Having been an active member of the ‘green’ movement since 1989, Ben has a passionate drive to run the business as ‘environmentally friendly’ as possible.
As testament to this, Ben Holden Ltd became a member of the Suffolk Carbon Charter and has now been awarded Gold level status twice since 2012, through the Suffolk Low Carbon Champions Programme.
In the past, Ben Holden Ltd was involved in many green projects in Suffolk including: conversion and development of sustainable buildings, micro generation of electricity through wind power – installing a 5kW turbine, sustainable office heating using solar thermal panels and an air source heat pump and low energy office lighting.
The most ambitious plan to date commenced in 2012, Ben had a vision for an old agricultural farm (where the original Ben Holden Ltd office stood). Ben worked with the Green Light Trust who put him in touch with The Woodland Trust. Together they worked to secure a grant from the EU for over £50, 000.00 to create a large woodland which would occupy an area of approximately 16 hectares. Whilst Ben planted only a handful of trees, the remainder of them, were hand planted by friends, Jeff, Tony and Mark, mostly in snowy conditions over a four-month period from December 2012 to March 2013.
In 2014 two very large ponds were created at the office, purely for conservation purposes. Around this time it was also estimated that approximately 4% of the new trees had died and so needed re-planting.
Back in 2012, we were assisted by Groundwork East of England to calculate our annual carbon emissions. Based on the emissions of Ben Holden Ltd at the time of planting the large woodland, it was estimated that the woodland would have offset our carbon emissions for more than 1000 years. Obviously the company has grown a lot since then, and we continue to regularly review our emissions. We also continue to be a regular financial contributor to The Woodland Trust and are proud to support this amazing charity with their incredible work!
In late 2013, the company invested in a new cloud based case management system called iinsight and this revolutionised everything. It made the way we manage our work more flexible and efficient. iinsight has also allowed us to abandon all physical client files and we are now paperless. As Ben has always been an early adopter of new technologies, Ben Holden Ltd already had MS Teams in place in 2018, well before the pandemic took hold. Whilst video conferencing can’t totally replace in person visits and meetings, we have been able to further reduce our carbon footprint by having some meetings and sessions online.
Ben Holden Ltd now operates a fleet of six fully electric vehicles in the VW, Peugeot, Tesla & Fiat families. When they are charged from the BHL office, they are powered by 100% vegan & renewable energy from Ecotricity.
In 2023, we added a hybrid EV to the fleet, in line with our green policies – this is because, in some circumstances, home charging is not feasible and as such the most efficient HEV will be sourced. Our new HEV is in the Kia family and when fully charged, it can travel around 60 miles in pure EV mode, this still drastically reduces emissions to near zero for all local travel!
Whilst early adoption of this green tech means avoiding long queues at the forecourts, and massive savings on petrol/diesel, it has not been without issues.
There does seem to be adequate charging infrastructure in the UK, however in our current experience, a lot of it appears to be dysfunctional, offline or vandalised! We have found that charging from home/office works well but longer journeys require extra planning regarding charging locations.
Ben Holden Ltd has several policies relating to environmental sustainability and ethical purchasing. If you would like more information about these policies or sustainable activity in general, please contact us.
To demonstrate our commitment to continuous improvement across various domains, we are starting the process of B Corp accreditation.
Click here to see our brief client guide
Download our e-brochure here
We are proud to be an official supporter of the Institute of Registered Case Managers
What do our clients & referrers say?