Let’s do our part to help the Earth heal
Green, green grass of home
As the global population begins to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, there is still another pandemic that we are fighting, and that is global warming. US president Joe Biden has recently pledged to cut American carbon emissions by 50% below the 2005 levels by 2030, while the European Union has also vowed to cut emissions by 55% in the same time frame. The conversation surrounding the environment is so important and it is crucial we keep it going.
Businesses across the industry have been working on ways in which they can reduce waste, be more energy efficent, lower their carbon footprint, and even look for alternative substrates.
Recycling is only one way in which we can reduce our impact physically on the environment, but it still takes a large amount of energy to first produce these items but to then recycle them as well. Reducing waste is one of the easiest ways to avoid this – this may also help to keep costs down during a tumultuous time.
Having a dedication to making changes to protect the world we live in is not new fanfare, but it has definitely ramped up as we witness the effects of global warming. Antalis launched its first carbon offset solution back in 2008 for its paper products, where it decided to offset the carbon emissions created by manufacture and the transport of orders.
“Initially we encouraged customers to choose our most environmentally friendly products by offering carbon offsetting on materials with a higher Antalis Green Start rating,” explains Matthew Botfield, Antalis UK’s corporate risk and compliance manager. “But our experience over the past few years has reassured us that whilst businesses understand that not all materials are entirely environmentally friendly, it is better to do something like carbon offsetting than do nothing at all.”
Matthew Botfield is the corporate risk and compliance manager for Antalis UK
So, why is carbon offsetting a major way in which businesses can do their part for the environment? “Carbon dioxide is probably the most important of the greenhouses gasses as it accounts for the largest proportion of the ‘trace gasses’ and is currently responsible for 60% of the ‘enhanced greenhouse effect’,” explains Botfield.
Antalis UK launched its first carbon offset solution back in 2008 for its paper products
“Burning fossil fuels releases the carbon dioxide stored millions of years ago. We use fossil fuels to run vehicles – petrol, diesel and kerosene – heat homes, businesses and power factories.”
Botfield goes on to explain the government here in the UK had passed a law in 2019 – the first of the major economies to do so – to end its significant contribution to global warming with the target of doing this by 2050. This net zero target is “one of the most ambitious in the world” according to Botfield and that “businesses are important partners to drive the innovation for clean growth and tackling climate change” and “carbon offsetting products and services is part of that journey”.
Uptake
While offering this scheme is just the start, it needs a steady uptake of clients to support the carbon offsetting program in order for it to make an impact. “We have seen a steady uptake with increased growth that appears to coincide with the government’s 2050 net zero target announcement,” says Botfield. “We have two carbon offsetting schemes and we are seeing even growth across both with some businesses choosing to support both.”
Businesses that choose the carbon offsetting route from Antalis are able to promote that they are doing this, which could not only entice customers but also promote green responsibility to others.
As a result of the Antalis scheme, the firm has supported forest preservation in Africa, methane capture in China and wind turbine projects in India. In 2016, Antalis began supporting forest preservation in Vietnam through the World Land Trust, as well as supporting woodland creation across the UK and Ireland via Forest Carbon.
Flying the flag
There are plenty more ways in which businesses can be more mindful of their impact on the environment, but what happens when your building faces the wrong way? For Northern Flags, the team looked at options such as solar power but unfortunately it would not be effective as the factory pointed in the wrong direction.
That did not stop Northern Flags however, as it looked at every other option available to it to have a more positive footprint. Iain Clasper-Cotte, managing director, explains that the process started a couple of years ago, just as green substrates were starting to penetrate the market.
“Clients were starting to have a bit more of an environmental focus. Initially our focus was on evaluating some of the new products that were coming online to see how suitable they were and whether they matched up,” details Clasper-Cotte.
Clients were starting to have a bit more of an environmental focus”
“Originally, a few of them didn’t and there were print issues with them but then internally we started recognising that it’s all very well printing on an environmental substrate, but if you aren’t looking at the detail all the way through, then actually you’re not being nearly as green as you actually claim to be.
“And so, we started having a really hard look at everything.”
One of those tasks included monitoring how much waste was being produced at Northern Flags and deciding on the right company to work with in terms of green waste, as some do not appear to be as environmentally friendly as they seem. ‘Yes men’ rather than caring about the actual environment. While the process took some time to secure the best waste partner for the business, Clasper-Cotte said it was worth it. “It’s taken us a long time to get a waste partner that we felt confident enough in the reporting back on how the waste was being split up, recycled – or what couldn’t be recycled being used to generate energy.”
The team also looked at other areas including the types of ink that were being used in production. “If you’re starting out with a green product, that’s great, but if you put solvent-based inks and things like that on top, then wrapping it with a PVC-based vinyl then it kind of cancels out the whole thing,” explains the managing director.
While Northern Flags couldn’t entertain the idea of solar power because of its premises, sister company FaberExposizeUK has implemented the scheme at its factory in Germany. Having this partnership resulted in Northern Flags gaining more information on how to be greener in its own practices. The team even looked at a building a wind turbine, but again the space was not there. So instead of ruing the lack of possibility surrounding solar and wind power, Northern Flags looked at other areas including its own supply chain. The group has a wide-format division across the UK, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands which means that it can easily supply both Britain and Europe without shipping orders far and wide. A facility in Bangkok also helps to cover the southern hemisphere.
“Other things that can potentially have a better environmental impact – we’ve got a lot of products which are made from the recycled plastic bottles and plastic in the oceans,” explains Clasper-Cotte. “Obviously, that is an important part of our strategy but actually we are just onboarding a new fabric which is actually made of those kind of fabrics and lasts three times longer.
Iain Clasper-Cotte is the managing director of Northern Flags
“So, you can look at it from the point of view that’s nice, there’s been two plastic bottles recycled and then it makes a flag that lasts a longer length of time.”
During the pandemic, Northern Flags used the time to look at new markets and focus on its Action Now campaign. “We purposefully didn’t rely on the furlough scheme as much as other businesses, instead using the period to allow some of our team to really delve deep into the Action Now campaign and our green future,” says Clasper-Cotte.
“It’s pointless us trying to provide a range of products without fully understanding how they are made, and what the specific benefits are. For instance, some products which might claim to be eco-friendly due to the materials they use are in fact more harmful to the environment due to the production process. The quieter period meant that we were also able to accelerate our testing on new substrates, as we didn’t have as many jobs going through our printers.
“This in-depth testing has allowed us to give a much wider range of eco-friendly products. The great thing is that these newer products give us the same excellent print quality as their non-eco equivalents and without this time to test we wouldn’t have been able to discover that. You don’t often have that luxury.”
Clasper-Cotte adds: “We wanted to become market leaders in green print and building the knowledge of our team members was an essential part of this. And we didn’t just limit this to what we do as a business. We’re trying to educate all of our team in how they can be greener in and out of work. What can they do at home to make an impact? We encourage freecycling through a company noticeboard, offer free half hour green education sessions and developed a Ride Share scheme. All of these tiny things make a difference. And the more we learn, the more we want to do – so yes, the pandemic has definitely spurred us on to do even more.”
On the Action Now campaign, Clasper-Cotte concludes that the team want to know they “are working with businesses who share our vision”. Northern Flag want to ensure that there is almost like a contract between the business and its customers and suppliers to make sure the chain is working in an eco-friendly capacity. Luckily, there is a quite a substantial demand for eco-friendly products. The Northumberland-based firm is also looking to attain ISO 140001 accreditation and is already a member of the SME Climate Hub – with a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2030, but are hoping to achieve this by 2025.
Gardens
Heritage Envelopes, which was founded in 1986 and is one of the UK’s largest envelope manufacturers, is another company that has taken the environment seriously.
Speaking to Phil Bryan, sales director, just before the pandemic hit, he explained that Heritage had most recently invested solar energy. While the solar power wouldn’t provide “100% of the electricity” that Heritage required to power its factory, it obviously made a significant reduction in the dependence on the national grid. It also results in less energy being billed for – a welcome side effect of investing in schemes such as solar power.
Heritage Envelopes invested in solar power in a bid to keep down costs and reduce energy consumption
Bryan continues to explain that obviously when making a decision around implementing green tactics such as solar power or wind power, there is a cost involved, and businesses have to think about the return on investment too. “First of all, you want to become more efficient and it makes sense to do that with energy, because in envelope manufacturing we do consume a lot of energy for the machines that we use,” says Bryan. “So, it’s important that we try and reduce the impact by reducing our consumption.
So, it’s important that we try and reduce the impact by reducing our consumption”
“There’s always a time frame involved when looking at a return on investment. What is interesting is that we looked at a return on investment about three years ago – and it was looking at about a 17 to 20 year pay back. That was something that threw us. We felt we needed to wait and found out what was going to be happening in the future.
O Factoid: 2019 was the warmest year on record (conservation.org) O
“And what has transpired is that the whole solar energy program has gathered momentum and prices have actually come down. And therefore, we think the payback will actually be under 10 years.”
Something a little different to the others is that Heritage Envelopes has also developed a wild meadow to provide space for insects and more importantly, bees. “We decided to remove the grass areas from selected parts of the factory grounds and replace those areas with wild meadow flowers.” One benefit of this is not having to mow the grass, but mostly it is there to provide pollen for the two beehives that live on the Heritage premises. “Those wild meadow flowers feed the two beehives that we installed to allow the bees to produce honey, which we’ve actually harvested and sold within our workforce to make a little bit of money for charity,” he adds.
Heritage also created a garden full of wild meadow flowers to provide pollen for two beehives
Heritage Envelopes was commended for its environmental efforts with an honourable mention in 2017 and winning a Flexographic Technical Association Excellence in Sustainability award in 2018.
There are numerous things businesses can do to help lower their carbon footprint, which can also result in being more efficient in terms of energy and costs. Even if they don’t have the budget to do so, simple things such as reducing waste and recycling where possible is an easy way to start.
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