Garlands' Call Center Staff Embrace Green Initiatives

Garlands' employees are enthusiastically getting behind new Environmental initiatives introduced by the company. The green initiatives, all introduced in the last 12 months, are focused on:

• Energy (employees have been made aware of the need to turn off computer monitors when not in use; and the company has installed sensor-activated lighting)
• Recycling (all sites now recycle plastic bottles, cans, cups, confidential paper, general paper, and cardboard)
• Equipment disposal (Garlands adheres to the EC Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) recycling directive that covers the disposal of IT, radio and audio, refrigerators and telecommunications equipment.)
• Light Tube Recycling (the Environment Agency has provided each site with a number so that light tubes can be collected and recycled)
• Cleaning (a range of bio degradable cleaning products are being used, together with a new mopping system that uses less water and chemicals)
• Travel (a travel scheme is being introduced at Garlands' South Shields site that introduces car sharing and other transport initiatives.
  

Garlands' aims are to: minimise traffic flow, assist staff in getting to work, reduce the company's carbon footprint, and minimise the impact of commuting to local residents.)

Martyn Collins, Garlands' Environment Manager has been encouraged by the way the initiatives have been received. "Everyone seems to want to do their bit- and collectively we believe we can make a difference. For every tonne of paper recycled, for example, we can save 17 trees; and across the whole of the Garlands group we estimate we will recycle over 15 tonnes this year. That's a saving of over 250 trees!"

Many Garlands' enthusiasts have volunteered to serve as Environmental Floor Champions.

One Floor Champion, Customer Service Advisor Jackie Fewster, has been amazed by the response of her colleagues. "We put out bins for recycling paper and plastic bottles every morning - and every night take them away full."

New green initiatives are being introduced all the time. For example, Garlands will shortly be introducing the Savacup scheme to collect and recycle vending cups in order to make pens, pencils, rulers, coasters etc. 2 recycled vending cups saved by Garlands staff can be turned into are tractable pen; 8 cups into a 12" ruler.

Garlands will also be introducing energy-efficient hand dryers and investigating water-saving devices such as sensor taps and water management devices for urinals. Garlands is currently undertaking a detailed examination of the effect and impact of every aspect of its operations on the environment with a view to working towards the ISO14001 environmental management standard.

About Garlands
Garlands is a leading UK provider of outsourced customer contact services via phone, email and the Web. Garlands' services range from customer service to outbound customer acquisition, debt collection, customer retention, technical assistance,cross-selling, upselling, staff accounts, activations, credit management, customer registrations, customer lifecycle management and many other back office functions.

Garlands believes that people are the key to delivering superb customer service. It provides comprehensive and innovative programmes with aholistic focus to develop the skills of its staff - programmes that extend beyond the call centre and into the local community.

The company has four North East (England) contact centre sites - Hartlepool Marina, Middlesbrough, Stockton and South Shields - with a fifth site in South Africa opening shortly.

Garlands was named 2007 Outsource Contact Centre Provider of the Year at the National Outsourcing Awards; and Tees Valley Company of the Year at the North East Business Awards in March 2008. The company was also ranked the UK's third largest inbound contact centre agency by sales turnover in the 2007 Precision Marketing Contact Centre League Tables.