Healeys Printers, Ipswich has joined a select group of print businesses as the only SME print company recognised under the Science Based Target Initiative.
It joins the likes of Clays and Communisis in having its targets assessed and agreed under the scheme. Healeys will also publish its figures to demonstrate progress towards a goal of reduced carbon output by 42% before 2030, in accordance with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“This is not something that you can start one day and be done with. There has been lots to do. It’s something a little bit more than simply offsetting the carbon in paper,” says managing director Philip Dodd.
To start it demands the data to create a baseline, leading the printer to understand its energy use, how much material was being recycled, and building towards a complete understanding of its supply chain impacts.
The company has long balanced the carbon element in the papers it uses and nine years ago became one of the first in the UK to achieve Carbon Balanced Printers status certified by CarbonCo. But as this scheme gains traction, Dodd wanted to take the next step. It has already committed to changing its electricity contracts to purely renewable sources, which he says will take the business a long way towards its targets and is covered by Scope 1 and Scope 2 impacts.
“We will continue to look at ways of improving,” he adds. His company car is now an electric vehicle with more on the way for the business.
Now it turns to reducing the Scope 3 impacts along its supply chains, applying to paper, to consumables and transport that the business uses.
Healeys worked with CarbonCo on measuring and understanding its impacts and starting to mitigate these. It will be subject to an audit every two years to understand how much carbon reduction has been achieved and how much residual carbon needs offsetting.
