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Environment Policy

At Kaplan, we are working hard to build a brighter future together. We are guided by our values (Act with Integrity, Grow Knowledge, Empower & Support, Create Opportunity, Drive Results Together) and we intend to create success for our learners, our customers, our people and for our organisation in a sustainable way which minimises our use of resources and our impact upon the environment.

Contents

  1. Purpose
  2. Scope
  3. Responsibilities
  4. Statement of Intent
  5. Carbon emissions
  6. Business travel
  7. Energy
  8. Use of resources
  9. Waste management
  10. Our premises
  11. Our study materials
  12. Procurement
  13. Environmental governance
  14. Document management

1. Purpose

  1. At Kaplan, we are working hard to build a brighter future together. We are guided by our values (Act with Integrity, Grow Knowledge, Empower & Support, Create Opportunity, Drive Results Together) and we intend to create success for our learners, our customers, our people and for our organisation in a sustainable way which minimises our use of resources and our impact upon the environment.
  2. This policy sets out how we will work together to continuously improve our environmental practices.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all businesses and employees within the Kaplan Professional UK group (KPUK)

3. Responsibilities

  1. The Environment Lead is responsible for reviewing and (if required) updating the Environment Policy regularly, and at least once every two years in line with legal obligations, business objectives, and operational needs.
  2. The Sustainability Manager is responsible for annual measurement and reporting of emissions in accordance with the GHG Protocol, relevant legislation, and the requirements of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
  3. The Procurement manager is responsible for updating and implementing the Responsible Procurement Policy and the Expense Policy (including business travel) and for procurement of renewable electricity.
  4. The Property and Facilities manager is responsible for implementing energy efficiency and waste management measures at our premises in line with this Policy and relevant legislation.
  5. The IT Head of Operations is responsible for implementing the aspects of the Environment Policy that relate to IT operations, including energy-efficiency of devices, use of cloud-based servers, print solutions and IT waste disposal.
  6. The Environment Lead and Sustainability Manager are responsible for regularly reviewing our performance against this policy, maintaining our action plan, and leading the delivery of the necessary actions.
  7. All heads of department are responsible for being aware of this Policy and implementing the measures that are relevant to their teams.

4. Statement of intent

Our commitment is to:

  1. Comply as a minimum with all relevant environmental legislation, and continuously improve our environmental performance.
  2. Take action to reduce the carbon footprint of our business activities.
  3. Reduce our consumption of energy and other resources and improve the efficient use of those resources.
  4. Manage waste generated from our business operations incorporating reduction, re-use and recycling in accordance with the principles of the waste hierarchy.
  5. Give due consideration to environmental issues and energy performance in the acquisition, design, refurbishment, location and use of buildings.
  6. Ensure environmental criteria are taken into account in the procurement of goods and services.
  7. Work together with our people, partners, suppliers, landlords and their agents to promote improved environmental performance.
  8. Communicate our commitment to environmental issues internally and externally, and empower our employees to improve their own environmental practices.
  9. Provide UK Executive Leadership Team oversight and review of environmental policies and performance, and allocate resources for their effective direction and implementation.
  10. Integrate environmental management and measurement practices into our business operations.

5. Carbon emissions

  1. We report on our Scope 1 & 2 carbon emissions, for properties where we own the energy contract, as per the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting framework (SECR) and the emissions are included within our annual accounts. For 2023 our reported emissions output was 368.00 tCO2e.
  2. We measure our Scope 3 carbon emissions in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
  3. Given the nature of our main business activities (education and assessment) we are not a high carbon emitter but we aim to further minimise our carbon footprint by giving particular focus to the impact of energy use at our properties, procurement of goods and services, our product and our business travel. These are covered in the sections below.
  4. We have submitted emissions reduction targets to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and we are aiming to have these validated in 2025.
  5. We are working towards the following quantitative targets:
    1. To reduce our Scope 1 GHG emissions 60% by 2034
    2. To continue sourcing 100% renewable electricity
    3. To reduce emissions from purchasing and business travel 35% by 2034
  6. We balance our annual direct emissions by investing in Plan Vivo certified community-based reforestation projects
  7. We disclose our emissions annually to CDP

6. Business travel

  1. Our core business tools include chat, document collaboration, video calling and video conferencing which enables our employees to connect with each other and with customers without travelling.
  2. To minimise the number of flights our employees take for business purposes, all flights must be pre-authorised and requested via a single agent.
  3. To minimise the environmental impact of the rail and road travel our employees undertake for business purposes, our policies and procedures have been designed to encourage them to consider the most environmentally friendly option. When submitting rail travel requests, employees are asked to explain why the available virtual meeting options will not suffice.

7. Energy

We are committed to continuously improving our energy-efficiency and reducing the impact of our energy use.

  1. For locations over which we have control of the energy supply we buy renewable, electricity, and for our other locations we engage with the landlords and endeavour to influence their procurement decisions in that direction.
  2. When selecting heating/cooling systems for new builds and refurbishments we adopt the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) standard of SKA rating, SKA rating is an environmental assessment method, benchmark and standard for non-domestic fit-outs. It is a set of sustainability good practice criteria to help select the most appropriate equipment for installation and performance.
  3. For new builds and refurbishments/replacements the lighting we install is low energy LED fittings. In addition, all lighting has passive infrared (PIR) sensors with timing switches.
  4. With a strategic refresh policy in place for all student and staff devices, we ensure we regularly replace older, less energy-efficient technology. Energy efficiency is one of the key features considered when reviewing devices. Devices are installed with a ‘sleep time’ set at group policy level ensuring it is maintained on all devices.
  5. Where possible, we have moved to a ‘bring your own device’ approach to technology in our classroom set-up, to remove the need to run dedicated computer devices for teaching and public use.
  6. Our business has moved to predominantly cloud-based technology services, ensuring we significantly reduce our energy consumption by removing the need for us to maintain our own physical servers and data centres. This reduces the reliance on air conditioning which further reduces our energy consumption.
  7. Where the selection of devices for bathroom hot water supplies and hot water for beverages is within our control, we select energy-efficient ‘heat on demand’ type systems wherever practical.

8. Use of resources

Given the nature of our main business activities (education and assessment) we are not a high user of resources such as fossil fuels or water, but we have traditionally used a significant amount of paper for our learning materials and business activities.

  1. We now supply our assessments in online format only via our MyKaplan learning management system, thereby reducing the need for printing.
  2. We strive to reduce page counts in our printed learning materials where we can do so without jeopardising syllabus coverage.
  3. We use 60-70gsm paper for our textbooks and other printed learning materials, which is the thinnest possible without the printing on the opposite side becoming visible.
  4. The paper we purchase for use in our offices and for our textbooks and other printed learning materials is from certified renewable sources.
  5. The introduction of G-Suite’s document collaboration and the digitisation of our business processes in previous years reduced our need for printing in our offices, and we will continue to seek opportunities to reduce it further.
  6. We implemented Equitrac Managed Print Solution (where users print to a shared print queue, roam and release their print job from any enabled output device) to significantly reduce printed waste from documents left uncollected at the printer.
  7. As standard, our devices have been set to default to duplex print, and only in exceptional cases do we print one-sided.

9. Waste management

Given the nature of our main business activities (education and assessment) we are not a major polluter or producer of toxic waste, but like all organisations we do generate waste. We are committed to taking steps to reduce, reuse and recycle in order to minimise the impact of our waste.

  1. Procurement of ICAEW learning materials is controlled centrally by our Logistics team, procurement of other learning materials is controlled by Publishing. These teams are responsible for ensuring waste is kept within the target levels. All out of date learning material is disposed of responsibly through our confidential waste and recycling supplier.
  2. In 2024, 63.80 tonnes of unused books were recycled into toilet rolls.
  3. We dispose of our old devices via a contractor whose processes exceed legislation introduced under the The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), and their state-of-the-art disposal site is carbon neutral.
  4. Furniture which is no longer required in one of our office or training locations is stored until it can be redeployed to another of our locations. If it is no longer suitable for use by Kaplan it is donated to schools or collected for dismantling and recycling.
  5. All our toner cartridges are recycled via our stationery supplier.
  6. We avoid single-use plastics in our training and office locations. Plastic cups are not supplied. We ask employees and students to bring their own refillable bottles for use at our water coolers. It is standard practice that any orders for single-use plastics are intercepted by our Procurement team and sustainable alternatives are found.
  7. Although we are not a large consumer of batteries, all our locations are required to order a safe-disposal box via the stationery order process, make it available to staff, and order a collection once the box is full.
  8. At our two largest locations (Spring House and Borough High Street) we occupy entire buildings and therefore select the waste management provider. Our provider’s green credentials guarantee that general waste is not sent to landfill, and instead it is used to generate electricity and heat for over 100,000 businesses and homes every year; their current (2024) statistics report Waste-to-energy 62%, Recycled 38%, Landfill 0%.
  9. In accordance with new UK recycling legislation effective from 31 March 2025, we ensure all waste is separated into the following categories at our fully managed sites (London and Wokingham): Glass, Metal, Plastic, Paper and Cardboard, Cartons, Food Waste
  10. In our other locations, waste management services are either arranged by the landlord for the whole multi-tenant building or, in some smaller centres, the waste is collected by local authorities as business waste such as in kerbside collections. The services are generally well sourced, and the method of waste management/disposal is within local government targets. Our property team will continue to review each site’s arrangements and liaise with relevant landlords as necessary. Kaplan will only use registered waste collectors (including for subcontractors).
  11. We are working with the landlords of our multi-tenanted sites to ensure compliance with the new UK recycling legislation effective from 31 March 2025.

10. Our premises

  1. The selection of Kaplan locations is based on a number of key factors, one being accessibility and the proximity of local transport networks to minimise the environmental impact of travel and to discourage the use of private vehicles. Our location web pages include cycling information (such as bike storage and local cycling routes) as well as public transport information. We also have an employee Cycle to Work scheme. We conduct an annual employee travel survey to measure the emissions caused by staff commuting.
  2. For new builds and refurbishment of our buildings Kaplan adopts the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors approved SKA rating to assess fit-out projects against a set of sustainability good practice criteria.
  3. We perform annual environmental reviews for all our properties
  4. In 2024, we submitted our Energy Savings Opportunities (ESOS) action plan and we will report on our progress against the plan, in line with the UK ‘ESOS’ legislation.

11. Our study materials

To demonstrate our environmental commitments to our learners and to help them minimise their own environmental impact:

  1. All paper for our textbooks and other printed learning materials are visibly certified as being produced from renewable sources.
  2. We use vegetable-based rather than oil-based inks wherever possible.
  3. We use Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) certified printers.
  4. The binders we issue to students are made using FSC card and, with the metal mechanism removed, they can be recycled in domestic paper recycling. The metal mechanism can be recycled at many Local Authority recycling facilities.
  5. The bags we issue to learners for their materials are made from biodegradable non-GM cotton. (We no longer purchase new cotton bags, but we continue to use up existing stock).
  6. Our textbooks include labelling to encourage recycling.
  7. We continue to optimise our mix of digital and printed resources to offer an enhanced learning experience while also reducing our environmental impact.

12. Procurement

  1. We operate a Responsible Procurement Policy which aims to apply the principle of environmental sustainability throughout our supply chain. We include environmental considerations in the selection of products, services and suppliers.
  2. Our target is to engage with our top 50% of suppliers by emissions in 2025 to collect emissions data and encourage emissions reduction, and to put a detailed plan in place for how we will incorporate a supplier emissions reduction programme into our procurement systems from 2026 onwards.

13. Environmental governance

  1. Our Environment Committee, led by the Environment Lead and attended by leaders from all relevant teams, meets quarterly with the aim of promoting environmental action across the business.
  2. Actions are agreed at each meeting and an action plan is circulated afterwards; then at the next meeting progress is reported and reviewed and next steps agreed. So this follows a Plan - Do - Check - Act cycle.
  3. Our Environment Team offers opportunities for all interested employees to engage in environmental projects. The Environment Team Lead attends the Environment Committee meetings.
  4. Kaplan is committed to ongoing environmental awareness, providing annual training available to all staff.
  5. Our Executive Leadership Team provides oversight and allocates resources for effective policy implementation.

14. Document management and contacts

  1. The Environment Lead is the owner of this document and is responsible for ensuring that this policy is reviewed in line with the review requirements described in Section 3.
  2. If staff have any questions about this policy, their line manager or the Environment Lead can help.

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