Greener Futures
February 1st 2007

Marks & Spencer recently grabbed headlines with its announcement to go green. But Mandie Kemp, head of Croydon's Futures Supplies & Support Services, is only half joking when she says M&S is just copying her carbon-neutral business model. Brendan Coyne reports

Twelve years ago Mandie Kemp filled her garage with toilet rolls. So began Futures Supplies and Support Services.The company now employs 12, turns over £2.5m – and could well be the greenest of its kind.

This year, Futures announced it had been independently audited and advised by The CarbonNeutral Company, officially becoming a carbonneutral business. It's the culmination of several years' work to improve efficiencies, reduce waste and collate data.As a result, the company made savings of £8,000 last year, which it reinvested in carbon credits and a hybrid Toyota Prius.Tank for tank, the sales rep's car now doubles the miles of its predecessor. Futures also finished 2006 with a 74% recycling rate,meaning three quarters of all office waste was saved from the bin. And Kemp says staff relish the challenge – cycling to work, pooling cars, and working collectively to drive down waste.

The programme started simply towards the end of 2003, when the company switched to recycled paper and double-sided printing within its own office – immediately reducing paper output by half.An employee suggested putting two bins under each desk, one for rubbish, the other for recycling.Timers were then fitted to the coffee and water machines so that instead of running 24/7, they now operate standard business hours only.

Next came the products it supplies. Futures changed its purchasing to always aim for the environmentally friendly solution and now has a traffic light system on its website so customers can make an informed choice about what they buy. For example, a bin bag made of virgin polymer will be red, a bin bag made from some recycled material but shipped in from China might be amber, while a Britishmade recycled bag is given the green light. Kemp hopes to develop the system with some of the industry associations but admits extracting data from manufacturers can be difficult. Another problem is the lack of guidelines.

"It can be tremendously hard work – and it's something we're doing off our own back. But we're working with manufacturers to obtain information and work out how to classify products. For example, is recycled toilet roll more environmentally friendly than paper from a sustainable forest? I'm sure the guidelines will be there in the future because environmental responsibility is becoming market driven. Retailers like Marks & Spencer lift the whole profile and generate momentum. Our larger blue chip clients are leading the way. A lot of them now see it as a 'must do'. Eventually it will be, and the smaller companies will try and catch up once the regulations are in place to make them do it." Progress, says Kemp, is in evidence. For example, in 2003 recycled copier paper was twice the price it is today, and Futures struggled to find anyone to recycle its pallet wrap."It's definitely started to speed up a bit over the last year." She hopes similar progress can be made by the commercial vehicle sector after the success of the Prius."I'd definitely recommend them.

If anything similar was available in the commercial sector I'd buy them." In the meantime, Futures sends its drivers on RAC courses to ensure they're as efficient as possible, reducing sharp acceleration, breaking and idling."It's given us a 10% reduction in our insurance policy,we're using less fuel and there's less wear on brakes, tyres and strain on the engine.

"Which is a sound enough reason for even those who aren't 'tree huggers' to start doing the same. Because with a bit of time and effort, the cost savings are significant."

Is it difficult to become Carbon Neutral?

Mandie Kemp says not: "It's a case of collecting your data for utility use,waste, fuel data and going from there to work out how to reduce it." Kemp says because Futures had extensive data, it didn't take The CarbonNeutral Company (whose work is independently monitored by external auditors) long to assess them and work out what investments in offsetting Futures needed to make.These include investing in renewable energy projects and sustainable forestry projects.

"But offsetting is a bit of a cop out if done on its own,"says Kemp.

"It should be used only after a reduction programme and then only for those elements that you can't do without, such as a car or delivery van. Essentially it's simply a case of taking a responsible view and a considered approach."

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