The environment in which we all operate is extremely important to Snowdrop. We pursue an active and constantly evolving approach to social responsibility, encouraging everybody, company-wide, to look for new ways to give something back.

Charity
Snowdrop's charity work is based upon departmental responsibility. Each department chooses which charity it would like to support and organises events accordingly. We raised £7000 last year (2006). We also provide ongoing free business and technical consultancy for the charity SSNAP, delivered by our CEO himself. Employees are also encouraged to apply for paid leave so that they can give similar assistance to local charities.

Environment
Snowdrop has a rigorous environmental policy, which unlike many other businesses, encompasses all areas of the business. Aside from the standard recycling of paper-based materials that should now be expected in any business, we also use recycled pens and pencils and our marketing literature is printed, where possible, on recycled stock.

Other measures that we take include:

• Recycling of plastic bottles, tins and cans
• Recycling of all printer cartridges
• ‘Recycling’ of company mobiles and old spectacles for charity
• Environmentally friendly Christmas gifts e.g. sapling Christmas trees and biodegradable cards embedded with seeds, for planting
• Bike racks and showers to encourage employees to cycle in to work
• Fitted timers to the water coolers and printers to save energy overnight
• Use of the gas and electricity supplier, ecotricity(http://www.ecotricity.co.uk)
  Ecotricity is an electricity company with a difference, dedicated to changing the way electricity is made. They invest the money we give them in clean forms of power, like wind energy. This year alone they are investing £7 million in wind energy.
• Naturalistic promotional gifts e.g. Snowdrop bulbs, herb seeds & gardens and wind-up torches
• Use of a re-usable exhibition stand to save on unnecessary waste