Environmental & Carbon Reduction Policy

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Family Planning Association® Environmental & Carbon Reduction Policy

  • Version: 1.1
  • Date: 3 March 2025

Family Planning Ltd (‘Family Planning Association’, ‘FPA’, ‘we’, or ‘our’) recognises that it has a responsibility to the environment beyond legal and regulatory requirements.

We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and continually improving our environmental performance as an integral part of our business strategy and operating methods. We will encourage customers, suppliers and other stakeholders to do the same.

Responsibility

Carl Bullwright, Managing Director, is responsible for ensuring that this environmental policy is implemented, however, all employees have a responsibility in their area to ensure that the aims and objectives of this policy are met.

Policy Aims

We endeavour to:

  • Comply with all relevant regulatory requirements
  • Continually improve and reduce environmental impacts
  • Increase employee awareness

Paper

We will:

  • Minimise the use of paper in the office
  • Reduce packaging as much as possible
  • Seek to buy recycled and recyclable paper products
  • Reuse and recycle all paper where possible

Energy and Water

We will seek to:

  • Reduce the amount of energy used as much as possible
  • Switch off lights and electrical equipment when not in use
  • Adjust heating with energy consumption in mind
  • Take energy consumption and efficiency of new products into account when purchasing them

Office Supplies

We will:

  • Evaluate if the need can be met in another way
  • Evaluate if renting or sharing is an option before purchasing equipment
  • Evaluate the environmental impact of any new products we intend to purchase
  • Favour more environmentally friendly and efficient products wherever possible
  • Reuse and recycle everything we are able to

Example: as of 1 December 2024, FPA shares warehousing and office facilities.

Transportation

We will:

  • Reduce the need to travel, restricting to necessary trips only
  • Promote the use of travel alternatives such as e-mail or video/phone conferencing

Example: as of 1 December 2024, 50% of FPA colleagues work remotely and all the medical professionals and teaching professionals we use as consultants to help create our products and information also work remotely.

Maintenance and Cleaning

We will:

  • Use cleaning materials that are as environmentally friendly as possible
  • Use materials in any office refurbishment that are as environmentally friendly as possible
  • Only use licensed and appropriate organisations to dispose of waste

Continual Improvement

We will:

  • Comply with all relevant regulatory requirements
  • Continually question how else we can and reduce environmental impacts

Example 1: Since 2009, FPA printed products have used a minimum of 80% recycled paper and 100% vegetable based printing inks. All printing takes place locally in the UK.

Example 2: FPA creates digital teaching materials for schools and has done so since 2015 – this helps to reduce the need for physical textbooks in schools.

Example 3: FPA has been producing paper based patient information guides for over 40 years. In October 2022 we released a new online version of our patient information guides.

A core reason for the new digital product was to reduce environmental waste.

Culture

We will review this policy annually in consultation with staff and other stakeholders where necessary.

Carl Bullwright
Managing Director
Date: 3 March 2025