To honour Plastic Free July 2020, as part of the wider Dataplan Group we at Dataplan for Charities feel it is our organisational duty to raise awareness of issues presented within the payroll industry and present the solutions that we as a group have pledged to use allowing us to reduce our impact on the environment and operate responsibly.
Dataplan for Charities is an outsourcing business providing payroll solutions to Charities, not for profit and volunteer organisations. As such our carbon footprint may not be as large as some other industries, but we do not believe that this excuses us from responsibility which is why we are proud to lead the way within the payroll sector with our Carbon Positive Pledge.
Our CEO, Richard Rowell explains;
Climate change is the single biggest threat to our future and the generations to follow. We must make changes and we must make them now. And it’s not just up to individuals to make a difference, organisations must be responsible too. Every organisation needs to commit to reduce its carbon footprint and if possible reverse the impact that it has made.”
Tackling the problem head on
In 2019 Dataplan Group took the decision to tackle this issue head on which required changes to the way we operate group wide. We committed to going carbon neutral, and even beyond net-zero carbon emissions, creating an environmental benefit and removing any additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In doing this we took action to improve our recycling rates, switched to carbon zero paper sources and incentivised sustainable travel for our staff members.
Our six primary initiatives
To reach the goal of being Carbon Neutral by the end of 2020, and Carbon Positive by 2022 we have introduced six primary initiatives. They are:
- Switching to carbon zero paper sources
- Reducing the number of payslips printed and posted by encouraging the uptake of our ePayslips solution amongst existing and new clients
- Reducing the amount of business travel by incentivising sustainable travel and through the uptake of technologies such as video conferencing with tools such as Zoom
- Investing in renewable energy and switching to carbon zero energy suppliers
- Maximising recycling and minimising single-use products
- Planting trees to offset the carbon which we are unable to cut
COVID-19 catalysed the process
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact not only on the way that organisations operate but also on people’s daily lives. However, for our Carbon Positive Pledge it has catalysed the process by forcing the majority of office workers to transfer to working from home and reducing the amount of business travel that is required.
Some figures
In the March 2020 year end, we managed to reduce our printed P60’s to just 40,000; a 20,000 reduction on the previous year.
With many of our team working from home since the first lockdown began in March, our paper output has been greatly reduced. Since there has been less paper being used I our offices, we have also been able to eliminate the need for 1,600 plastic client folders and stopped ordering plastic wallets for administration purposes.
Dataplan are one of the UK’s leading providers of specialist payroll and associated services.
From payroll outsourcing and pension service management to ePayslips and gender pay gap reporting; we have a solution for you and your business.
