The whole Attractioneering principle is founded on the philosophy that businesses can easily grow in quantum leaps (not at snail's pace), and become sustainable, predictable investments for their owners.  Creating a successful business can easily go hand in hand with maintaining ethical standards and social responsibility.  Good businesses work with the environment, not against it.

So you won't be surprised to find that we also take our environmental impact and social responsibilities seriously.

Environmental and Social Responsibility Policy Statement 

Where practicable, we adhere to the axiom of Reduce - Reuse - Recycle.

What this means is that we reduce our use of resources wherever possible.  When we have something we no longer need for its original purpose, we find a way to use it for a new purpose or we recycle it - either by giving it to someone else or by putting it in the recyling.  The last resort for anything is taking it to the dump or putting it into the rubbish/garbage collection that goes to the landfill.

We have started to become acutely aware that stuff we buy doesn't just have the financial costs to us as the end user, but also social and environmental costs to other people and systems upstream of us.   We therefore endeavour to be socially responsible and ethical through the choices we make regarding what we do and what we buy.  We don't always get it right, but we continually try to make better choices.

What We Actually Do

"Reduce" - Energy Reduction measures:

• We use low energy light bulbs
• We turn the thermostat on the heating down
• We turn off all electrical equipment, including lights and computers, when not in use
• Our electricity comes from a company that supplies electricity from renewable resources and is active in creating more renewable resources - www.good-energy.co.uk

  "Reduce" - Travel in Cars

• Unnecessary face to face meetings are kept to a minimum - most projects/coaching can be successfully completed using the phone, internet and email
• We travel by bicycle and "shank's pony" in the local area

"Reduce and Reuse": Paper and Ink

• We minimise the amount that we print and when possible, we use recycled paper in our printers
• We don't send paper invoices, banking transactions are done electronically and client/supplier communication is done electronically where possible
• Anything that's printed that we decide not to use, is put into the "notepaper" tray.  The side that wasn't printed on will then be used either for making notes, or the paper is recycled back through the printer
• We don't print anything on the colour printers unless absolutely necessary
• The printers are set to "draft mode" which uses a lot less ink
• All print cartridges are returned in order to be reused

"Recycling"

• Non-confidential documents are put into the paper recycling (after they've been through the above cycle)
• All recyclable materials are either recycled or composted
• Unwanted items are either sold or given away on "Freecycle" to someone who might benefit from them, rather than throwing them out

Social Responsibility and Charities

Whenever possible, we use fairtrade, organic or free-range products.  This particularly applies to coffee, tea and chocolate - all essential ingredients of any successful business!

We donate money to charities each month - currently WWF and CIWF.

WWF because I was brought up with a love of animals and a deep respect for nature. Because our behaviour so powerfully impacts the environment, I believe we have a duty to care for all living things within it.  Species such as the snow leopard, panda and bengal tiger are on the verge of extinction. If we can prevent that from happening, then we must.

I also particularly like African elephants and British Badgers - neither of which are on the endangered list at the moment, but probably only because people took action in time.

We also support Compassion in World Farming (CIWF).  I have been shocked and utterly sickened to learn about some standard practices in British farming that no one dares to speak of.  And this is bearing in mind that animal welfare standards are considerably higher in the UK than elsewhere.  Did you know, for example, that the male calves of dairy cattle are routinely shot,  simply because they have no economic value?  Their bodies are then treated as though they were sacks of rubbish, before they're fed to the hounds of the hunt.

I don't know about you, but that's not acceptable to me.  I have no problem with eating meat, but let's not be wasteful, profligate or dishonourable.

One of the things that CIWF does is to rank the major supermarkets according to the welfare standards of the produce that they sell.  If you live in the UK, it will probably come as no surprise to learn that M&S and Waitrose score highest in CIWF's ranking.  We now buy most of our animal produce from these shops.

Some very pleasant side effects of these measures:

• We have reduced costs - our electricity bill has reduced, our water bill has reduced, we don't buy much paper, we don't buy many print cartridges
• My waistline is smaller as a result of cycling everywhere!
• We don't suffer from "commuter hell" - no wasting time sitting in traffic getting stressed out
• We get the "warm fuzzy feelings" from knowing that we're taking positive action to reduce our footprint on the planet and to take care of the creatures who can't speak for themselves

My original purpose in writing this policy statement was simply to communicate some of the values underpinning Attractioneering, so that you could decide if we were the kind of people you'd prefer to do business with.

However, I now realise that I've written a manifesto that we must continue to live up to which forces us to "up our game".  I also hope that this policy statement can show how easy it can be to "greenify" your business and that it might inspire at least one person to make one small change to how they do things.