Banner Blog

Did you know that all countries in the EU have to have a system to measure the working hours of their employees?

On the 14th of May 2019, the European Court ruled that all countries within the European Union must set-up a system to measure the working hours of their employees.

The purpose of the ruling is to protect employees by making sure all labour laws are complied with.

Six important factors to consider when choosing your cartridges

If you'd like organisation to play its part in the circular economy and improve its sustainability, your choice of printer cartridges could be one of the answers.

Here are six reasons why HP original cartridges are a good step towards more environmentally-friendly printing. 

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. 

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.

Planting 200+ trees with Edding and Tree Appeal

The sun came out for us last week, 26th April 2022, at the tree planting ceremony organised by Tree Appeal and Edding UK. As Edding UK's partner, Banner got their hands dirty as part of the tree-planting team at Ryecroft Academy in Leeds.

Four members of the Banner team - Alex Clayton, Kirk Townsend, Alex Milano-Tee and Natasha Barker - joined colleagues from Edding, as well as a big group of pupils from Ryecroft Academy, and got stuck in to planting over 200 trees of different varieties - helping us and them learn more about sustainability and the environment.

Truline takes another step in the move towards fleet decarbonisation. 

We're committed to reducing our carbon footprint, and the latest arrival of Truline’s four all-electric vans is another step in our decarbonisation journey towards our target of a Net Zero delivery fleet by 2027.

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?

Look no further than our exclusive range of Respectful toner cartridges.