Environmental

Committed to FSC - February 2012

We all operate in an industry that is completely au fait with the Forest Stewardship Council and the principles behind it - it’s not something we tend to shout about these days but we’ve now taken our environmental commitments a step further by pledging to print our newsletter and other marketing collateral - only on FSC material. The newsletter has previously been printed on FSC certified material but we have made the decision to only ever ordering printing and board on stock that is accredited under the Forest Stewardship Council. We have also paid our subscription to become a ‘Supporter’ of FSC UK and we hope to become more involved with this organisation during 2012.

Going up in the world - February 2012

We are going to be upgrading our forklift truck in the very near future so we’re currently trialling a new Toyota Traigo 48. The truck is easy to use, even in the tightest of situations and is capable of moving loads of up to 1.5 tonnes and Toyota Material Handling promote the truck as being particularly reliable, ergonomically well designed and safe to use. Toyota state that they ‘pride themselves on being committed to environmentally responsible business practices through the four product life-cycle stages of the forklift – from development, manufacturing and operation through to recycling.’ The trucks are produced in an ISO accredited factory and their components are 99% recyclable.

Footprint Awards Ceremony at East Midlands Hilton Hotel - April 2011

The North West Leicestershire Green Footprint awards ceremony took place last week during the annual Civic Dinner hosted by Nigel Smith, Chairman of North West Leicestershire District Council with funds raised on the night going to Loros – the Chairman’s chosen charity. Sadly we didn’t win but we came runner up to a local hotel which is part of a large hotel chain.

We were truly delighted to have been a finalist and we all had a fabulous time with our evening being brightened up by Wendy and Bal from the Council who both sat at our table during dinner. We will continue with our recycling policies and strive to improve on them wherever possible. Our pledge to have trees planted in order to off-set our carbon emissions is now in its fifth year and our most recent calculations - based on one tree being planted for every tonne of waste being produced - resulted in a further 20 trees being planted last month.

We aim to reduce the environmental impact our business has on a local level as well as globally by constantly reviewing our processes and their outcome.     

Film crew in today - 1st March 2011

We will be having a film crew in today organised by North West Leicestershire District Council for the Green Awards detailed below. We've had an extra special tidy round and everyone's in their best corporate gear. There will be an awards ceremony on 15th April for the lucky winners in each category and we're keeping our fingers crossed.

fc short-listed for Green Footprint Awards - February 2011

North West Leicestershire District Council issued a challenge back in 2008 to individuals and businesses alike to change the ways they think and act regarding environmental issues in order to make the district a greener place to live, work and visit – both now and in the future. We signed up to the scheme to show our commitment in this area, joining local business such as East Midlands Airport, WM Morrison Plc, United Biscuits and Price Waterhouse Cooper and this week we heard we have been short-listed for an award.

Core to the challenge are five key action areas – carbon reduction, Travel, Energy, Biodiversity and waste reduction and the plan is to measure improvement performances at the end of each year and to celebrate the contributions made to improving the environment of North West Leicestershire. The scheme is supported by workshops and quarterly networking opportunities

Those of you who are familiar with our company will already be aware of the considerable efforts we have made over the last four years in attempting to reduce, where possible, the environmental impact our day to day business activities have and off-set - where we’re able, in order to lessen our carbon footprint.

We’re delighted to have been shortlisted and we’ll let you know how we get on.

fc cartons the subject of a Smurfit Kappa case study - January 2011

We were recently approached by Smurfit Kappa Recycling UK to be the subject of a case study for them to use for promotional purposes and we happily agreed to feature. We use our local branch in Nottingham for all our board waste as they too are an ISO 14001 accredited company. We chose Smurfit Kappa because of their commitment to sustainable forestry and their objectives for reducing their own carbon footprint.    

Smurfit Kappa are part of the world’s largest fibre-based packaging group providing a full spectrum of bespoke paper and board recycling solutions for businesses and organisations of all sizes.  We understand that their paper mills in Birmingham and Kent reprocess 500,000 tonnes of material per annum, providing a market for recovered paper and card, enabling them to collect and recycle as much paper based packaging as it produces.

Click on the link to read the article - Smurfit Kappa Case Study

Carbon Neutrality - August 2010

We are currently looking at the ways in which we can reduce our carbon footprint, with a view to eventually achieving a carbon neutral status. We have for some time now, paid for trees to be planted in managed forests and woodlands in order to off-set our emissions and we have taken measures to ensure that we monitor the waste we produce and recycle wherever possible but we had never actually gone as far as to measure our Greenhouse Gas Emissions using one of the calculators with information supplied by DEFRA.

We will keep you posted on our progress, but if you have any advice or tips for us, please let us know.  We’d be delighted to hear from you.     

The Recycling of Board - March 2010

Did you know – ‘Cardboard and other packaging form the largest single proportion of the UK’s commercial waste...that’s over 8 million tonnes’

We now have all our waste board collected for recycling by Smurfit Kappa Recycling, from their base in Nottingham. Importantly for us as an ISO 14001 accredited company - we needed a company with sound credentials for our recycled waste  - Smurfitt fitted the bill perfectly. They are the country’s leading corrugated packaging manufacturer with eight recycling plants dotted around the UK and their own mills in Birmingham and Kent. As a company, they clearly demonstrate their commitment to sustainable forestry and the reduction of their own carbon footprint and we are happy in the knowledge that they have their own mills where our waste board is converted into board ready to use again. As part of the recycling agreement, we are provided with a Packaging Recovery Note for every tonne of material we recycle.

 

Tree Planting  - February 2010 Our tree planting programme continues throughout 2010 via the Tree Appeal organisation. We will continue to have broad-leafed trees, such as oak, ash and beech planted in nature reserves, dedicated woodlands and parks. As ever, we base the donation on how much waste we have produced in the previous 12 months. We have sent a cheque off to pay for 22 trees to be planted for waste produced in 2009. The Tree Appeal plants trees to “promote biodiversity, create habitats and improve the environment for people.” The trees are paid for by businesses wanting to make a positive contribution to the environment.

Recycling - June 2009

As a company, we take our environmental responsibilities seriously and always strive to ensure that the unavoidable waste produced during production is kept to a minimum and disposed of in a responsible manner. Each and every staff member is committed to doing their bit.

We recycle 100% of all waste board created during production which is then utilised within the packaging industry as recycled materials.

We use a local waste company who are able to reclaim and recycle 75% percent of our general waste in their own recycling plant in Nottinghamshire. This ensures that a large percentage of waste will not see a landfill site, and that’s got to be good for us all.

We have introduced a number of initiatives over the last few years;

Tree planting in Derbyshire – our pledge - July 2008

In April 2007 we pledged to have broad leafed trees planted in Derbyshire as an ongoing commitment to off setting our carbon emissions. We announced earlier this year our intention to pay for broad leafed trees to be planted in reserves and managed woodlands in Derbyshire, (we are actually on the Derbyshire/Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire border) with one tree planted for every 10 tonnes of waste we produce. Although this requires some extra effort on our part, we felt that we were at least introducing some form of measure on the amount of waste we were producing for us to offset against the amount of trees we would have planted.

Whilst we accept that there will continue to be a great amount of controversy surrounding the whole carbon footprint off setting debate, to sit back and do nothing is not an option that we would choose to consider. We’re now in our third year of tree planting.

The trees are planted within reserves and managed woodland in Derbyshire and the scheme is endorsed by TV wild-life celebrity and conservationist, Bill Oddie, using the local knowledge and expertise of tree planting partners to assure that the right trees are planted in appropriate places. The trees will live out their natural life-span and meet their bio-diversity targets.

Get on your bike - March 2008

Currently 20% of our staff cycle to work making use of secure undercover cycle storage as well as changing rooms and showers provided by the company. Reduced carbon footprints as well as fit healthy souls!

Staff have also set up a car sharing rota between themselves – helps keeps their travel costs down but, once again – good for the environment.

 

Recycling of ink cartridges - January 2008

All of our used cartridges are sent to Against Breast Cancer in order for them to be recycled and we also ask staff to bring their used cartridges from home if they don’t already recycle.