Environmental Policy | ARC Fire Safety & Security

ARC Fire Safety & Security Ltd Environmental Policy

Purpose

The purpose of this environmental policy is to indicate our organisational commitment to addressing environmental issues within ARC Fire Safety & Security Ltd and through the services we deliver. This document outlines what ARC Fire Safety & Security Ltd will do to identify our environmental impact, how we will adapt to reduce our impact, and the responsibilities of team members in this space.

Scope

This policy applies to employees and contractors, both full-time and part-time. The policy will be shared with suppliers, potential partners, and consultants wherever appropriate to indicate our commitment to environmental action.

Action

ARC Fire Safety & Security Ltd is committed to accelerating a just transition to net zero and reducing the impact on the environment from our operations and service delivery. We will address this through the following areas of work:

Staff Engagement

We will promote responsibility for the environment within the organisation, and communicate and implement this policy at all levels of our team. We commit to ensuring key members of staff have the time necessary to embed this work into our operations and providing further resource where possible and necessary.

We will encourage and support staff to set up a staff climate working group for those with a personal or professional interest in the area, making sure that this group is representative of all levels of the organisation.

We will support staff wellbeing by considering how we promote positive, action-led messaging about climate breakdown and provide opportunities for them to change the ways they work for ARC Fire Safety & Security Ltd in line with positive climate behaviours. We will provide space for staff to discuss this issue, including their own concerns and worries about environmental breakdown, through any wider wellbeing programmes in place.

The Senior Management Team will:

Share its expectation of responsibility for the environment to employees, board members, and secretariat service providers.
Demonstrate clear commitment to the environment and lead by example, to ensure that the protection of the environment is promoted to all employees.
Support team wellbeing and work to combat hopelessness by committing to driving action in the organisation and setting a positive example.
Recognise that climate breakdown is a strategic and systemic risk challenging the company’s ability to meet its objectives in the long term.
Support management and the wider staff team in addressing climate breakdown.

The Management Team will:

Maintain employee awareness of the policy and required actions through communication lines including emails, meetings, and newsletters.
Consider and incorporate environmental factors into business decisions.

The Employees will:

Be familiar with all the environmental requirements relevant to their role and responsibilities, including exploring the carbon footprint/environmental impact of specific areas of work.
Take responsibility for their own impact on the environment while in the workplace/working from home, sharing ideas with other staff members on how to reduce personal impact.

Operations

The sustainability of our services is important for the people, places, and communities we work with. As part of delivering our mission in line with our values and charitable objectives, we will assess the environmental impacts of our operations and set objectives and targets annually in order to improve our internal carbon emissions. We will review these targets annually.

This work will include:

Monitoring utilities consumption in office buildings and home working.
Promoting, encouraging, and rewarding green travel choices from employees.
Using online meetings wherever possible when it is not vital that we meet stakeholders face-to-face.
Using public transport at every opportunity (all non-engineering trips to London are now via public transport).
Vehicle sharing to meetings and advising Engineers to vehicle share where site locations allow.
Consciously considering the amount of travel necessary for our services to go ahead, encouraging green transportation modes, and/or providing remote access to events.
Reviewing our waste and educating employees about effective recycling and reducing the use of single-use plastics where possible.
Increasing communications about the climate crisis generally, to encourage awareness within our networks and the communities we work with.
Complying with all relevant environmental legislation and regulations.

Governance

Our Directors have overall responsibility for ARC Fire Safety & Security Ltd and its strategy. We commit to exploring on an annual basis the impact climate breakdown will have or is having on the communities, people, and places we work with.

This work should be led by Andy Burridge MD and should include, but is not limited to:

Discussing at the Management Review Meeting (MRM) per year how our mission, vision, and values intersect with climate breakdown. This discussion should include how our beneficiaries will be affected by climate breakdown, where there is an opportunity to collaborate and support wider climate action, and how to embed climate actions in our strategy, business planning, and organisational goals.
Making time to discuss practical strategic actions at MRM meetings.
Including climate breakdown on our risk register(s) in terms of the risk it poses to finances, reputation, and service delivery, and deciding on mitigating actions.
Considering the risk of climate breakdown to staff retention and recruitment and exploring how we can improve in this space.

Suppliers and Procurement

The suppliers of ARC Fire Safety & Security Ltd will:

Share environmental policies or describe planned actions if a formal policy is not in place when entering into any contract or agreement with ARC Fire Safety & Security Ltd. This will be done via questions provided on our supplier form, independently through our due diligence processes, or by other means.
Work with us to reduce the impacts of the goods and services purchased from them wherever possible.

We recognise that although we may not be able to reject suppliers based solely on their sustainability credentials, asking questions raises the profile of this issue, and we may partly influence behaviours through this action alone. Our engagement with suppliers is designed to identify suppliers with values which align with our own, and we will make public our preference to work with organisations that minimise their environmental impact wherever possible.

Policy Review This policy will be reviewed annually. The next review is due in March 2027.

Andy Burridge, M.D.