Work with a green business
Howitt is acutely aware of its green responsibilities. We are constantly evolving the way we operate and always commit ourselves to meeting the highest standards.
We already comply at the highest possible level with the new PAS 2020 specification released early in 2009. As part of this, we strongly support the industry’s greenDM.co.uk website and the PAS 2020 calculator it provides. We use this tool to measure every campaign we produce to determine its environmental performance score. More information on greenDM.co.uk is below.
We also maintain the standards required by a range of important third-party environmental accreditations including:
- EMAS
- FSC and PEFC environmental Chain of Custody
- ISO14001:2004.
Howitt supports Recycle Now and has initiatives in place on energy efficiency, waste minimisation and inks and chemicals.
PAS 2020 and greenDM.co.uk
PAS 2020 is a voluntary standard the British Standards Institute developed with members of the Direct Marketing Association (including our parent, Lateral Group). PAS 2020 establishes objectives, targets and measurements to reduce direct marketing’s environmental impact.
To encourage the broadest possible uptake of PAS 2020 practices Lateral Group working in conjunction with other members of the industry has taken the initiative and launched www.greenDM.co.uk
Along with the documentation for assessing campaigns against PAS 2020, the site has a calculator that creates an environmental performance score for individual campaigns. It makes evaluating campaigns quick and simple and provides easy to retrieve documentation for future reference or auditing.
The DM industry has until the end of 2009 to meet the Government’s 55% recovery and recycle target or face further regulation, which could be costly. There are positive incentives too, including the potential for huge savings under Royal Mail’s new Sustainable Mail and opportunities for public recognition. For more information, visit the site at www.greenDM.co.uk
EMAS
Howitt is accredited to EMAS (the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme), widely accepted as the pinnacle standard of environmental accreditation and excellence. Howitt is one of only a handful of printers to achieve this. For more information, visit www.emas.org.uk
FSC and PEFC environmental Chain of Custody
Howitt was the UK's first direct mail production company to be accredited with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) environmental Chain of Custody. This certification allows Howitt and its clients to use the FSC Trademark on certified products and demonstrates that our paper supply originates from well-managed and sustained forests.
We are also accredited with PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes).
ISO 14001:2004-compliance
The generic environmental management system for businesses managing their environmental impacts.
Energy efficiency
As part of the BPIF’s Climate Change Levy Reduction Scheme we’re required to report our energy use annually. The potential for lower levies incentivises us to reduce carbon emissions. The success of our energy initiatives was demonstrated in 2007 when throughput increased by over 20% while gas and electricity consumption actually fell by 2%.
Waste minimisation
We actively encourage waste control in the community by supporting Recycle Now.
We divide our own waste into 23 separate streams so more can be recycled or disposed of properly. Our computer-to-plate systems greatly reduce waste and we recycle all our printing plates.
Inks and chemicals
Computer-to-plate technology has also eliminated films and associated chemicals. We use solvent-free ink systems, alcohol-free web founts and a state-of-the-art regenerative Voxidiser to keep emissions from our Nottingham site considerably lower than required by legislation.
