Banner Blog

Banner is delighted to be supporting Sal's Shoes 'Toe to Toe' school shoes initiative 2023

Since 2016, Sal’s Shoes has distributed over 4 million pairs of pre-loved children’s shoes in 59 countries around the world, including within the UK, to support families who would otherwise be unable to afford them.

Sal's Shoes was set up to collect and distribute pre-loved shoes to children, and their consignments have provided many children with a pair of shoes for the very first time.

Through extensive research across Europe, Fujitsu, partnered with Quocirca have found that more and more organisations are searching for ways to transfer information from paper format into electronic data that can be stored and searched more easily.

They found that 42% of the 508 respondents are moving to a less paper environment and a further 45% have targets to move their processes away from paper.

There are many problems with paper, starting with space, it takes a lot of physical space and manually searching and retrieving paper-based information is both time consuming and overall inefficient. Manual transcription of content from paper to electronic systems without scanning introduces human errors and maintaining paper quality and security over expanding legal time limits often requires expensive, environmentally controlled storage.

HP has named Banner an Amplify Impact 5-Star Catalyst Partner for driving sustainability!

From training our employees, to leading our sales engagement with sustainability, we are helping our customers make an impact too.

The program touched all parts of the Banner business, including:

- Our Sales teams, who completed a combined 65 hours of Sustainability Basics and Fundamentals training modules
- Our Merchandise and Specials teams, who completed 60 'HP Life' personal development training programs
- Our entire HR team who undertook 'Empower People' training, and who worked with a third party consultancy to further Banner's Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion programmes
- Banner's Head of CSR and Social Value worked with a third-party consultant to produce a Decarbonisation Plan
... and more to demonstrate our commitment to our people and sustainability.

At the time of award, December 2022, Banner was the first partner worldwide to achieve this accreditation, and we are immensely proud of the 5-Star ranking that we were awarded. 

Banner's Studio Manager, Clive Andrews-Lewis, made good use of his annual Charity Day by taking on a double shift for Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire Blood Bikes (SSCBB).

Starting at 7am on Thursday 1st September 2022, and covering in excess of 300 miles over the next 12 hours, Clive carried blood tests & samples, fecal matter for treatment, and even loaned blood (of rare blood types) between Queens Hospital in Burton-On-Trent, two locations in Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, Royal Worcester Hospital, George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, and University Hospital Warwickshire. 

We all need to become more environmentally conscious, so there’s a greater focus than ever on workplace sustainability. Trying to find greener products, and making sure they truly are better than the alternatives, is a complex task. 

Julie Hadley, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Banner, explains what she looks for in green workplace products…

Once you’ve acknowledged that you really do need to make a purchase and other options have been exhausted, you’re in a prime position to swap to a cleaner, greener alternative, but choosing one product over another can be a headache.

There has been a lot of talk around sustainability, and for some people it can become overwhelming.

But with environmental focus becoming something we need, rather than want, to implement into a business it can be a mammoth job to tackle. So where do you begin?

There are a lot of areas of focus in creating a more eco-conscious workplace - from everyday tasks like remembering to turn your monitors and the lights off, to keeping recycling bins in the breakrooms and kitchens. However, there are also areas of sustainability that require a longer period of time to implement, like a greener commute to work or switching to more sustainable products.

Here are 4 easy ways to you create a more sustainable workplace:

With Plastic Free July now over, Julie Hadley, CSR and Social Value Manager at Banner, shares the wins, challenges, and reflections that occurred in her household throughout the month of cutting down on plastic waste.

You might expect, given my role, that I’d be a paragon of virtue, but like everyone else I’m time poor and with two teens in the house, I sometimes feel I’m on a hiding to nothing when it comes to the amount of plastic passing through here! It’s harder than you think to go plastic free and requires a real behaviour change, but with my two girls now on board, I’m quite pleased with the result.

The trigger was guilt, especially with the knowledge that lots of plastics are ‘wish-cycled’ – you pop it in the recycling and hope your local authority deals with it! Often though, the plastic we put for recycling goes for incineration, so the only way to deal with it was to cut down what I brought into the house.

Given that I’m the one doing most of the shopping, the buck stops with me…

Plastic free July was a good opportunity to tackle my mixed waste recycling output.  Our general waste is pretty minimal (around half to a third of a tall wheelie bin per fortnight) as I employ the following strategies:

• A compost bin in my garden for all fruit and veg peelings and cores
• Little cooked food waste as I plan food with portions and either freeze or leave any left-overs for lunch next day
• Salad drawer soup/stock to use up end of life veg and salad
• Cardboard and paper are recycled separately
• Plastics, cans and bottles are mixed separated from other waste and put in to mixed recycling
• Batteries and electricals I pop to one side for a visit to the local recycling centre
• Soft films and bags are recycled at my supermarket

With the above as my start point, I had a look at the mixed recycling bin contents and I’m sad to admit that our mixed recycling was 2 bins a fortnight, this included all glass, plastic and cans, of which I’d say plastic made up half.

Banner are proud sponsors of F.C. Dacii, a Super Sunday league football team in Wakefield. 

In the fight against climate change, every little helps. For businesses, little changes across the board can have a big overall impact. Below, Julie Hadley, CSR and Social Value Manager at Banner, discusses green products you could swap out to create a more sustainable office.