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Corporate Social Responsibility
The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For
Green Wall,
Sutton
Wind Turbine, Barking
Green roof, Fulham
Climate Change
Climate change is a global impact that we must act upon locally as it is one of the main drivers for Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development. See Climate Change for more details.
Stakeholders
Big Yellow, as a developer and operator of self storage sees CSR as a belief that we should take into account the social and environmental impacts of our operations on our customers, employees and local communities. CSR also entails raising the awareness of our domestic customers on space for lifetime events such getting married, having children, de-cluttering and moving home. See Stakeholders for more details.
CSR Policy
Our CSR policy, at a business level, entails 'striking the balance' between socio-environmental responsibilities and commercial objectives, as can be seen in our Sustainable Development for more detail.
Legislation
We are going beyond social and environmental legislation compliance to reap the rewards of 'best' practice, where economically viable. See Best Practice for more details.
Carbon Reduction
From an environmental perspective, our store operations and construction energy emissions, also known as our 'carbon footprint' has been identified as our most significant impact. Carbon reduction has benefited from our building portfolio progressively changing from refurbished to purpose built, well insulated stores. See Carbon Footprint for more details.
Adding Value
Brownfield sites, also known as 'previously developed land' are developed by Big Yellow and the risk of historical contamination, if present, is always reduced to a minimum. See Land Quality for more details.
Environmental Supply Chain Management
During construction, some of the greatest building material costs are for steel, timber particle board, breeze blocks and rock wool insulation. See Environmental SCM for more details.
CSR Image
Big Yellow aims to gain a new brand loyalty through an ethical image. See CSR Image for more details.
Green roof, Sutton
Wind Turbine,
Merton
Solar roof,
Edinburgh
Solar roof, Twickenham
Climate Change
Climate change is a global impact that we are all responsible for and must act upon locally. From the early Earth Summits to more recent UK environmental legislation, international control measures have been set in place to change behaviour. The aim of this legislation is to reduce the impact of mans activities on the planets life support systems. These complex systems include the finite resources of our land, atmosphere, oceans, soils and biodiversity. One of the most significant impacts is the exploitation of fossil fuels and their combustion emissions into the atmosphere. Consensus of opinion is that our global climate is changing due to the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other 'greenhouse' gas emissions in the earth's atmosphere. This is also known as 'global warming' and is one of the main environmental and social drivers for Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development as addressed in our CSR Policy.
Stakeholders
Big Yellow, as a developer and operator of self storage sees CSR as a belief that we should take into account the social and environmental impacts of our operations on our customers, employees and local communities. Other likeminded stakeholders who have similar policies include our supply chain, investors and local planning authorities. Therefore our stakeholders are also drivers for change to establish and improve CSR policies and sustainable development. Historically, most companies have been changing from a 'single minded' financial strategy to a more integrated business model which accounts for risks and opportunities in such aspects as safety, reputation and the growing 'green' consumer markets. As such, we report annually on how we improve our social and environmental key performance indicators. CSR also entails raising the awareness of our domestic customers on space for lifetime events such getting married, having children, de-cluttering and moving home. One of our store developments has even won a design award for providing integrated residential apartments. Our business customers need to know how we can facilitate continued business growth and regeneration without the expense of relocation from established premises. This can be achieved through our storage building flexi-offices, retail and other types of workspace. These spaces can also stimulate additional local enterprise and employment. See our annual CSR Reports.
Sustainable Development
Our CSR policy, at a business level, entails 'striking the balance' between socio-environmental responsibilities and commercial objectives. This is a core value also known as the 'triple bottom line'. It integrates linked economic, social and environmental objectives into existing management systems within our new developments and store operations. This is also known as Sustainable Development' and we communicate these policies internally and externally as can be seen in our Eco Stores (PDF, 34KB).
Best Practice
We are going beyond social and environmental legislation compliance to reap the rewards of 'best' practice, where economically viable. Our objectives entail the continual improvement of customer and employee health and safety, security and benefit policies. Hence, we aim to improve our working environment and attract the best people and associated economic benefits. Likewise, our environmental objectives in areas such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, waste management and biodiversity are intrinsically linked to financial cost savings. In some cases, create additional income streams in the areas of carbon reduction and renewable energy generation. We will be complying with the Climate Change Act, Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) and the Energy Act Feed-in Tariff. This will be the case even though we use the electricity in our own stores! See the 'Key Performance Indicators' section in our annual CSR Reports.
Carbon Footprint
From an environmental perspective, our store operations and construction energy emissions, also known as our 'carbon footprint' has been identified as our most significant impact. Carbon reduction has benefited from our building portfolio progressively changing from refurbished to purpose built, well insulated stores. These buildings do not require heating and cooling in over 97% of their area. More than 30% of our portfolio has energy efficient design, lighting and lift specifications. Since 2007, onsite renewable energy generation through solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines and ground source heat pumps reduces energy grid supply and carbon emissions by a further 10-20%. Big Yellow's environmental investments will guarantee long term low risk legal compliance and an eco-efficiency strategy that will, in stakeholders and how we act upon their valuable feedback in the CSR Reports section of this web site.
Land Quality
Brownfield sites, also known as 'previously developed land' are developed by Big Yellow and the risk of historical contamination, if present, is always reduced to a minimum. Hence, Big Yellow is always adding value to their property portfolio. Several 'green walls', 'green roofs', landscape gardens and rainwater harvesting systems in new stores contribute locally to mitigate the effects of the 'urban heat island effect', global warming and flood risk. For more detail see our Case Studies and Awards sections.
Environmental SCM
During construction, some of the greatest building material costs are for steel, timber particle board, breeze blocks and rock wool insulation. These components have a high recycled content and have a reduced embodied energy and environmental life cycle impact. During operations our merchandise suppliers are reviewed for eco-labelled packaging materials. Cardboard boxes and wrapping paper have high levels of recycled content. Several of our strong storage boxes can be recycled into other types of plastics. See our 'Stakeholder' sections in our annual CSR Reports and Case Studies sections.
CSR Image
Big Yellow will gain a new brand loyalty through an ethical image. This image will include being eco-efficient, progressive and potentially innovative. The emerging 'green' technology markets and consumers will increase profitability and eventually share holder value.
CSR Report 2009
Please click on the links below to view and download Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009.
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