Environmental Sustainability Policy

We’ll aim to reduce the negative impact our organisation has on the environment, as we carry out necessary organisational activities. When we make decisions about what we’ll do, we’ll consider the environmental impact of those decisions and activities, and try to choose options which minimise our environmental impact.

We’ll

• identify and assess the potential environmental impact of what we do
• try to eliminate or minimise that impact through changing what we do or how we do it.

This policy applies to all trustees, other volunteers, employees, contractors, and third-party representatives of Dementia Carers Count.  Its requirements should be reflected in other policies and procedures, agreements and contracts, as necessary.

As a small charity that cares for carers, we want to be a responsible member of this wider community, and do our bit to help take care of the world we all share. 

We are a small, remote organisation, with no office building, minimal domestic travel and an already low carbon footprint. Yet we can all do more.  Here are key steps we’re taking to keep our carbon footprint low and help protect our planet for future generations:

1. We’ll measure our carbon footprint annually and publish the results
2. Continue remote working, use of digital technology and avoiding unnecessary travel
3. Continue to use public transport as preference for essential travel
4. Continue to provide remote and digital services that flexibly meet dementia carers’ needs
5. Continue to invest our money ethically, reducing the pollution our investments support
6. Monitor and reduce our print communications where possible, always using paper from sustainable sources
7. Eliminate the production of non-essential or non-biodegradable marketing or learning materials
8. Prioritise using suppliers who are equally committed to reducing their environmental impact
9. Conduct staff learning on Environmental Sustainability, and include discussion on ways we can all reduce our environmental impact at staff meetings or 1-2-1s

We’ll benchmark our performance each year against the actions above. Each year we’ll review how we’ve done, and see how to maintain our good position, or improve, building those actions into our work plan for the following years through the business planning process. We’ll make it clear how we’re reducing our impact on the environment by including an environmental statement in the Trustees’ Annual Report and on our website, detailing our progress against the goals above, and what we hope to achieve next.