Our quality and sustainability policy

Issue 1.0 - Date of Issue: 31st July 2008

The Energy Saving Trust is one of the UK's foremost organisations leading 60 million citizens to act on climate change. We help people take action to reduce carbon it their homes and lifestyles by:

• Promoting the need for action

• Providing information and advice on what they should do.

• Offering practical support to help them do so through our advice centres and website, through the media and through communities.

We also:

• Support manufacturers and retailers to deliver low-carbon technology and energy efficient products.

• Help builders and suppliers to build low-carbon homes and improve existing housing.

• Advise governments on policies needed to create a low-carbon society.

• The Energy Saving Trust is an independent non-profit-distributing company and acts as a bridge from government to consumers, trade, businesses, local authorities and the energy market. We provide impartial information and advice and have a network of advice centres in the UK, specifically designed to help consumers take action on climate change.

Our vision for the future is that every home is a low-carbon home and everybody leads a low-carbon lifestyle by:

• Taking energy-saving behaviours

• Buying the most energy-efficient products

• Fitting their homes with energy-saving measures

• Making sustainable travel choices

• Choosing renewable energy, including microgeneration

• Conserving water Reducing and recycling waste

The Energy Saving Trust is committed to:

Complying with the requirements of the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards and to continually improving the effectiveness of our quality and environmental management systems.

• Training staff on our objectives.

• Communicating and reporting progress, both internally and externally
  Complying with relevant legislation, regulations and other relevant requirements.

• Communicating our policy to employees, suppliers, contractors and other stakeholders.

This policy provides a framework for establishing and reviewing our objectives within our Balanced Scorecard and our Sustainability
Action Plan. This policy is underpinned by our:

Mission: to lead 60 million people to act on climate
Values: Personally committed, collectively focused and environmentally inspired.

Our commitment to quality

We aim to provide excellent quality service and advice and are committed to meeting or exceeding the requirements of our customers, partners and end-consumers. The Energy Saving Trust commits to implement this policy throughout the organisation by:

• Having clear organisational objectives which are communicated to all staff and reviewed regularly;

• Seeking to achieve continual improvement in all areas of activity supported by effective management systems and procedures;

• Further developing our customer satisfaction approach related to all our advice centres and other direct touchpoints.

Our commitment to sustainability

While our most significant environmental impact is a positive one, we recognise that our own day-to-day practices can have an adverse effect on the environment. The Energy Saving Trust commits to implement this policy throughout the organisation by:

• Maximising emission savings of our funded activities;

• Preventing pollution and minimising our negative environmental impacts and consumption of resources;

• Becoming carbon neutral by 2010. We follow Defra's carbon reduction virtuous circle
  . We aim to measure, avoid and minimise the emissions from our office energy use, business travel, water and waste use. Where we can not make further savings or for the emissions we can not avoid, we invest in carbon offset schemes that meet the Gold Standard, which have tangible and additional carbon savings.

• Operating in a socially and ethically responsible manner;

• Reflecting it in all our high risk contracts and having it endorsed by our key suppliers;

• Using all suitable opportunities to influence our partners, suppliers and sub-contractors to improve their own environmental performance.

Working with partners

We can only achieve our commitments by working with other organisations, not all of which share our objectives. Some may undertake activities which the Energy Saving Trust opposes. This is not necessarily a bar to partnership in areas where we can further the sustainable energy agenda. However, it is important that the Energy Saving Trust does not engage in partnerships that undermine our credibility as a leader in addressing climate change through sustainable energy. Therefore we will not work in partnership with individuals or organisations that actively deny the existence of anthropogenic climate change.

This is the first order test. However, it is also important that, in selecting partners, we do not dilute the credibility of our own brand and messages. In considering potential partnerships, the benefits need to be balanced against the overall impact on the Energy Saving Trust's credibility. In particular, we should minimise the risk that potential partners will seek to use our credibility in sustainable energy to offset problems with the credibility of their own brand in this area. Even when individuals and organisations fail to pass one or both of the above tests, we will nevertheless provide information, advice and grants to such individuals and organisations, where appropriate, as part of our activities.

Philip Sellwood Matthew Wright
Chief Executive, Energy Saving Trust ISO Director

Defra's carbon reduction virtuous circle states that consumers should follow this order: 1. calculate their emissions; 2. do all they can to avoid emissions; 3. reduce emissions from activities they can not avoid and 4. offset emissions.