Environmental policy statement

OLBC is serious in its approach to environmental and corporate responsibility issues and is constantly monitoring ways to improve and implement ways of reducing its carbon footprint. We have produced the following policy statement to enforce our targets and monitor our progress.

Protection of the environment in which we live and operate is part of Oxford & London’s values and principles and we consider it to be sound business practice. Care for the environment is one of our key responsibilities and an important part of the way in which we do business.

In this policy statement we commit our company to:

1. Comply with all relevant environmental legislation, regulations and approved codes of practice
2. Protecting the environment by striving to prevent and minimize our contribution to pollution of land, air and water
3. Seeking to reduce wastage of materials to as close to zero as possible by negotiating returns agreements with suppliers
4. Maximising the efficient use of materials and resources
5. Managing and disposing of all waste in an efficient and responsible manner by segregation of waste types and considering the carbon footprint of the waste transit cycle
6. Providing training for our staff so that we all work in accordance with this policy and within an environmentally aware culture
7. Developing our management processes to ensure that environmental factors are considered during planning and implementation
8. Monitoring and continuously improving our environmental performance so as to provide the most cost effective and environmentally effective performance

During the building process we use environmentally products where possible:

1. 100% recycled gypsum
2. 100% NAUF MDF board
3. Use of water based adhesives
4. Paint HAPS (Hazardous Air Pollutants) Free
5. FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) approved wood wherever possible.

OLBC strives to recycle and reuse wherever possible:

1. Steel, lead, aluminum and copper are directly recycled.
2. Wood pallets are either returned to supplier or recycled to mulch.
3. All paper, cardboard and suitable plastics recycled.
4. The largest by weight output for recycling is inert soil/gravel/sand from our basement digging operations. Currently we are excavating over 4,000m3 per year of materials and every extra cubic metre that we can get into the recycling chain reduces the impact of our activities.
5. We have been highly successful in recycling gravels and some sands with our strategic partners. By having strict policies on site with respect to segregation we are able to recycle 80% by mass on gravel based projects with 90% of the overall arisings being classed as inert on most projects.

In addition to these OLBC do not operate a large fleet of vehicles and public transport/cycling is the transport of choice wherever possible.

The management team endorses these policy statements and is fully committed to their implementation.

This policy statement will be regularly reviewed and updated as necessary.