Our businesses continue to take action and invest in order to reduce their environmental impact. During the year, we again employed independent consultants, Bureau Veritas, to review our environmental data collection and reporting process in order to ensure the robustness and accuracy of the Group's environmental performance indicators. This review concluded that overall there was a good level of process control and reporting at the sites but identified some areas for improvement, particularly in relation to the conversion factors being used for converting energy usage into carbon emissions. The recommendations of Bureau Veritas have been implemented. The Group's overall environmental performance in 2009/10 is shown in the table below. To view the Verification Statement from Bureau Veritas UK Ltd click here.
The Group consumed 0.5% more energy in 2009/10 compared with the previous year. This increase was principally due to higher activity levels at the speciality paper mills in the UK and the recommissioning of a CHP plant at one of the mills. The Group's paper mills reduced their energy usage per tonne of paper produced by 0.8%, partly due to the closure of a less energy-efficient paper machine in early 2009. The increase in own use of energy was offset by a reduction in energy purchased by the Group, such that a reduction of 1.5% in total emissions of CO2 was achieved in the year. The Group's total water usage was 4.5% lower than in 2008/09, principally as a result of the closure of the paper machine mentioned above. The total amount of waste generated by our businesses increased by 8.9% partly due to an increase in the proportion of more complex corrugated boxes which give rise to more off-cut waste. Waste sent to landfill was 1.4% lower and the proportion of waste sent to landfill fell to 15% compared with 16% in the previous year.