We at Chancellors believe in striving to do better and constantly improving our business in order to provide outstanding services. We have been working in the property market for over 200 years now, and there are some big changes that have happened over the span of our company lifetime that we have welcomed into the way that we operate.
Here are a few ways that our offices and company have taken steps in order to become more eco-friendly and to help lessen our carbon footprint.
We’ve gone Carbon Neutral 2022!
We are very excited to announce that we have started a partnership with Carbon Neutral Britain and are now officially a certified Carbon Neutral company.
James Poynter, Director of Carbon Neutral Britain said: “We are delighted to partner with Chancellors to help identify and offset their environmental impact from 2021 and beyond.”
We started talks with Carbon Neutral Britain in 2021 and we here at Chancellors are all ecstatic that we have now been fully certified as Carbon Neutral.
As a leading independent Estate Agency with 58 networked offices in Southern England and Mid Wales, Carbon Neutral Britain identified that the main emissions from our company occur from our total on-site energy usage. But with the help of CNB, who measured and calculated the total emissions that we produced last year, we have now been able to offset our environmental impact of 2021 this Spring.
Robert Scott-Lee, Managing Director of Chancellors said: “We are very excited to offset our carbon emissions and to be able to become a certified Carbon Neutral Company. Our partnership with Carbon Neutral Britain is a step in the right direction of becoming a greener company.”
Thanks to our relationship with Carbon Neutral Britain, we have offset 442.92 tonnes Co2e Emissions by helping donate to the Climate Fund Portfolio of verified carbon offsetting projects around the world. You can find out more about Carbon Neutral Britain here.
Recycling our old IT Equipment
On the back of our special announcement about our new partnership with Carbon Neutral Britain, we are in talks with a charitable organisation who specialise in recycling old IT equipment, which will help us become 0% Tech Waste, further offsetting our Carbon Waste and working towards a 0% landfill policy. This will in turn, help us to support a number of charities, as the recycled technology/old PC parts are either passed onto those who need them directly, or sold and the proceeds donated to them. It’s truly a great cause and fantastic way to help these charities and to also aid us as a company in our journey of becoming more eco-friendly.
Our Boards
You may have seen some of our boards up and about in your area, advertising properties for sale, for let, events and more. We use two certified fully carbon neutral companies to both supply and carry out the installation of all of our boards across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Surrey, London, Herefordshire, Wiltshire and Mid Wales.
Kremer Signs, which are the largest producer of boards in the UK, use fluted boards which are made from recycled products and plastics and the boards themselves are completely recyclable! We also work with Agency Express, who carry out the installation of estate agent boards across the UK and who are also fully Carbon Neutral and invest in Reforestation, Deforestation Prevention and Woodland Management Projects. All of our boards are recycled and re-used to help further reduce our company carbon emissions.
Our Energy Usage
We use LED lighting where possible in our offices (with more being installed every month!)
We are undergoing a company refurbishment in relation to what types of lights we use, and our current goal is to have full LED lighting across all of our London offices by the end of June 2022.
LED lights are designed to last longer than traditional light bulbs meaning that fewer bulbs are made, which leads to less resources in manufacturing and transporting bulbs are needed, benefiting the environment. They also do not need to be replaced as often. LEDs waste less energy than the conventional styles of bulbs and can be up to 80% more energy efficient than the standard light bulb*.
Our supplier, Quicklight, are accredited with ISO 14001 for their environmental policies and procedures which includes all lamps to be recycled under the WEE directive using the Recolight scheme.
We may not have all of our branches fitted with the eco-friendly lights just yet, but we are taking active measures to have full LED lighting in our offices in the near future.
Our Branded Marketing Materials
Our promotional marketing materials that we use are manufactured and supplied by BMM Ltd, which is a member of ecologi.com. They pay a monthly subscription to support growing new forests, reduce carbon pollution and fund climate projects.
Their subscription to carbon reducing companies has helped them to plant 743 trees over 12 months and helped support Climate projects such as Preserving Amazonian rainforest in Brazil and The Solar Power Generation in Tamil Nadu and Telangana, India.
Our Main Print/Canvass Suppliers
All of the paper stocks used by Chancellors in creating printed materials fall under the FCS Mix Controls. Our supplier is also actively working with all of their paper suppliers to ensure that they are carbon offsetting any paper for client works.
What is FSC Mix?
The timber or fibre in an FSC Mix product is a mixture of some/all of the following:
• Virgin timber/fibre from an FSC-certified forest
• Reclaimed/recycled timber/fibre
• FSC Controlled Wood
When produced under the FSC percentage system, the product must contain a minimum of 70% FSC-certified wood/fibre and/or recycled input, and the balance must be Controlled Wood. If the product is produced under the FSC credit system, there is no minimum FSC input; however, only a proportion of products can be labelled and/or promoted as FSC certified. Again, the balance must be Controlled Wood.
FSC Controlled Wood is material that avoids certain unacceptable sources and that can be mixed with FSC-certified material in products that carry the FSC Mix label. To count as FSC Controlled Wood a material’s forest of origin must be risk assessed against the FSC Controlled Wood standards and found to be at a low risk of being:
• Illegally logged
• Harvested from areas where there is violation of traditional or civil rights
• Harvested from forests in which high conservation values are threatened by management activities
• Harvested from areas being converted from forests and other wooded ecosystems to plantations or non forest uses
• Harvested from forests in which genetically modified (GM) trees are planted
Our Materials and Methods in the office
HARDTOP MOUSE MATS
The hardtop mouse mats that we have all of our desks are made in the UK, reducing its carbon footprint. They are very durable and long lasting meaning that you do not have to remake very often.
DURHAM MUGS
The lifetime of the product makes this very sustainable; it is built to last of course and with the Duraglaze coating it is dishwasher proof increasing its life further.
CLEAR KEYRINGS
As you can imagine, we have many sets of keys, and our clear plastic keyrings are UK manufactured so has a lower carbon footprint than manufacturing and shipping from abroad. While the material is not yet recycled, the product is reusable as you can put new paper inserts in which prolongs the life of this product.
We unfortunately do have a few minor supplies which aren’t made in the UK, but they are transported via sea freight, which makes them more environmentally friendly than air freight.
RECYCLING
We have a recycling policy in place in all of our offices for daily waste.
Our subscriptions to eco businesses
We are actively engaging in conversations with a company at the moment of the ways in which we can become more eco-friendly. We’ve been looking how we can change our daily products, such as pens, notepads, coffee cups etc into helping us be more green. Chancellors are currently in discussions about changing our stationary for all employees with cork notepads (made from completely recycled products which are also recyclable after), bamboo pens, eco water bottles, eco travel mugs, recyclable lanyards and more.
We’ll be sure to update here when we can about our next steps into becoming a greener company.
*UK Energy Lighting
About Us
The Chancellors Group of Estate Agents Limited is one of the country’s leading independent Estate Agents with 55+ networked offices.
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We love exceeding clients’ expectations and providing exceptional service to everyone who walks through our door and that’s really the only reward we need.