this period and there are plans in place to make further efficiency savings. The 2017/2018 objective was to decrease the Carbon footprint by 5-10%. For the first 5 months alone it has actually dropped by approximately 9% so they are well within target.

One of the initiatives ALS have introduced is to use less paper. The company have adopted a duplex approach to printing and now only use 100% recycled paper throughout to increase their sustainability business-wide. As ALS Environmental is an ISO 14001 certified company it is their duty to protect and minimise their impact on the environment. ISO 14001 is an internationally accepted standard that outlines how to put an effective environmental management system in place. It is designed to help businesses remain commercially successful without overlooking their responsibilities to the environment. Moving to recycled paper was a natural choice and ALS want to lead the way to a greener future.

The new paper is manufactured with fewer CO2 emissions, reduced water and energy consumption. The paper is recycled and also has the added benefit that no chlorine-based bleaching agents, optical brighteners or chemicals which are harmful to health or the environment are used in the production process. This paper is 100% recycled and is manufactured from 100% recovered paper.

Another area of ongoing improvement is the continued need for decreasing driving, not only for their vans and drivers but also the customers. ALS Environmental have significantly increased their drop-off locations around the country and being more accessible will mean each sample has less distance to travel.

If you have any questions about their certification, accreditation, you would like to discuss your analysis requirements or their drop-off locations, please contact ALS Environmental's Customer Service team on 02476 42 12 13.