Environmental Policy

Grasshopper is a communications agency with a creative edge and commitment to engaging communities. We aim to deliver positive change to the world around us. We help organisations to connect with people and to partner with their communities to transform where they work and live. Our aim is to work with communities to deliver better projects and lasting social value.

We help shape conversations about the world around us. Whether it’s new homes, renewable energy, flood management or low carbon technologies.

We specialise in stakeholder and community engagement, corporate affairs and research and insights for the renewable energy, place making, environment and transport and health sectors. We employ 20 team members across our two offices in Cardiff and Crawley.

Grasshopper is committed to operating our day-to-day business with an awareness of our potential impact on the environment. As an office-based consultancy we do not work with any hazardous materials; we impact our environment through travel and the use of consumables and energy.

Grasshopper is committed to reviewing our business operations on a regular basis to continually improve our working practices, reduce our environmental impact and prevent pollution.

We are committed to minimising our environmental impacts and work towards the goals of sustainable development. The whole team is committed to compliance with all relevant legislation and guidance associated with our activities by the following:

 

Travel

  • We promote a work culture of agile working including working from home to reduce unnecessary travel
  • We promote working flexible hours to reduce travel when practical during peak travel times when traffic may cause additional travel time, fuel consumption and emissions
  • We prioritise the use of public transport and active travel (bus, train, cycling or walking) when practical
  • Where public transport is not possible, we encourage route planning before long journeys to minimise CO2 emissions.
  • We encourage car sharing for business travel, where possible.
  • We minimise travel by organising business meetings online or in locations where most of the participants are based.
  • We source local suppliers and ensure deliveries are minimised, where possible.
  • We monitor our business travel to help reduce our carbon footprint.

 

Waste management

  • We are committed to recycling paper, cardboard, tins, glass and plastic used during business operations.
  • We commit to reduce unnecessary printing by:
    • Using large monitors to ensure employees can view documents clearly without the need to print.
    • Communicating electronically where possible.
    • Attaching documents electronically and using shared computer files.
    • Carefully assessing quantities of printed consultation materials necessary to avoid excess printing.
    • When printing we use layouts that use the least amount of paper including printing on both sides of the paper and combining pages where practical.
    • Archiving project information and communications electronically.
  • We regularly review our office supplies to purchase to use low impact
    materials.

 

Energy management

  • We specify energy efficient equipment when purchasing new electronic
    office equipment and will replace old light bulbs with LED lights when they reach the end of their life.
  • We ensure all lights are turned off when necessary and at the end of the
    working day.
  • We switch off electronic office equipment when not in use.
  • We monitor our energy use to help reduce our carbon footprint.

 

Procurement

  • We support local businesses and suppliers to help support the local economy.
  • We regularly review our office supplies and equipment required for our work to purchase to use low impact materials.
  • We review all our suppliers’ environmental policies.

 

Company commitments

  • We ensure all employees and clients understand the importance of good
    environmental practice. This is communicated during our induction process for all new members of the team and through internal updates when required.
  • We have committed to uphold the values of the Future Generations (Wales) Act.
  • We are a member of Cynnal Cymru (Sustain Wales) and have signed up to
    the Business Wales Green Growth Pledge.
  • We are working to meet the requirements of the Green Dragon Environmental Standard.