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Sustainable Times is a supplement of Business Info Magazine. It is published by Kingswood Media Ltd., 4 New Cottages, Green Farm Lane, Shorne, Kent DA12 3HQ. Tel: 01474 824711. Email: [email protected]

Avex 2009 being held at the NEC, Birmingham on June 10-11 provides a golden opportunity to see what measures the catering and vending industry has taken to green up its act.

As in other industries, these tend to revolve around energy efﬁciency and waste minimisation, but because it is catering, there is also greater support for fairtrade ingredients (see page 29 and 30 for further details). Publicising these initiatives is important not just for customers who have their own waste reduction and CSR obligations, but for the industry itself. As the environment becomes more important in purchasing decisions and in product marketing, the risks of failing to tackle areas of weakness or publicise environmental strengths become greater. For evidence you need look no further than the paper industry.

Although the paper industry is, in the words of Jonathan Porritt, “inherently sustainable”, failure to adequately address its environmental record or publicise its achievements have made it an easy target both for climate campaigners and the marketing department of any company with a non paper-based product to sell.

Carbon offset company Carbonica is typical. It has launched a campaign for a ‘paperless future’ and is encouraging people to avoid purchasing newspapers, magazines and paper books as part of its vision to prevent deforestation. Shamelessly, it even suggests that “if you must read a magazine in paper form, read it at a bookstore café”.

The paper industry must realise its potential to become genuinely sustainable, not only to put more pressure on the computer industry, but also to save us from a future in which bookshops only exist to provide reading material for freeloaders to enjoy with a cup of fairtrade coffee.