Sustainability is an intrinsic part of i-mark’s DNA as we recognise the importance of sustainability for our customers.
Sustainability is an intrinsic part of i-mark’s DNA as current holders of the sustainability award from the multibillion-pound industry association Automate UK which we gained for implementation of the following measures:
- Maintaining the ISO14001 accreditation on an annual basis, with the latest issue of this standard being issued 29th June 2024
- Reducing CO2 emissions by 100,000 kgs.
- Reducing plastics across the supply chain and distribution process
- Implementing technology to reduce unnecessary travel to central office locations by employees
- Still continually providing effective and efficient support to our customer base, our aim is that our environmental initiatives provide improved responses and outcomes to customers outside of their environmental impact
Sustainable Printing that’s Environmentally Friendly
Our UK locations are defined by their functionality and their subsequent geographic location to reduce unnecessary travel that contributes to CO2 emissions. For example, administrative functions are town centre based to capitalise on public transport routes and residential locations. Not only great for the environment but also health and wellbeing. Our warehousing and distribution is centrally located in the logistics heartland: Northamptonshire.
Vehicles:
We have now fully transitioned company vehicles to electric. By conducting all business-related travel in electric vehicles there has been a dramatic decrease in CO2 emissions as of 16th March 2023. We have calculated the reduction in CO2 fuel emissions based on the previous average fuel usage and milage per month over a 12-month period. Over 100,000 kgs of CO2 have been eradicated from our fuel CO2 emissions since the transition to our 100% electric fleet.
Supply Chain:
Our Suppliers are also a key player in in achieving our environmental objectives. We strive to have a UK based supply chain, manufacturing and procuring as much as possible in the UK. We further this by ensuring that we only work with organisations who have active policies of reducing their harmful environmental contributions. One key supplier is Hitachi, world leaders in providing sustainable solvent free ink. Solvent is commonly used across the industry, due to its fast-drying properties, with over 700 million litres of solvent ink produced each year.
Head Office Innovations:
We undertook a consumable packaging initiative. You will undoubtedly be aware that the prices of raw materials across the globe increased significantly over the last 18 months. For i-mark the cost of raw materials rose by up to 17% and distribution costs rose by up to 12%. Rather than use the standard practice of forwarding these price hikes to our customers we began a project encompassing both reducing operational environmental impact and taking the costs out of i-mark’s operation.
In short, we consolidated both the individual ribbon and foil boxes along with the outers (used when two or more boxes require shipping). Additionally, we have decreased the amount of plastic in our packaging as much as possible. For example, for multiple box shipments it is no longer required that each box is sealed with parcel tape as they are self-closing, with plastic strapping, likewise removed. A further step we took was standardising the footprint of the outer boxes so different consumable specifications could be shipped together and not separately. In reducing our packaging requirement, we were also able to reduce the space required to store excess packaging. Prior to this project 28sqm of space used heat and lighting to store packaging, this has now been reduced to 2sqm. As a result, there has been a reduction of 2366kg of CO2 emissions. This is based off that 910kg of CO2 per 10sqm is emitted in office storage space.
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