Ethical and Environmental Policies
Established in 2000, Promo2u supply branded promotional products for marketing professionals and business owners. Our knowledge, expertise, and creativity have allowed us to put together our own range of promotional products that deliver branding and marketing messages with lasting impact. We are able to offer design, print and distribution for a range of promotional items including Badges, Balloons, Bags, Caps, Confectionary, Desk Items, Flags & Pop ups, Key Rings, Lanyards, Mugs, Notepads, Awards, Pens, Pencils, Powerbanks, Speakers, Torches, Umbrellas, Golf Items and USB Memory.
We focus on sustainable products and have used our knowledge and creativity to put together products that deliver your marketing messages with lasting impact and constantly refine this range looking for innovative ways to get you, our customers, noticed.
From our premises in East London, we take every care to ensure that your requirements are met, and have sales people available to visit you in and around the M25 area. We have laid out our policies, simply put to educate our employees, inform our customers and remain focused on what we believe are the core values of our business.
We recognise the need to operate the business in a manner that reflects good environmental management and are aware of the environmental impacts of our operations and will balance business aims with the need to protect the local and global environment. It is our duty to ensure that we comply with environmental legislation and that good environmental management is practised in all our activities and we will seek to influence our customers and supply partners to demonstrate a positive environmental commitment.
In accordance with our values we recognise the importance of protection for the environment and are committed to operating our business responsibly and in compliance with all legal requirements relating to our operations. The objective of this policy is to make clear our aims to improve environmental performance across all of our operations, supported by specific objectives and targets – our aim is to provide a clear and well-structured strategy for reducing our environmental impact as much as practically possible and in particular we operate the following policies:
· We assess and minimise any negative environmental impacts, and maximise any positive impacts of our operations.
· We developed management processes and operational procedures to prevent pollution.
· We implement a continual improvement process by assessing and monitoring performance against specific environmental objectives and targets relevant to our business activities.
· We raise awareness of environmental issues through training and development of all employees, supply partners and associates encouraging initiatives that enhance environmental performance.
This environmental policy will be communicated to all staff as part of induction and on-going training; it is supported by the undersigned; will be reviewed annually and will be freely available to customers, shareholders and the general public. The Managing Director is personally responsible for the environmental performance of the organisation and signs this policy statement in acknowledgement of this overall responsibility and will communicate it to all employees, associates and supply partners.
Signed: David . Date: June 2020 .
David Cowell, Managing Director
Strategy and action plan
We acknowledge the influence that our daily working lives and activities have on the environment and are committed to the continual improvement of the way our business impacts on the environment and by our policies and actions shall inspire the confidence of our clients, employees, suppliers and contractors. We will:
· Aim to minimise the use of all materials, supplies and energy it uses
· Minimise waste produced in all areas of the organisation, reuse and recycle waste where possible, and aim for waste-free processes
· Aim to include environmental and ethical considerations in purchasing
Environmental training and raising of awareness
We have an extensive induction and training programme for all employees and provide staff with environmental training at induction to ensure their full comprehension of the issues. In addition, we continually monitor employee’s activities and provide additional training wherever necessary. We ensure staff are fully aware of energy efficiency measures that can be taken.
The aim of this process is to ensure everyone understand and support the issues, that sound relationships are established based on mutual respect with supply partners/contractors and that clients are aware of the environmental awareness and credibility of the business. This strategy is by no means inclusive and there may well be other areas in which the company can improve and we will continually review this policy, within 12 months of the date below, or sooner, should circumstances require.
Our Environmental Policy
We will:
• Promote a range of products to customers that are less damaging to the environment
• Promote the Purchase to Pay system to our clients to reduce reliance on paper based systems
• Increase awareness amongst suppliers, customers and employees that we can all contribute to positive change.
• Promote the use of recycled materials
• Encourage the use of inks which take into account their environmental impact
• Use a toner cartridge recycling scheme
• Ensure where possible the power supplier is one that uses an increasing proportion of renewable sources
• Ensure proper use of insulation on our business premises
• Meet all necessary legislative, regulatory and consent requirements which relate to our business
• Keep informed of environmental issues and, in particular, those which are of direct relevance to our business
• Minimise our environmental impact by the operation of suitable waste minimisation and recycling schemes
• Manage our building and site in an environmentally sensitive manner
• Make use of, wherever practicable, best environmental practice when planning and developing new and existing operations
• Operate a thoughtful purchasing policy by selecting wherever practical, materials and services which are less damaging to the environment
• Set environmental objectives and targets based on continual improvement, monitor results and review on a regular basis
Our Transport Policy
We will:
· Minimise the use of direct, same-day couriers through planned production
· Where practicable utilise local suppliers to minimise transport distances/costs
· If staff are provided with company vehicles they will be electric although we advocate the use of public transport for all travel (including commuting)
· Avoid unnecessary flights through the use of technology (web conference)
· Employ couriers which have environmental policies/statements where alternative fuels and low emissions are a consideration
Compliance with legislation
We comply with the Environmental Protection Act 1990 by keeping the building clear of litter and refuse, taking account of the statutory Code of Practice on litter and will comply with legislation related to environmental issues, paying particular regard to the requirements of:
· The Environmental Protection Act
· Controlled Waste (Duty of Care) Regulations
· Waste Management Regulations
Waste reduction, re-use and recycling
· We use both sides of paper by printing draft documents on the back of paper which has already been used on one side
· Effective use of IT (including e-mail) prevents unnecessary printing and duplication (restricting colour printing, adjusting font sizes and margins to allow documents to fit onto one piece of paper, print preview prior to printing, thorough proofing of large print-runs before printing)
· We circulate or display non-urgent information, as opposed to printing copies.
Energy and water consumption
· Use of energy efficient light bulbs
· Turn off policy
· Use of power-down features on electrical equipment
· Monitor water systems to ensure water’s not wasted by dripping taps etc.
Purchasing
· Purchase our materials from local suppliers to reduce transport mileage
· Purchase of refilled toner cartridges where possible
· Purchase of less environmentally damaging products where information exists
General environment
· Maintaining the office as a pleasant and effective working space
· Carrying out a weekly ‘housekeeping’ exercise and tidy-out to prevent build-up of wastes
· Regularly service all equipment to maintain optimum operating efficiency
Our environmental action plan
To achieve our policy, we shall –
· Set clearly defined objectives and targets addressing environmental issues that are designed to record and improve our environmental performance
· Promote our environmental activities with our staff, partners and other stakeholders and let them know of our concern for the environment
· Train, educate and inform employees about environmental issues that may affect their work
· Monitor, audit and review our performance, including an annual review of this policy
Our environmental activities
Greater health and environmental awareness has led to an increasing adoption of greener processes and systems, the result has been that the following is in place at the office:-
· Undertaking electronic preparation, accounting, billing and invoicing, transfer and storage of information wherever practicable to avoid the use of paper and create a ‘paperless’ office
· Use of scrap paper for essential notes and messages etc. (preferring the use of email internally where possible)
· Recycling of paper, cardboard, bottles and cans used at the office
· Encourage all at the office to avoid waste by limiting power use and ensuring that lights, equipment and heating are switched off when they are not required
· Encouragement of use of public transport by staff whenever practicable
In support of our Environmental Policy we have incorporated some simple steps to 'green the workplace' and have incorporated the following practices:
- Switch off all computer equipment and appliances when not in use.
- If the workplace is too hot, turn the heating down instead of opening a window
- If it is too cold in winter, ensure heaters aren't obstructed and keep doors shut
- Check if lighting is on unnecessarily in the middle of the day
- If you are the last to leave, make sure you turn everything off behind you, including machinery, printers, drinks machines, fans, lights, etc.
- Apply the three 'Rs': recycling is great, but reducing waste and re-using is even better.
- Reduce water use through raising awareness and simple adjustments to taps and toilets.
- Work together for a greener workplace - talk to our colleagues about working out solutions that will reduce our environmental impact
To make sure that we continue to improve our Policy we will adopt the following actions –
- Create and publish a realistic environmental policy statement to provide evidence of our drive to develop a greener business
- Develop a management system along the lines of the ISO14001 Standard
- Comply with all relevant legislation – in order to achieve this, we will research the Gov.UK website – https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency to get together a list of the regulations that may apply to us – with particular reference to our Duty of Care
- Sign up to specific email monthly updates from www.law-now.com to keep up to date with environmental regulations and guidance that affects our organisation
· Engage with supply partners, customers, associates and contractors to make sure that they are aware of our environmental policy, aim to persuade them to share the same principles, and document their acceptance and agreement to our environmental and ethical policies
· Publish the results of our environmental endeavours for employees, suppliers, contractors and clients to see on a regular basis
- Measure and monitor our energy consumption to ensure we are not using energy un-necessarily
- Measure and monitor our paper consumption to ensure we can continue to reduce paper use
- Complete and maintain a database of local suppliers and businesses for our ‘local’ supply chain
Signed: David . Date: June 2020 .
David Cowell, Managing Director
Our Ethical Sourcing Policy
Promo2u is committed to ensuring that workers employed in its supply chains throughout the world are treated fairly, humanely and equitably. Suppliers are encouraged to join the Suppliers Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex), or an equivalent, in order to make visible all data on the labour conditions in their supply chains. The ETI Base code is set out below supply partners are expected to adopt this code as a minimum standard:
Employment is freely chosen
There is no forced, bonded or involuntary prison labour.
Workers are not required to lodge "deposits" or their identity papers with their employer and are free to
