Taking a responsible approach to doing business

Tomorrow’s successful businesses will increasingly be those that operate to the highest environmental and social standards. In 2010 we advised clients on how they can meet increasing customer and stakeholder expectations in these areas. We also took further action to make our own business more sustainable and strengthened our contribution to local communities.

We continued to develop and implement practical action for clients wanting to make their businesses greener and to ensure their organisations can meet future public expectations. As noted in the previous section, our projects ranged from supporting the development of smart meters and smart grids, to analysing the investment case for renewable energy projects, to the implementation of green IT.

We also focused on reducing the impact of our own activities on the environment and on ensuring that we can deliver sustained and sustainable value both now and in the future.

In 2010 we changed our waste contractor, and their ability to maximise the amount of material that is recycled from the waste they collect has helped us to reduce the amount we send to landfill by 15%. We aim to recycle 80% of all waste from our London and Melbourn offices by the end of 2011.

We have a worldwide programme to make much better and more efficient use of our buildings and completed a project to release almost 12,000 square feet of space at our Melbourn site in the UK, so helping us to reduce our electricity usage by about 15%.

Over the last two years we have put measures in place to improve the efficiency of our printing process. New printers in our main offices use 45% less paper than the previous machines because they allow for double-sided printing. These printers are now being installed in our premises in the US. During 2011 we will work to move to using recycled paper in our printing operations.

We are also reducing the overall amount of printed material we produce. For example, by giving shareholders the option of receiving copies of the annual report by e-mail or in a download from the PA website, we reduced the number of printed copies needed by 49%. In Denmark, India, the Gulf and the US, paper-free payslips are already in place and this will be extended to UK employees in 2011, reducing paper use by 40%.

We have taken further steps to minimise carbon dioxide emissions from our activities, with a particular focus on air travel-related emissions. A range of measures, including enhanced videoconferencing facilities that allow PA people to share presentations with colleagues and clients, are reducing the need for business travel. Looking across electricity and gas consumption and air travel, our carbon footprint between September 2009 and August 2010 was 8.7 million kilogrammes.

Our giving back and volunteering initiative continued to support a range of charities and community organisations. We provide three days’ time for any employee to volunteer at a charity and set aside 1% of after-tax profit for the giving back scheme. Our Dragons’ Den-style events (modelled on a Funding Network scheme) where charities, selected by our workforce, put their case to an invited audience helps smaller organisations both in direct financial donations and support in kind. Last year our work (along with Hogan Lovells and Actis) with UnLtd Connect’s mentoring scheme for social entrepreneurs provided volunteer hours worth over £650,000. We also run very well received courses for charities to provide tailored advice on submitting proposals and grant applications. Other activity included a donation of computers to PROPS, a charity that supports children with disabilities, to enhance the services it provides at its new headquarters.

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