Environmental Awareness

At Unicom we are aware of the impact that our every day activities have on the environment. As such it is our intention to operate our business in an environmentally friendly way.

Unicom has undergone a Carbon Survey in order to identify any practical energy-saving opportunities. It was found that energy consumption exceeded 550,000 kWh equating to a carbon footprint of approximately 250 tonnes a year.

Unicom is committed to reducing its carbon footprint year on year. We aim to reduce our carbon footprint through various means including:

• Installing timers on appliances and office equipment to ensure they are not left switched on
  
  
• Installing low energy light bulbs where old bulbs expire
  
  
• Installing energy efficient hand dryers in order to eliminate the use of paper hand towels which get disposed of in landfill
  
  
• Encouraging the take up of ebilling by our customers
  
  
• Encouraging a paper free office throughout the business
  
  
• Ensuring all correspondence to customers is duplex printed
  
  
• Providing recycling opportunities throughout the office

Unicom was able to reduce its carbon footprint for staff at our Manchester head office from 0.93 tonnes of CO2 used per member of staff in 2008 to 0.78 tonnes of CO2 per member of staff in 2010, a reduction of 16%. We have been able to calculate that we have further reduced our carbon footprint from 0.78 tonnes of CO2 used per member of staff in 2010, to 0.61 tonnes of CO2 per member of staff in 2012, a further reduction of 22%.

Our target is to consume less energy each year whilst still maintaining growth, aiming to reduce energy usage by between 10-15% over the next 2 years.

Unicom aims to do this by:

• Avoiding unnecessary carbon expenditure.
  
  
• Improving cost effectiveness in producing a comfortable working environment.
  
  
• Protecting the environment by minimising CO2 emissions.

• Buying fuel at the most economic cost while ensuring security of supply, and ensure that energy consumption is monitored across the site, periodically comparing energy costs and utilisation within the organisation.
  
  
• Utilising the fuel in the most cost effective manner.
  
  
• Reducing pollution levels caused by our energy use.
  
  
• Reducing, wherever cost effective, our dependence on fossil fuels, through the use of good design and modern controls in any new buildings and refurbishment programmes.
  
  
• Controlling heating temperatures and periods in each building consistent with its pattern of use.
  
  
• Increasing awareness of energy issues among staff and encourage energy responsible attitudes.
  
  
• Utilising low energy appliances whenever possible giving satisfactory lifecycle payback.
  
  
• Being aware of energy use when planning new buildings, or changes in space usage

In today’s ever more environmentally conscious society, it is important to look at the way our businesses operate and contribute towards reducing their carbon footprint.

As the UK’s fastest growing telecoms company, Unicom is striving to reduce the resources used to send out customer invoices each month. To that end we are actively asking all customers to do their part in protecting the environment by signing up to e-mail billing and online account management.

Currently 49% of all Unicom customers have signed up to ebilling – saving of 132,000 sheets of paper a month or 1.6 million sheets per annum. This equates to saving nearly 200 trees per year.

If you are interested in e-billing, please follow this link: Go Green

For ideas and suggestions on how you can save energy at work or at home download this Carbon Trust energy saving fact sheet.