In the past 10 years the need to be sustainable in a potentially dying world is increasing. More and more businesses are pushing towards recycling and sustainability to save money and go green. We caught up with a few sustainable suppliers and in no particular order we’ve published a few that we feel should not only be on your sustainable speed dial, but are the leaders in paving the way to a greener future. Ironic? Yes. But is it working? Yes.
Sunbeam Studios Sustainability Report
Since opening our doors in 2005, sustainability has been at the heart of Sunbeam’s business. We have just released our first Sustainability Report to quantify our efforts and throw down the gauntlet for competitors to challenge our claim of being the most environmentally sustainable photo, film and event space in the world.
With more transparency from venues on their green credentials, we believe this in turn will make it easier for organisers of aspirational events to find the right venue for them.
We know we are not perfect and by publishing our report, we hope our network of event organisers will also offer up improvements to how we can better our claims.
Some of the steps we undertake include;
- No longer offering individual water bottles. Our water cooler bottles are reused again and again.
- Lowering consumption of meat, the production of which can take a toll on the environment and heighten greenhouse gas emissions. In 2018 we served 1004 Meat Free Monday meals, meaning approximately 70% of our Monday clients were content with meat free meals!
- Our used cooking oil is collected and converted into renewable energy.
- Not selling anything in plastic that we could get in other packaging.
- In 2018 we recycled 15.6 tonnes of waste rather than sending to landfill.
- We re-use our coffee grounds in the summer to add nitrogen to the soil around our plants.
- We use 100% green gas for heating our building.
Park Communications Sustainability Report
Park Comms. Ltd: “We were sustainable before it was cool.”
Park is the UK’s preeminent sustainable printer, winning ‘Environmental Printer of the Year’ four times in the last eight years, and highly commended in the other four.
We’ve achieved this by treating sustainability as a leading priority, not just a marketing buzzword, through all our 16 years of business. In short, we were sustainable before it was cool.
We often exceed legal requirements. Instead of certifying as ‘carbon neutral’ (which simply involves buying carbon credits from abroad), we’ve slashed our own carbon footprint.
We execute services in-house which others outsource. This slashes road miles, and enables rigorous process control.
Our R&D efforts to carve out new improvements are unceasing. We scour the market for alternative materials (such paper made from coffee cups), and partner with innovative recycling firms for troublesome materials and composites.
Display productions still produce large volumes of plastic waste, and many businesses write this off as unavoidable.
But through our wide-ranging network, we’ve uncovered a burgeoning industry in sustainable display options – not to mention becoming able to offer managed recycling for your production once de-rigged.
So with Park, clients can now bring large format productions, too, in-line with CSR goals.]
EFX Sustainability Report
The creators of every award that means something or features in the showbiz columns, from GQ to the COOL Venue Awards, EFX have established a position for unrivalled trophy design. Most would rest on that laurel or just focus on the bottom line…profit.
But EFX are a company with a social conscience.
EFX designs and manufactures high quality trophies and awards made from recycled materials and sustainable wood. Whilst also recognising how important it is for some organisations to reinforce their environmental and ethical credentials at high profile events such as awards ceremonies and internal recognition schemes.
EFX therefore produce recycled awards and sustainable trophies, manufactured in a variety of materials such as recycled plastic bottles and remnant metals from their own workshops. The wooden trophies are certified as made from sustainable timber, in a choice of sapele, beech, ash, iroko and oak. The wooden trophies are precision-pierced and shaped using water jet technology and awards such as the Pure Award demonstrate the appealing blend of craftsmanship and technology which typifies so many of their bespoke commissions. All recycled awards and sustainable trophies can be further customised with engraved, printed or etched decoration.
