PRINTITRESELLER.UK 43 PRINT IT AWARDS continued... businesses to print more simply and sustainably. Carbon neutrality for these products began with Lexmark engineers working to measure and minimise the greenhouse gas emissions in the full lifecycle of the product’s production, transportation, use and retirement and carbon offsets were purchased to offset the remaining emissions balance. PrintIT Reseller: How are you engaging your employees in your sustainability efforts? Sabine Heine-Bickle: We do regular communication on our sustainability strategy and actions to employees and ask them to get involved. Very little of our actions can be achieved without the participation of employees whether it’s trying to reduce car journeys, taking advantage of our mental health and wellbeing support programme, or engaging with local charities by volunteering. We’ve also included information on our sustainability strategy into our customer communications, which in turn helps our employees see the impact it’s having on customer engagement and means they understand how it comes to life. James Epton: From journey planning for our sales and service teams, to using digital brochures and forms instead of using boxes and boxes of pre-printed media, sustainability is front and centre with our employees. We also work closely with manufacturers who prioritise sustainability and they provide training on the sustainability of their products and supply chains. But it’s not just about our carbon footprint. XBM believes that corporate sustainability starts with a company’s value system and a principles-based approach to doing business. This means operating in ways that meet our fundamental responsibilities in the areas of human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption. As a rapidly growing business it would be easy to miss the importance of how the business treats its people. Sustainability is also about how make work engaging and fulfilling and listening to the needs of the people who are not ‘just’ employees, they are colleagues, key parts of our success, and our work family. Investing in them, providing development opportunities, and listening to their ideas provides an engaged workforce who feel valued and are willing to give their best for a business that respects them. This works in both directions, both for the business and for the individual. As someone who only joined the business seven months ago, this has been evident in the way I was integrated into XBM and my interactions with staff in all departments and across the country. From regular meeting with the directors and continual encouragement, I have found a place where I fit. Dom Gryszan: With such a short turnaround for our net zero goals, having all hands on deck is essential. We regularly deliver internal communications on national and global sustainability awareness programmes, such as Earth Hour and World Environment Day; and in 2022, we introduced an e-learning module on environmental sustainability, available to all employees. In addition, our switchoff campaign encourages employees to keep equipment inactive over weekends and during national holidays. But there’s a general eagerness to participate throughout our company. Since 2021, Apogee has engaged with various community engagement programmes – most notably, the Marine Conservation Society’s Great British Beach Clean – and in 2022, our people removed more than 227kg of ocean-bound plastics and debris from three major UK beaches. Also in 2021, Apogee internally launched the War on Waste programme with assistance from facilities management company, MITIE. This initiative promoted segregation of waste and encouraged correct recycling and reusing practices, in order to ensure that zero per cent of our waste is sent to landfills – and you can’t argue with the results. In 2022, we recycled 87 per cent of office waste generated (with 13 per cent being reformed), reused 214 tonnes of end-of-life hardware and parts, and maintained our two-year trend of sending zero waste to landfills. Andy Ratcliffe: We believe in reducing our carbon output, rather than simply offsetting it. Our main goal is to be carbon negative, making a positive impact on this planet. Our employees can hold all customer meetings in an entirely virtual setting, while our service team complete 87 per cent of tickets remotely. Not only that, where a physical call-out is needed, our high first-time fix rate, Smart Route Design system and order fulfilment planning cuts our CO2e output by an estimated 15.5 tonnes each year. We estimate a further 33 tonnes of CO2e per year are saved from our sales teams working digitally. Charlotte Muenzel: Constantly printing documents that aren’t really needed? Lights are permanently on, even after everyone’s gone home? Radiator on full blast with the window open? Several years ago, we decided as a company that our working habits needed to change and made supporting sustainability as well as minimising our environmental footprint part of our fundamental principles. They apply to us all, be it partners, manufacturers or employees. We’ve even made them a measurable part of our yearly employee reviews. To reduce emissions from staff travelling, we closed our UK office in 2021 and all our UK staff work remotely. Wherever possible, we use public transport to travel to events, in the UK We’ve also included information on our sustainability strategy into our customer communications, which in turn helps our employees see the impact it’s having on customer engagement and means they understand how it comes to life Charlotte Muenzel
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