What can you do

It can be a worldwide answer "What difference will it make?", but every little helps and as a business we have taken concerted steps to help save our planet.

We have put together a few ideas of how you can help at work and at home

Our CO₂ calculators will help you estimate your carbon footprint:

• When flying
• When driving
• When at home

Find out more about the damage caused by CO₂ emissions

At work

You don't have to be an expert in environmental issues or a huge global business to make a difference when it comes to combating climate change.

Being greener as an organisation can be about making small changes to your day-to-day operations and activities of employees. Over time these changes can make a big difference to our environment.

To help your business go greener here are our top tips:

• so that you can identify where reductions can be made understand your carbon emissions (opens in new window)
• engage employees: make an individual or team responsible for championing environmental activities
• purchase printer and copy paper with a minimum of 89 per cent recycled content
• produce pay slips, newsletters and company magazines online or on an intranet, only producing printed versions if necessary
• provide systems such as Microsoft Office Communicator and Audio/Video conferencing facilities to reduce travel – not only saving the environment but also your company money.
• set up a 'green' forum or email address in your workplace which will help to generate carbon-saving ideas and raise awareness of environmental issues
• get advice from the experts. The Carbon Neutral Company's Shades of green (pdf, opens in new window) publication contains dozens of ideas to reduce carbon emissions – you'll be surprised at how much CO₂ can be saved by making even the smallest of changes
• find out what other businesses have done – the Resource-Full Greener Office Guide (pdf, opens in new window) describes environmental initiatives undertaken by companies of all sizes and types
• choose to partner with carbon friendly or carbon neutral supplies
• we can help you be greener with our services

You can also encourage employees to:

• switch off lights when not needed
• print only when necessary and double sided
• have monitors go to sleep mode when not in use
• remove under desk bins and use provided recycling stations
• reduce their travelling, encouraging audio/video conferences and in-house communicator system such as Microsoft OCS

Working at Home

When we calculated our CO₂ emissions, we were surprised to find that over 20 per cent of our annual carbon output is a result of our employees travelling to and from the office.

One simple way for you to reduce carbon emissions is to embrace home working within your organisation. Broadband, together with the many applications it supports, makes it possible for many employees to work from home as effectively and efficiently as if they were in the office.

As well as the obvious benefit of reducing your impact on the environment, home working can deliver many other advantages to your business, your employees and the economy as a whole.

You can find out more about the benefits, the challenges and how to turn work into something you do, rather than somewhere you go, in our specially-commissioned report – 'Making the most of new ways of working'

Most people dream of working from home, avoiding packed trains and traffic jams, simply strolling from one room to your home office. Take a look at what might help you:

Eclipse Teleworker Broadband

Working from home is efficient and cost-effective with this service, created specifically for home workers who want to virtually work in their office.

Eclipse Data Backup

You can perform scheduled or ad-hoc backups of your valuable data over your broadband connection with our data backup service. The backup is stored remotely and your data can be retrieved quickly and easily when you need it. Find out more about Data Backup.

Here is a great example of how one of our customers used Home Working to reduce their costs and transform their operations. The Salvation Army.

At Home

You may already be taking part in ways of saving yourself money and the environment; here are our top tips to help you further:

• switch off lights when not in use
• switch off household appliances when not in use
• use energy saving light bulbs where you can
• save water by using a Hippo Brick in toilets and turning water off when not in use, or have showers instead of baths
• consider insulation for your house
• recycle your food and garden waste, cardboard, paper and plastic
• use Bags for Life when you shop rather than take a bag each time from the shop
• use recycled paper where you can
• opt for online billing with all your service providers
• leave your car at home, and car share, walk or take public transport

This carbon calculator will show you your CO₂ emissions

Do not forget if you have no green initiatives at work, you could champion similar ideas in your workplace as every little helps.