What is a sustainable business?
To us, a sustainable business is one that makes every effort to minimise its environmental impact on a global and/or local level, with the aim of becoming carbon neutral or carbon positive.
Here at Eight Days A Week, we’re taking active steps to address and minimise our environmental impact by becoming an eco-printer. As well as working to become a B Corp to show our commitment to doing business ethically, we calculate and offset our emissions each year, to ensure all our operations are carbon neutral.
Want to make your business more environmentally friendly, too? There are plenty of small and meaningful, easy actions any company can take to become more sustainable. Here are our top five:
Recycle paper
As printers and direct mail specialists, we use a lot of paper. But paper is something that many companies go through in huge quantities.
It’s estimated that “80% of things we throw away could be recycled”. As such, we’ve added recycling bins to our print room and warehouse and we’ve replaced every office bin with a recycling bin, in a bid to reduce general waste. In fact, there’s now only one general rubbish bin in the whole building, minimising how much goes to landfill!
These changes have significantly reduced our impact, from production through to end-user. Why not try adding more recycling bins to your own workplace, in a bid to reduce your impact on the planet and do business better?
Green cleaning
It’s always nice to come into a clean office. But it’s even better to come into a green office.
What is green cleaning? It means using cleaning products that don’t harm the environment, either through their packaging or ingredients. There are an increasing number of affordable green cleaning products on the market and we’d urge you to start using them and be kinder to the planet.
From washing-up liquid to dishwasher tablets and floor soap, we go for non-toxic products that contain only sustainable, plant-based ingredients and are packaged in 100% recycled (and recyclable) materials.
Our favourite green cleaning products (that also make the office smell incredible) are:
- Wilko’s eco-cleaning range
- Ecover
- Method.
New machinery
It might seem counter-intuitive to invest in new machinery when the planet is at stake, but we’ve been doing just that throughout our business.
From the latest technologies to streamline operations, to new machinery in our print room and low-energy screens in our offices, by ensuring our processes are up-to-date, we can be sure we’re running in an energy-efficient way.
By opting for new equipment that reduces process times and saves energy, you can improve your own project lead times and reduce your carbon footprint.
Ink cartridges
It’ll come as no surprise that we deal with a lot of empty ink cartridges in our line of work. But we know that many businesses are in the same boat.
Wondering how to dispose of empty ink cartridges and toner cartridges? Where possible, we keep them! Did you know that up to “97% of the materials that make up a printer cartridge can be recycled or reused if taken care of”? By refilling and reusing ink cartridges, we avoid creating further pollution or emissions and adding to landfill.
When we can’t reuse and refill cartridges, we always recycle them. This ensures we’re reducing their environmental impact as much as possible and getting closer to becoming a sustainable business.
Buying fair trade
Tea is at the heart of many UK businesses and ours is no exception. However, not all tea is created equal. Where possible, we buy fair trade tea and other products for our offices.
Buying fair trade encourages stable prices and sustainable production, whilst helping to give local communities a fair price for fair goods, as well as favourable working conditions. It’s an easy change to make but one that has a really big impact.
Opting to buy fair trade tea and coffee ensures that the people who grow and process them can enjoy greater security, equality and opportunities.
There is now a vast array of Fairtrade tea and coffee available across the UK. From Clipper to M&S, Café Direct or even Greggs’ fair trade tea blend, there are many easy and convenient places to buy fair trade drinks for the office.
