Savills plc 2012 Annual Report - (PDF) - Investor relations

In Asia Pacific, Savills Guardian was again awarded theClass of Excellence Wastewi$e label in Hong Kong’s 2012Awards for Environmental Excellence. It has actively participatedin energy conservation programmes since 2010 and by the endof 2012 had assisted over 40 properties to complete their energycarbon audit projects. Our efforts were recognised with threeEco-Business awards, two with certificates of merit and a GreenProperty Management Award (Public Housing) gold award. Itssister company in Hong Kong, Savills Property Management,maintained its focus on fostering environmental awareness withclients by producing an annual environment report and invitingthem to participate in the annual Savills Green Gathering event toshare ideas and understand the latest developments for energyefficiency and water saving.In 2012, the Australia and New Zealand businesses establisheda Savills Earth team to support sustainability initiatives, with Savillsobtaining strong results in the International Carbon DisclosureProject (‘CDP’), leading the Real Estates Services sub-category.The CDP now involves over 650 leading companies aroundthe world, analysing corporate behaviour and performancein response to climate change. This includes reporting onGreenhouse Gas emissions (‘GHG’), reduction strategies, and theCompany’s perception of the risks and opportunities associatedwith climate change.Within the UK, Savills has measured its overall GHG emissions for2012 in anticipation of the regulatory reporting requirements whichare expected to be introduced for 2013/2014 reporting. These arefor direct emissions into the atmosphere arising from our activities(Scope 1) and indirectly via consumption of purchased electricityand gas (Scope 2). Details are below.UK Environmental Reporting: GHG Emissions (Scopes 1+2 2012)(TCO 2e/yr (1) )Scope 1 (Direct) – 299Scope 2 (Energy Indirect) – 1,611Total Gross Emissions – 1,910Total Staff (FTE av.) – 3,172GHG Intensity Ratio (2) – 0.6Note:1 Emissions Factors based on Defra/DECC Guidelines 20112 Total Gross Emissions, divided by Total Full Time Equivalent Staff(FTE) Year AverageHealth and safetySavills is committed to the health, safety and welfare of ourstaff and others affected by our business operations. Safeworking practices form an integral part of our day to day businessand we aim to find practical solutions to health and safety risks.To this end our safety strategy is focused on priorities such asreducing significant occupational exposure to workplace hazardsand maintaining regulatory compliance. Our ‘positive safety’programme has continued to be developed to actively promote asafety culture within the business. During 2012, we reviewed andrefined key Health and Safety processes, and refreshed our Healthand Safety programmes in relation to personal safety.One of our primary Health and Safety priorities is to assist ourclients to manage their Health and Safety obligations on managedproperties and we have further improved our operating systems toaccommodate and improve our service.We have seen a further reduction of our accident frequency ratewithin the Group and we will continue to seek to drive furtherHealth and Safety improvements across the business during 2013.A number of locations and departments achieved accreditationof ISO 18001 with all other locations following Health andSafety systems based on the requirements of UK HSG65management standard.We were very disappointed given our excellent Health and Safetyrecord, that our UK business was found to have breached itsHealth and Safety obligations in relation to an accident whichoccurred at The Brewery Shopping Centre in Essex, UK inOctober 2009. This accident resulted in a youth suffering injuriesafter losing his grip on the outside of a rail of an escalator, whichhe was hanging from as part of a game of ‘dare’, and falling. Allparties accepted that the escalator was perfectly safe when usedsensibly and properly by members of the public; however, thecourt held that we should have attempted to anticipate potentialmisuse of the escalator in developing operating protocols at thecentre. We have a great deal of sympathy for the youth’s injuries,and distress to his family, but the judgment comes as a hugedisappointment. An appeal has been lodged against the decision.CommunityCharitable givingOur offices and our people are actively involved in theircommunities. At a local level, we have developed a series ofcommunity engagement programmes to ensure that Savillsis firmly engaged with the communities we serve.In the UK, we support two major charities – LandAid andHoneypot. LandAid is the charity of the UK’s property sectorwhich helps homeless people. Honeypot provides respite holidaysand support to young carers and at-risk children. Both charitiesare involved in areas that our UK staff care about.In line with our ethos of recruiting and retaining the best people,we have made community engagement an integral part of ourgraduate training programme. As well as delivering social benefits,we believe greater community engagement increases staffcommitment and provides real-life development opportunities.For example, Savills UK graduates support ICAN, a charityassisting children with speech, language and communicationneeds, organising various fundraisers including raisingsponsorship for their participation in the Three Peaks Challenge.Our business Our governance Our resultsSavills plc Report and Accounts 2012 29