The Greeting Card Association’s series of blogs covering Sustainability in the Card Industry is designed to share good practice, celebrating the work that is being done in our industry to reduce our environmental impact and inspire others.
This blog looks at the changes Danilo have made to their business, as they see an increasing amount of interest from retail customers and consumers on the issue of sustainability. Danilo are now on a journey towards a sustainable future and would encourage other publishers to follow.
Danilo is moving towards becoming a carbon neutral company. Within that there are many individual targets we want to achieve, we need to better understand our environmental impact and research ways to be more environmentally friendly.
says Daniel Prince, Danilo MD, who also chairs the GCA sustainability sub-committee.
Danilo have recognised that sustainability is an increasingly important issue that we need to build into our corporate strategy. Especially since the broadcast of TV shows such as the BBC’s Blue Planet, which highlighted the damage currently being done to the environment, and the subsequent demand from grocers to have uncellowrapped greetings cards. Sustainability is the business approach by which we can all create long-term value by taking into consideration and adjusting to our ecological, social, and economic environments.
Danilo’s targets are split into the three areas of people, profit and planet. From an environmental perspective, we are primarily looking to further integrate a circular economy and closed-loop system within the business, where we look to go beyond recycling and deliver reusable products where possible. This includes actions such as eliminating single use plastics, moving to 100% FSC, with the next step after that being recycled FSC paper, and much more, and we feel we are on track to achieve our goals.
Right now the internal Danilo green team are working hard to assess internal processes and identify areas in the business where we can reduce or reuse resources, and we are in the process of conducting an external audit to measure our current carbon impact and work out a carbon reduction plan. Plus we are continuing to collaborate with retailers and licensors to ensure we can deliver products that are both sustainable and commercial.
In 2019, Danilo created a plan to focus on becoming a more sustainable business. To date, Danilo has delivered the following:
Product
- Reduction of cello wrap on cards by 88% and calendars by 45% and still looking at ways to improve this
- Addition of clear recycling labels to all of our products
- Removal of non-recyclable finishes on cards and gift wrap
- Removal of plastics on calendars and diaries
- 100% of Calendars & Diaries use FSC paper, with a target to make all Cards and Gift Wrap from FSC paper nearly achieved
Our Business
- Carrying out a sustainability audit to help identify areas for improvement
- Internal Green Team set up to encourage staff engagement in the project
- Internal recycling system implemented in the office
- Moved over to full LED lighting and sensor lighting in the office
- Partnered with Ecologi on a Tree planting scheme, which has now achieved nearly 55k trees since September 2020
- Encouraging suppliers to measure their environmental practices as well as our own
- We have installed electric car charging points at the office
- Solar Panels are being installed shortly on our office
If you have a story to tell, or information on changes you have made to your business to share, please contact us so that we can share your story to inspire others.
Further Information
For latest information and tips on reducing your environmental footprint see the GCA’s Into a Greener Future blog
For other case studies, changes to the law and other important information please visit our members’ library and see our Environment section (please log in to see all relevant information)
