Sustainability and Environmental Policy

Environmental & Sustainability Policy

We are committed to sustainable development and concern for the environment is an integral and fundamental part of this commitment. Our aim is to minimise the impact on the environment from our operations as much as possible. We do this by:

• Ensuring our products are designed to reused or where this is not possible, easy to recycle
• Providing information to assist customers in making informed choices about the sustainability and recyclability of products
• Minimise waste in all of our facilities and ensure that, where possible, waste is recycled.
• Reduce the use of energy, water and other resources by ensuring energy efficient equipment is purchased, including when old equipment is being replaced at the end of its life
• Only working with reputable suppliers to ensure awareness of environmental impact and compliance with local legislation
• Encourage our suppliers to develop an enviromental policy which is complimentary to this policy in as many areas as possible
• Provide appropriate staff training and encourage staff to develop ideas to improve our environmental impact
• Providing an extensive intranet for staff, replacing paper copies of policies, handbooks and training materials

Carbon Neutral Courier Delivery

From Late October 2019 all of our worldwide courier deliveries will be carbon neutral through DHL's GoGreen programme or DPD's Carbon Neutral Commitment. This was previously an optional extra but is now included in our standard shipping cost.

Please note that for Royal Mail deliveries in the UK, we do not currently have the ability to directly offset and as such we incorporate this into our Trees for Life contributions (see below).

We have committed to supporting, on an ongoing basis, the Trees For Life project, which restores and rewilds parts of the Scottish Highlands, including the ancient Caledonian Forest, an old-growth temperate rainforest and unique ecosystem which provides a habitat for some of the rarest and most threatened plants, birds and animals in the UK. You can read more about our grove which will grow each year as we donate, as well as more general information about Trees For Life.

Trees for life work in partnership with local communities, land owners and mangers, and government agencies to restore the ancient forest. This ensures that the forest is not only better able to support the unique wildlife found there, but also sequesters carbon, reduces the flood and erosion risk and provides an ecosystem which supports sustainable tourism and employment for remote communities.

Completed Environmental Projects

• We have ensured our office is as paper free as possible and that the paper we do use is securely shredded and recycled.
• We have switched the vast majority of our customers to paperless ordering and invoicing.
• We ensure that all electronic equipment is switched off at the close of business each day, rather than simply being on standby.
• We have deprecated our fax order facility and encourage customers who may have previously faxed orders to use our online ordering system or send order documents as email attachments.
• We have rolled out mixed recycling containers across our facilities and staff are encouraged to use these.
• We have worked with our facilities management representatives to improve insulation and energy efficiency of our facilities.
• We have removed refillable water coolers and plastic cups, and replaced these with filter jugs to make use of filtered mains water, reducing both plastic waste and the carbon cost of transport.
• We have reviewed our current product range and either replaced some items with more sustainable alternatives or provided our customers with an alternative, greener option.
• We ensure that new products are subject to an environmental impact assessment and, where possible, select the greenest option or provide the customer with an informed choice.
• We have switched all of our worldwide courier deliveries to a carbon neutral service. Our Royal Mail deliveries in the UK cannot be directly offset but are included in our Trees For Life offsetting.

Current Environmental Projects

• We aim to include detailed information on the materials used, for example the specific types of plastic, and the recyclability of every product by the start of 2020.
• We are currently undertaking a detailed review of our packaging for all our products to ensure a minimum of plastic packaging is used whilst ensuring that items are protected. Additionally, we aim to provide clear guidance on its recyclability and encourage our customers to recycle.
• We are reviewing all our marketing material to improve its sustainability and recyclability.