Carphone Warehouse 2008 Annual Report Download - page 37

www.cpwplc.com 25
Business Review
•Implementing energy and carbon monitoring from which challenging
but realistic reduction targets can be set and monitored; and
• Introducing a closed door policy for our retail chain.
Our main distribution warehouse in Wednesbury, Birmingham, has been
chosen as the centre of excellence for trialling many carbon reducing
initiatives, and as such has already received a complete new energy
efficient daylight-varying lighting system to the online picking area (Branch
100). A direct saving of 64% on lighting energy consumption has been
made since installation in October 2007. Other areas of the business
have since been refitted with the new lighting.
Our E2Save offices in Loughborough have been the on-site test facility
for air conditioning passive controls SavaWatt. These passive electronic
controls electronically reduce the electricity flow to the compressor thus
supplying the minimum amount of electricity needed as opposed to the
actual amount demanded by the systems. Changes to lighting and air
conditioning fittings will be rolled out across the retail and non-retail
portfolio over the next three years and will be the initial main sources
of carbon savings.
Handset Recycling
As part of our commitment to recycling and re-use we are offering
a service for customers to dispose of their old handsets and raise
valuable funds for our charity partner Get Connected and The
Carphone Warehouse Foundation at the same time.
For every handset recycled we currently donate £10 to be split equally
between the two charitable organisations mentioned above. In the past
12 months we have raised over £112,000 in this way. In December 2007
we also started sending out a recycle bag with every purchase made via
our direct channels. This has seen an increase of over 400% in handsets
being returned for recycling or re-use.
WEEE
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (“WEEE”) Regulations
came into force on 2 January 2007 and the various obligations took
effect at different stages throughout 2007. These regulations transpose
the EU WEEE Directive, which aims to minimise the impact of electrical
and electronic goods on the environment, by increasing re-use and
recycling and reducing the amount of WEEE going to landfill. It seeks
to achieve this by making producers responsible for financing the
collection, treatment, and recovery of waste electrical equipment,
and by obliging distributors to allow consumers to return their waste
equipment free of charge (“Take-back”).
The Carphone Warehouse Limited and TalkTalk Telecom Limited are
subject to the regulations both as producers and distributors. To comply
with the WEEE Regulations The Carphone Warehouse Limited and
TalkTalk Telecom Limited have joined a compliance scheme operated by
Recycle Telecom Limited, which manages a Take-back on behalf of the
two companies and reports regularly to the Environment Agency on their
behalf. Information on the correct disposal of WEEE is provided to
customers with relevant products and in stores.
Increasing awareness
70%
of people say the update to the law on holding a mobile phone whilst driving
has had no impact on their driving habits
CPW research, May 2007