The British Council’s purpose is to build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide.

We do this through our work in three programme areas:

			Intercultural Dialogue
			Creative and Knowledge Economy
			Climate Change

We recognize that our activities affect the environment and are committed to minimizing our impact by improving our environmental performance. We will do this by setting and reviewing targets as outlined in the British Council’s Environmental Framework Tool. Continually improving our environmental performance is an essential component of fulfilling our organization’s vision, purpose and values.

We will demonstrate our commitment by:

			Reviewing and understanding the environmental impact arising from our activities;
			Ensuring we comply with all relevant environmental legislation and with any other environmental requirements or commitments;
			Setting environmental objectives for our activities which have the most significant impact;
			Ensuring our Policy is understood, implemented and maintained by all staff and is supported by suitable education and training;
			Communicating our aspirations and progress in reducing our environmental impact to interested parties, including suppliers, local authorities, stakeholders and project partners and taking account of the goals and aspirations of those organisations;
			Periodically reviewing our policy to take account of changes in the British Council, legislation, or other internal and external factors.

Our focus will be:

			Minimizing the use of materials, energy and water in our premises, including working with stakeholder partners on waste management and implementing re-use and recycling initiatives wherever possible;
			Managing the carbon emissions and impact of our operations and identifying means of reducing our carbon footprint;
			Incorporating environmental considerations into procurement decisions and using our influence with suppliers to deliver more sustainable outcomes;
			Monitoring the environmental impact of our business travel and prioritizing the use of environmentally-friendly transport;
			Reducing our travel needs by encouraging alternative mechanisms to deliver our work effectively (e.g. increased use of video or teleconferencing);
			Using our skills and strengths as an organization to promote key sustainability messages locally.