TeamTalk Environmental Policy

The environmental commitments of [TeamTalk Ltd], a remote-first software business with no premises-based operations, no fleet and no manufacturing.

1. Policy statement

[TeamTalk Ltd] is committed to preventing pollution, complying with the environmental law that applies to it, and reducing the environmental impact of its activities so far as is practicable for a business of its size. It states its position honestly rather than overstating it: the company applies the principles of ISO 14001 as a framework but is not certified to it and does not claim to be.

2. What the impact actually is

The company is remote-first. It has [no premises / a single office at [address]], no vehicle fleet, no manufacturing, no warehousing and no physical product. Its material environmental aspects are therefore narrow and are named here rather than padded out:

Energy used by cloud hosting, which is by a wide margin the largest single impact.
Energy used by home and office working, including heating, lighting and equipment.
Electrical and electronic equipment at end of life, principally laptops, phones and peripherals.
Office and packaging waste, including the paper used for join cards and printed customer materials.
Business travel, mainly to customer sites for onboarding and reviews.

Against that, the service itself displaces printed toolbox talks, printed notices and paper sign-off sheets on customer sites, and reduces travel by making a briefing verifiable remotely. That is a genuine benefit and the company is willing to be asked to evidence it.

3. Legal duties, stated accurately

Duty of care for waste. Under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 the company takes all reasonable measures to prevent the escape of its controlled waste and to transfer it only to an authorised person, with a written description. This applies from the first bag of office waste.
Waste hierarchy. Under regulation 12 of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 the company applies, on the transfer of waste, the priority order of prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery and finally disposal, and confirms that it has done so on the waste transfer note. Transfer notes are retained for at least two years.
Workplace recycling separation. As a micro-firm of fewer than ten full-time equivalent employees, the company is not subject to the workplace separation duty until 31 March 2027. It separates dry recyclables and food waste voluntarily in the meantime and will comply in full from that date.
Electrical equipment. End-of-life IT equipment is passed to an authorised treatment facility or an approved recycler, or returned to the producer, with data securely erased first. The company is not a producer for the purposes of the WEEE Regulations 2013.
Reporting schemes that do not apply. The company is below the thresholds for Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting and for the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme, and says so rather than leaving the question unanswered.

4. What the company does

Hosting. Workloads run in the AWS eu-west-2 (London) region. Instances are right-sized rather than over-provisioned, and unused resources are decommissioned, which reduces both cost and energy. The company takes account of a provider's published renewable energy commitments when choosing one.
Equipment. Laptops and phones are kept in service for their full useful life, repaired rather than replaced where practicable, and passed on for re-use or authorised recycling at end of life. [Refurbished equipment is purchased where suitable.]
Paper. The business is digital by default. Printed join cards and site materials are printed on [recycled or FSC-certified] stock, in the quantity actually needed, and customers are encouraged to reuse them.
Travel. Site visits are combined where possible and made by rail rather than road where the journey allows. Meetings that do not need to be in person are held remotely.
Suppliers. Environmental performance is one of the factors considered when selecting a material supplier, alongside security and data protection.

5. Carbon

The company does not claim to be net zero or carbon neutral, because it has not measured its footprint and will not assert what it has not measured. [A carbon reduction plan in the PPN 006 format is prepared where a customer requires one; that requirement applies to central government contracts above £5 million a year and rarely to private-sector buyers.] The first step, when it is taken, will be to measure hosting energy and business travel, which together account for most of the impact.

6. Responsibility and review

[Name, Director] is responsible for this policy, for compliance with environmental law and for the resources needed. Everyone engaged by the company is expected to follow it and may propose improvements. The policy is reviewed at least annually, on any change in the law, and before the workplace separation duty takes effect in March 2027. It is made available to customers, suppliers and the public on request.

Not legal advice. Environmental duties on a micro office-based business are limited but real: the waste duty of care and the waste hierarchy apply from the first bag of rubbish. Do not claim ISO 14001 or net zero status that is not held. Sources, verified 28 August 2026: Environmental Protection Act 1990, s.34 (duty of care for controlled waste) legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/43/section/34; Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, SI 2011/988, reg. 12 (waste hierarchy) and reg. 35 (waste transfer note, retained at least two years) legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/988/regulation/12; Environmental Protection Act 1990, s.45AZB, and the Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2025, SI 2025/140, reg. 4, under which micro-firms of fewer than ten full-time equivalent employees are not subject to the workplace separation duty until 31 March 2027 legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/140; Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013, SI 2013/3113 legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3113; Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting under SI 2018/1155, which applies to quoted companies and large unquoted companies and LLPs only; Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme Regulations 2014, SI 2014/1643, Sch. 1, which applies to undertakings of 250 or more staff, or turnover above £44m together with a balance sheet total above £38m. BS EN ISO 14001:2026 superseded the 2015 edition, which is withdrawn; referenced as a framework only, and not held.