03 April 2003 00:00 Paper cuts at East Midlands Electricity

East Midlands Electricity (EME) has planted 105 new trees in a Derbyshire wood in a bid to help replace just some of the paper it uses every year.

As part of an environmental initiative, EME’s New Business team monitored its use of paper in 2002 and worked out that it had used 1.4 million sheets – the equivalent to 105 trees.

In a bid to offset that usage, the company contacted the Woodland Trust, which creates community forests across the UK, and agreed to plant the trees in Hippo Wood in Alvaston, Derbyshire.

Chris Badger, EME’s New Business Manager, said: “The New Business team provides a service that produces a large number of quotations, terms and conditions, plans and packages of work to contractors – all of which are produced on paper.

“By working with the Woodland Trust, we’ve already been able to replace all of the paper we used last year, but our long-term aim is to reduce our overall paper consumption.

“We really have become the paper police! We’re being very strict about using both sides of the paper when printing and we’re trying to go electronic with documents as much as possible.”

EME’s field staff have recently gone electronic with the introduction of the pentablet computer.

The wireless handheld technology holds details of all of the company’s overhead and underground network and gives staff instant access to all the information they need when working remotely.

Not only is this helping to increase the efficiency of working practices, but is also helping reduce paper usage, as the 900,000 forms filled in annually by staff are now available electronically.

Ends

Notes to editors

The Woodland Trust creates community forests across the UK and its website is www.woodlandtrust.org.uk.

Hippo Wood is a small, recently planted woodland (six acres) and forms part of the National Forest in the East Midlands region.


For more information contact:

Janet Morrow on 024 7642 5779