Four Seasons Health Care seeks excellence in every aspect of its business and recognises the importance of good environmental practice. We are committed to improving further our environmental performance by setting and achieving a number of environmental objectives and targets.

With specific regard to Carbon Reduction, Four Seasons Health Care is committed to reducing its own carbon footprint by at least 15% by 2015.

To back up this commitment the group launched an Energy Efficiency Campaign in October 2010 with an initial investment value of c£2.5 million to achieve. The outcomes of this campaign are detailed in the achievements below.

In implementing the company commitment we will:

• Comply with relevant existing environmental regulations wherever we operate.
• Ensure that environmental considerations are integrated into our business decisions.
• Endeavour to minimise the consumption of resources within the buildings we occupy and consider the environmental impact of our operations, concentrating particularly on the use of energy, waste disposal, water discharges and land management.
• Promote awareness amongst our staff of the environmental impact of travel and to reduce the need wherever possible.
• Adopt a policy of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ in our consumption of resources with sustainability being a key element especially within our administrative centers as well as, where applicable, our care home and hospital settings.
• To towards a paperless office by encouraging the use of the Intranet, e library and electronic versions of manuals and discouraging the need for paper copies of emails, policies and procedures.
• To encourage the use of e-procurement and e-tendering where possible and practical.
• Give due consideration to environmental issues in the acquisition, design and location of buildings, and applyUK Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (Breeam) standards for building specifications, features and construction wherever possible.
• Ensure environmental criteria are taken into account in the procurement of goods and services as part of our commitment towards corporate responsibility in the supply chain.
• Regularly review our policies to ensure that they remain properly aligned to the need to reduce waste and encourage the most effective utilisation of scarce resources.
• Strive to continuously improve our environmental performance.

• Replacing inefficient boilers or installing boiler control improvements where appropriate. So far we have equipped over 54 boiler rooms with new heating systems and in many cases hot water systems, using new high efficiency condensing boilers that are up to 50% more efficient. We have already installed a substantial number of boiler optimisation units that control the ways boilers burn gas making them up to 20% more energy efficient.
• c£300k is being spent on insulation, much of which is already installed
• 20,000 low energy bulbs have been purchased and are now being fitted across all our facilities drastically reducing energy consumption
• Every facility within the company has appointed an energy champion to work with the staff to consider energy saving ideas and implementing initiatives.
• In addition Four Seasons Health Care are running a continuous Energy Efficiency campaign to inform and update all facilities and share areas of best practice.

• Company cars, we operate a restricted choice policy which limits choice to restricted models of saloon cars; choice has moved towards low emissions, high miles per gallon vehicles with high safety ratings.
• In relation to the planning and building of new facilities, we endeavour to make use of sustainable materials, the use of materials that minimise damage to the environment in their production, (the majority of the materials we use in our new buildings are EU & EC marked) recycling especially in areas such as brown water, energy efficient design features, and generally the impact any work may have on the fauna and flora.
• We are moving towards more and more electronic purchasing and electronic invoicing with our key suppliers.
• Paper and cardboard recycling : through out our sites we make use of paper only bins, weekly cardboard collection for recycling and shredding bins for confidential information enable recycling by local agents, through a joint venture between Four Seasons Health Care and PHS.
• Flooring : we specify where possible Linoleum which is a totally natural product requiring very little cleaning etc. The vinyls we use have a high content of re cycled materials. The carpets we use are from Denmark who are very environmentally conscious. All our carpets are delivered on plastic tubes which are returned and recycled.
• Furniture - All the furniture used in new fit outs is now FSC certified (managed forests).
• Wall coverings - We regularly specify Tekktura wallpaper made in Sweden which uses natural based products and is bleach free. We are considering suppliers of paints that are more sympathetic to the environment.
• All homes use thin terminals with the result that our energy consumption is greatly reduced. Each terminal consumes 98% less electricity than a PC.
• Our stationery suppliers for all printed forms, letter heads etc are printed on 100% recyclable paper, manufactured under ISO 14001 and carries Forestry Stewardship Council certification
• All used cooking oil from Care Homes and hospitals is collected for recycling and production of bio fuels.