29 October 2008

The Paperless Office
One of the ways that we try reduce our impact on the environment is by taking advantage of paperless working where possible.

Electronic filing is an easy way of doing this. We have been filing Personal tax returns online for the last few years.  Last year we started to file Companies House Annual Returns online. This year we have started filing Company tax returns and accounts online with the Inland Revenue, and as from this month we are now able to send in abbreviated accounts to Companies House online as well.

All this means that we are often able to send documents to you by email & then send them on to the authorities without needing to print out any copies at all. Obviously this contributes to the environment by saving on the paper that would have been used, but in addition it also saves on the envelopes used and the postage costs as well. The cost savings are just as important as the environmental benefits in the current financial climate!

If you want to take advantage of paperless working then these are some of the ways we can help:-

• If we do your payroll please let us know if you would like us to email your employees’ payslips rather than posting paper copies.
• Let us know if you are happy not to have a paper copy of your accounts and tax returns & we will email you PDF copies instead.
• If we do your monthly bookkeeping and management accounts then we are happy to have all the documents emailed to us.

25 September 2008
Following on from last month’s green news, here is my update on some of the recent progress that we have made here at K&H this year in our efforts to be ‘greener’ and reduce our impact on the environment.

We now get out milk from the milkman – we think its better to be re-using the empty glass bottles than recycling the plastic ones, or even worse letting the plastic going to a landfill site.

Cycling to work – Four of the K&H team have cycled to work at some time this year – admittedly some more often than others!  Two of the team have done this on a very regular basis, and this brings it own rewards, not just in reducing co2 emissions, but also money saving & health benefits.  Andrew Gray is one of the converts, and finds that it takes either the same or less time to cycle than it does to drive to work, and is also improving his health and saving money at the same time.  You can make this even more financially attractive for your team by joining the Government sponsored Cycle to Work Scheme.   See more on:- www.kandh.co.uk/news_articles/270608.htm  

Our garden – We started this a bit too late in the year, so the benefit is a bit limited, but we have been growing a few vegetables outside. So far we have harvested a few radishes, French beans, some rocket, and our most prolific crop has been lettuce.  We also have a compost bin to collect kitchen waste and are hoping to put this to good use next summer and grow even more!

Here at k&h we try very hard to be green, for example we have 5 different recycling bins in the kitchen for compostables, paper, foil, metal and plastic and we continue our green efforts throughout our offices.  We want to promote environmental awareness among our clients and associates, and how better to do it than on our website, no paper or print costs and easy and cheap to update.

The Green Office

The software provider, Access, can provide, free of charge, an add-on to its accounting software to enable users to easily measure their carbon footprint.  To find out more about the software visit http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=180018&d=1025&h=1023&f=1026

While this is obviously a step in the right direction (how do you know you have improved if you don’t know where you started from?), don’t forget that it is actually taking action which will reduce your carbon impact.

These are some things that we have started to do here at K&H:

Switching off computers & monitors at night (we also have an unwritten rule that it is OK to switch off someone else’s machine if they have forgotten)

Turning off printers at night – these still use quite a lot of power even when they are on standby

Double sided printing – we have one double sided printer which means we can halve the amount of paper needed for printing accounts and other long documents (As other printers need replacing these will also be updated with duplex machines)

Choose lower emission cars – Whilst we don’t have the luxury here at K&H of Company cars, the last 3 people here to change their cars have all considered the CO2 emissions & chosen very low emission cars.  It is not just what we do as a business but our personal choices which make a difference to our impact on the environment.

For information on company car emissions visit www.comcar.co.uk

Business Link have an interesting survey online that can help you identify areas where you can be greener and save money, such as improving waste disposal, improving energy use and setting up an environmental management system.

Try the survey for yourselves here http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1079446510&r.li=1079507201&r.l1=1079068363

For those of you who are passionate about going green, as we are, here are links to some websites I would recommend:

www.businessgreen.com
www.businesslink.gov.uk/environment
www.green-england.co.uk
www.guidemegreen.com