Environment - Playing a part in protecting our local and the global environment.

We recognise our responsibilities towards the environment and take them seriously – identifying areas where we have an impact and setting targets for continually improving our performance.

We focus our efforts on:

• minimising our consumption of natural resources, including energy, water and other raw materials
  
• phasing out the use of ozone depleting substances in our buildings
  
• reducing the waste we produce, encouraging recycling and minimising the use of landfill sites, while ensuring that we comply with all relevant legislation
  
• regularly reviewing our transport operations to improve efficiency and reduce their environmental impact
  
• liaising with suppliers to develop environmental best practice in the supply chain and promoting the recycling of raw materials
  
• encouraging our staff to support initiatives that affect the local, national or global environment in a positive way
  
• raising and maintaining staff awareness of this policy and ensuring that employees are engaged in supporting the resulting practices, and
  
• measuring, monitoring and reporting on the key aspects of our environmental performance and regularly reviewing our progress against targets
  

A wider approach
We realise that as well as the direct environmental impacts of our operations we also have indirect environmental impacts through our investment activities. Our commitment to integrate environmental considerations into our investment decisions is described in the Standard Life Investments' Socially Responsible Investment Statements of Principles, Policies and Guidelines.