Environmental Commitment & Policy

Our

Commitment

As a leader in the signage and graphics industry, Signs Express are committed to adopting and continually improving sustainable business practices that focus on minimising the environmental impacts of our work, to create a better environment for a better tomorrow.

There are five commitments we are working towards as a brand to reduce our environmental footprint:

Zero waste to landfill

At Signs Express we encourage all of our centres to regularly review and assess waste disposal practices to ensure that we are focused on preventing waste in the first instance, reducing waste, reusing or recycling waste, but as a minimum, seeking to recover energy from waste via incineration. We take our Duty of Care seriously, so we review our waste contractors regularly as we seek to reduce and eliminate waste being sent to landfill.

Specific examples include printer ink cartridges being recycled through manufacturers take back schemes, paper and cardboard being recycled and new arrangements being introduced for collection of previously non-recyclable backing papers, vinyls and rigid substrates that can now be recycled/repurposed to create new products.

Greener product alternatives

Part of our role in the protection of the environment is to educate our customers about the greener product alternatives that are available and that are more sustainable, in either the way they are made or sourced or the recyclability of the signs and graphics at the end of their life. We have access to an ever-growing range of products derived from renewable resources or with reduced environmental impact that we promote where possible during our sales process, giving the customer choice. By procuring goods and supplies that meet these criteria, we limit the amount of waste sent to landfill and recognise that prevention is better than cure.

Specific examples include reducing the use of PVC products and sourcing materials with more recycled content in them.

Environmental awareness & training

We recognise that the empowerment of our employees is our strongest weapon in the battle for environmental protection and will therefore arrange for suitable training and ongoing awareness/education to be made available where possible on environmental implications of our work activities and the factors that are within our control. We will encourage our employees’ involvement in developing sustainable improvements, through regular discussion.

We aim to foster an understanding of environmental issues appropriate to and in the context of our business and those who work with us. Across some of our sites, we encourage our teams to participate in UK-based eco projects that improve the local biodiversity from tree planting to habitat restoration.

Continual improvement and focus on sustainability

Our intention is to ensure that we continually improve the environmental impact of our activities. We seek excellence in every area of our work and are committed to continuing to improve our environmental performance by minimising our environmental impact. We commit to regularly reviewing our activities, policies and targets to ensure we are reducing emissions, reducing waste and promoting best practice.

Carbon emission reduction

We are in the process of working to ensure that centres at a local level have specific, relevant Carbon Reduction Plans (addressing our direct emissions, energy consumption and other activities such as travel, events, waste).

Specific examples of how Signs Express centre are reducing energy use include installation of LED lighting, turning off equipment overnight, promoting eco-driving awareness and reducing unnecessary travel to name a few.

We are passionate about making changes today to help preserve the environment for tomorrow. It’s a joint effort and every business in the Signs Express franchise has a role to play to create cleaner, safer and sustainable working practices that make a difference.