Environmental Policy

Mission statement

Carmel Jane Photography is committed to minimising our carbon footprint and our environmental impact. 

We recognise that we have a responsibility to the environment beyond legal and regulatory requirements. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and continually improving our environmental performance as an integral part of our business strategy and operating methods. We encourage customers, suppliers and other stakeholders to do the same.

Our Policy aims to:

  • Comply with and exceed all relevant regulatory requirements
  • Continually improve and monitor environmental performance
  • Continually improve and reduce environmental impacts
  • Incorporate environmental factors into our business decisions
  • Regularly Increase employee awareness through training

Key Environmental touch points:

  • We seek to purchase recycled and recyclable products whenever possible
  • We reduce the need to travel, restricting travel to necessity trips only, we encourage;
    • Working from home
    • Using video and phone conferencing for meetings
    • Car sharing when travel is required
    • Use of public transport whenever possible
  • Electrical Equipment is switched off when not in use and new equipment purchased with energy efficiency and consumption as a key purchase point
  • We evaluate the environmental impact of all new products prior to purchase
  • We use local labour and materials to reduce CO2 and help the community
  • Office cleaning materials are environmentally friendly, whenever possible
  • We look to partner companies that aim to produce their products and services in a sustainable way
  • Old computers are stripped and recycled for use by charitable organisations, schools or other good causes
  • Old cameras and photographic equipment is offered to local schools and colleges for training purposes

Our policy ensures that the documentation is appropriate to the nature, scale and environmental impacts of our activities, products and services.

It is our policy to manage our business in the most environmentally responsible manner, complying with the relevant environmental legislation and regulations; and aiming to provide our customers with an on time and fault free reliable service.

We continually look to improve our processes and impact on the environment

Production Process

  • Our new printer and photo lab software allows us to use less power
  • Orders are placed online by our clients and are sent automatically to the printer, reducing the need for additional paperwork, ink and power.
  • Customers are able to purchase, competitively priced downloadable digital files reducing the need to print and deliver products saving ink, paper, print our and fuel. Supporting our efforts to reduce our environmental impact and reducing our carbon emissions.
  • We offer photography packages that do not come with cardboard mounts to reduce wastage.
  • We purchase environmentally friendly or recycled packaging for our postal orders.
    We use;

    • Recyclable boxes, Kraft paper, packing tape and envelopes.
    • Biodegradable plastic envelopes
    • Plastic sleeves are PP4 and fully recyclable
    • Mounts are cardboard and 100% recyclable

Photography Process

  • Photographers no longer use physical QR codes to identify each customer (student, dancer, pupil etc); this is now carried out electronically and, with an average secondary school having 948 pupils, significantly reduces our environmental impact
  • Wherever possible we used fabric backdrops
  • Paper backdrops are made with FSC certified paper
  • We supply each of our photographers with their own photography kit, reducing the need for regular kit collections, a significant reduction in our CO2 emissions

Commercial & Marketing Material

  • We utilise Online and Email platforms for 80% of our marketing
  • Informative or marketing collateral/leave behind material, is printed, wherever possible using,
    • Vegan friendly, fully biodegradable and recyclable inks on FSC certified stock OR
    • Recycle or recyclable (chlorine free) or biotop (made from 100% agricultural waste) stock
    • Companies that ensure all waste is disposed of adequately and whenever possible recycled

Office Practices:

  • We are committed to continuous improvement and the prevention of pollution; we use Commercial Licensed Recycling Bins to ensure all waste is disposed of adequately. This includes recycling our paper and cardboard products and exceeding our customer’s expectations wherever possible.
  • Office waste – recycling and general waste bins are provided throughout the office to enable our staff to dispose of paper and cardboard for recycling
  • When possible, we purchase recycled Ink cartridges for our office printers and in turn, recycle these after use, currently, only 5% of print cartridges are recycled.
  • All invoices and quotes are created and sent electronically, avoiding the need to print and post
  • When purchasing new equipment, we look to purchase refurbished equipment or, if we are purchasing new items, energy saving equipment.
  • Energy saving hot/cold water systems are installed in our kitchen, reducing the need for plastic water bottles and boiling kettles.
  • Shop local – items are brought at local suppliers wherever possible.
  • Cutlery and crockery provided to eliminate the use of plastic, throw-away ones
  • 85% of all staff are issued with laptops, reducing the energy usage by approximately 80% in comparison to desk top computers
  • All Computers and Screens are switched off at the end of the day
  • Power safe mode is applied to our printers and all chargers are unplugged when not in use
  • We liaise with our cleaning company to ensure they use environmentally friendly cleaning products wherever possible

 Travel/Transport/Couriers

We reduce the need to travel, restricting travel to necessity trips only, we encourage;

  • We utilise online conference technology, to avoid travelling to meetings when we can manage without
  • Our Staff are actively encouraged to work from home wherever possible
  • Our Photographers car share when travel is required to on from schools/commercial shoots.
  • We encourage use of public transport whenever possible
  • We actively book photographers who are situated nearest to our shoot location
  • We supply each of our photographers with their own photography kit, reducing the need for regular kit collections, a significant reduction in our CO2 emissions
  • Bulk purchase whenever possible to avoid multiple deliveries/couriers

These measures support our policy to reduce our companies CO2 emissions

How else can we make a difference?

Staff and Green Education

Staff are continually consulted over any changes relevant to their role and together we evaluate the environmental impact.

We provide relevant environmental training and encouraged our team to get involved in making a difference, however small.

A decision was taken not to purchase an air-conditioning because of the environmental impact, we open windows and doors where possible to increase air flow.

Ideas

We are constantly looking for new ways to improve our green credentials, here are a few that we hope to be able to add to our policy in the near future

  • Offering recycled graduation gowns to clients at graduation ceremonies, with a gowning company

Our Environmental policy is reviewed every six months. 

The next review of this document due January 2021