Banner Blog

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.

Recently, workplaces have faced numerous challenges, including how to successfully adapt to changing circumstances and ways of working, such as finding that all important balance between home and office bases.

However, throughout this, we have continued to see an emergence of sustainable solutions as an important method of making employees feel comfortable within their workspace.

In today's society, and looking ahead to the future, environmentally responsible design represents a conscious move towards reducing our ecological footprint by saving energy and natural resources. The modern-day workspace should not only be functional, but also be able to sustain itself for years to come.

Banner's exclusive and sustainable toner range

Would you like to achieve high print quality, whilst at the same time using products that have less impact on the environment?

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Banner is delighted to offer the full range of environmentally friendly Hey Girls period products 

Banner is delighted to offer the full range of environmentally friendly Hey Girls period products. With plastic free, vegan, Phythalate & BPA free and certified organic materials, Hey Girls also plays a large part in avoiding the issue of period poverty in the UK. They are an award-winning ‘buy one, donate one’ social enterprise, producing environmentally-friendly period products. A Scottish community interest company, Hey Girls was initially established in 2018 by Celia Hodson and her two daughters Kate and Bec as a kitchen table start up, after experiencing period poverty themselves.

There's a big reason why any higher education purchasing policy should have carbon emissions front of mind.

2020 Carbon reduction targets

Reducing carbon emissions is pertinent for universities in 2020, because they had hoped to meet a 43% reduction target set by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in 2009.

While most universities may not be on track to achieve this, there have been successes.

The University Carbon Progress Report showed carbon emissions from UK higher education providers falling from 1.7 million tonnes to 1.6 million tonnes in the year to 2017/18.

So how can your university do better, on campus and throughout the supply chain?

Here are 4 buying policies that can make a difference:

Coming Soon!

Banner's exclusive new range

Would you like to achieve high print quality whilst at the same time using products that have less impact on the world's precious resources?

Introducing our exclusive new range of Respectful toner cartridges.