We recognise that our staff are not yet experts in environmental management and projects often need speedy solutions to problems. We therefore provide all our offices and projects with a 24-hour Environmental Helpline. The helpline was launched in September 1997 operated by Casella Stanger and is accessible across the group by e-mail and telephone.

The Helpline provides answers to a wide variety of environmental problems, offers advice on best practice and deals with requests for not only environmental but also sustainability information.

During 2001 the helpline dealt with 126 enquiries, a decrease of 40% from 2000. There are various possible reasons for this decrease in use. One reason maybe the simple fact that as the sustainability programme is strengthening within the business, more staff have been trained and are more knowledgeable about environmental issues. In addition, our staff are now experienced enough to seek advice from Carillion Environmental Advisors and even directly from regulators. Furthermore, the impact of restructuring our organisation may also have contributed to the reduction in helpline calls.

The subject of calls is continually monitored and the area with the most calls includes various aspects of Environmental Management. This received 25% of the total enquiries and included topics such as requests for information on sustainable construction, environmental supply chain management and environmental best practice information for a range of issues from green transport plans to the use and storage of paints.

Waste Management (16% of calls) and requests for environmental publications (10% of calls) were the next most frequently requested subject areas. Environmental Publications include requests for copies of Carillion's 1999-2000 Environment, Community and Social Report as well as Enviro, Carillion's in-house environmental magazine.