Commercial Money Matters strives to understand its environmental impacts and looks to minimise these as much as practicable. This is our policy on such matters:

• Consumption, use and disposal of materials

We follow the Reduce (consumption), Reuse, Recycle hierarchy. In particular:

• Commercial Money Matters (re)uses scrap paper where appropriate.
• Where batteries are required, they are always sourced as rechargeable batteries.
• Our office supplies’ procurement is always aimed at sourcing products with better environmental credentials.
• Commercial Money Matters commits to purchase all new paper from 100% recycled, UK manufactured sources and refills its printer cartridges (until they no longer work) rather than purchasing entire new cartridges as standard.
• We set our margins on paper to a moderate setting to reduce the total amount of paper sheets printed on; and we print double-sided as default.
• When larger purchases are required, such as IT equipment, Commercial Money Matters buys either pre-used items or new items that have good environmental credentials.
• The main waste output from the office is paper and cardboard; 100% of this waste is recycled (when it cannot be reused).

Energy consumption
The company uses three small offices. These use only a small amount of energy to run due to their compact size. Each office:

• Uses only fluorescent light tubes and only when required.
• Has a thermometer in to check it is not heated beyond 20OC. Heating is via under-floor heating or radiators powered by gas boilers. There are heat reflective panels behind the radiators to reduce heat absorption and loss to the walls.
• Has no air conditioning.
• Has computers and peripherals switched on only when being used; monitors are switched off when a pc is temporarily left.

Travel
Travel is a main component of the direct carbon footprint of Commercial Money Matters. As much of our work is connecting with rural businesses, we do use 4×4 vehicles. Employees’ vehicles are privately owned. To lower or offset the carbon footprint, we:

• Encourage staff to buy used vehicles rather than new vehicles and to consider the CO2 emissions value when deciding on future vehicles.
• Buy carbon offsets for our annual mileage via The Carbon Neutral Company.
• Aim to undertake 5% of our annual business mileage by public transport or by foot/cycle.
• Pay mileage expenses for cycle journeys.

Sustainable investments
Sustainability means living our lives today in a way that won’t compromise future generations. It considers economic, social and environmental impacts. Please see our Corporate Social Responsibility policy for further information in this area.