Our environmental policy outlines our commitment to minimising the environmental impact of our operations by reducing harmful emissions and waste. Below are some examples of how we have acted on these commitments.
Eliminating paper time sheets worldwide
We are replacing paper time sheets through electronic time capture (ETC), an Internet-based system to document, track, approve and control actual working hours. Given the fact that we employ on average about 700,000 external colleagues (associates) per day, this is already having a positive impact on the environment. Since the global launch of ETC at the beginning of 2006, the ratio of electronic to printed time sheets so far is about 40%. We cannot quantify the exact amount of paper saved, but it is clear that ETC saves millions of printed time sheets as well as millions of envelopes.
Increased ratio of recycled paper
In 2006, Adecco and Adia in France decided to issue publications, such as staff magazines and commercial leaflets, on recycled paper. Furthermore, in May 2007, the Purchasing Department introduced unbleached recycled paper, asking employees to reserve this recycled paper for internal use and, when requested, for external use.
By the end of 2007, the use of recycled paper in daily office work represented some 11.5% of total paper consumption (France represents one-third of Adecco Group’s business).
Japan – recycling system saves resources
For several years now, Adecco Japan has been using soy ink for all printed publications. In 2006, a comprehensive paper recycling system was introduced, and magazines and brochures were printed on recycled paper. Thanks to these measures, over the last two years Adecco Japan has managed to save about 3.8 tons of CO2 emissions.
Sweden – our first subsidiary with an ISO 14001:2004 certification
Since Adecco also expects some competitive advantage from formal environmental quality certification, the business unit decided to obtain ISO 14001:2004 certification for its Adecco HR (administrative personnel) division in May 2007. It is the first subsidiary within Adecco to achieve this quality standard.