Driving back the balance Business travel has a hefty part to play in our carbon footprint. Last year our people took over 600 flights, 800 rail journeys and 1,600 overnight hotel stays. That's a pretty big chunk of our carbon emissions, and doesn't even include the thousands of miles we clock up in cars. We're asking our people to think twice and make their travel work harder for them, cutting down the miles and emissions, as well as the cost. Our investment in more in online conferencing facilities to use as an alternative is also reducing our need for travel. What's in our waste bins? A lot less these days is the short answer. Our office recycling of paper, cups, plastic bottles, snack wrappers and cans is on the increase. There's still a way to go from a few of our people though – but it only takes 21 days to break a habit, so we'll keep trying. Our supply chain team have been tackling our larger waste issues too. Through a new system, the packaging of our IT equipment is disposed of ethically by our suppliers, and the items delivered to us unboxed. Smartening up our purchasing and doing bigger, less frequent orders has saved 137 deliveries to our offices, which keeps transportation emissions down too. What happens to our old PCs? We've got those covered too. We re- use them where appropriate, we strip out the bits we can recycle, like the RAM, and ethically dispose of what's left, or they're donated to good causes ( some found new homes in care organisations this year). We've introduced our own Freecycle area on our Intranet to help our people pass on the good stuff they no longer need and keep it out of landfill sites 12% We ran a Big Off Weekend in our Winnersh office and saved over 12% of the energy we'd normally consume Our Manchester offices have been having a floor vs floor competition to see who can save the most energy in their ' Switch it off ' campaign. The winning treat - breakfast! 32Sage CSR Report 08 - Environment To raise awareness and spark our people into action to tackle their waste we ran ' Art ? What a load of rubbish' an opportunity to get creative with so called rubbish. The 30 pieces created by people across Sage, and their children, were then displayed in The Art Works Galleries in Newcastle, and as a former disused warehouse which has now been ' recycled' into a gallery – it was the perfect spot. We took advantage of the summer and held ' Sage goes wild', a day for our people and their friends and families to take part in fun activities and learn about the nature and habitats at Havannah Three Hills nature reserve. Treasure hunts, quizzes and creative competitions were organised by our people at the reserve, which is just around the corner from out headquarters. The sun stayed strong making the day a great success and helping us raise awareness of the ways we can be considerate to the habitats around us.

Sage CSR Annual Report ' 07/ 0833 Tackling the big commute Our offices are nice, but living here would be a bit of an extreme way to reduce carbon emissions. That's why we offer some lower carbon options for travelling to work. Out of your car ... on your bike We just can't get enough of the Cycle to Work scheme at Sage – it lets our people get up to 50% off a bike. This year as part of the Prince of Wales' May Day Summit we were invited to speak about the scheme to 46 North East businesses. 147 of our people ( and counting) have signed up already. They're helping us save 155 tonnes of emissions - the equivalent of running over 700 PCs a year. We've improved the facilities we offer cyclists, introduced more racks onsite, ran promotional events and invited ' Bike Doctors' in, to give peoples' bikes a quick check up. To help others get on board ( or on their bike really), this year we funded a cycle shelter at Hadrian Primary School. Their ' Cycle to School' scheme proved so popular they ran out of racks and needed a bit of support to put up some more. Pass the bus Lycra and cycle helmets aren't everyone's cup of tea, so we've also been addressing our public transport options. The offer of discounted travel passes and additional bus services to Sage which we've secured this year, make alternatives to the car, more accessible and appealing. Getting out of our cars is an evolutionary process, but it's more than do- able. Next steps - who knows, if the weather is kind we might all cycle to work, if not, then maybe car sharing will lighten up the daily commute? 147 bikes have been bought through our Cycle to Work scheme This year we had the honour of being a case study for the Prince of Wales' May Day Summit. Take 5 minutes out here to see what we've been doing to increase our peoples' awareness of their impact on the environment and also how some of them have benefitted from our Cycle to Work Scheme Play video