Sector:  Printing
No.of Employees:  51-100
Region: South East

Summary
Beacon Press was established by its current chairman in 1976. In 1989 he took the opportunity of a move to a new East Sussex factory and at that time he decided to improve his business' environmental performance. Printing is a competitive industry, with few opportunities to establish a competitive advantage. Beacon Press' environmental policy has become its most important marketing tool.

Background
Based in East Sussex, Beacon Press is a leading printing firm, whose customers include over half of the FTSE 100. Established in 1976, Beacon Press has been a leader in environmental innovations in the publishing industry.

Responsible business objectives 

• Developing a competitive edge. Beacon Press' reputation as a world leader on environmental issues in the printing industry is central to the company's positioning and competitive differentiation.

• Increase competitiveness by reducing costs. By reducing water and gas consumption and waste disposal costs, Beacon Press has reduced their operating costs and increased their competitiveness in a highly competitive industry.

How they do it

• Voluntary environmental reporting. Beacon Press was only the fifth company in the UK to gain BS 7750 (now ISO 14001) and the 11th UK company to gain EC ECO Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) registration, although in all cases the company's performance exceeds these commitments. The company has established 28 environmental performance indicators monitored monthly and including carbon dioxide emissions, gas and water consumption and chemicals purchased.

• Research and development focused on reducing environmental impact. Beacon's advanced environmental management system, together with some innovative technology is all registered under the name pureprint® and offered to customers as a guarantee of the most exacting environmental standards available in the UK printing industry. This innovation was chosen by The Design Council to be a Millennium Product in 1998. In the last two years Beacon has introduced on site solvent recycling, a full biodiversity policy and programme, and a number of energy saving devices. Since 2001 they have used over 2 million Kw of green electricity.

• Planting trees to compensate unavoidable pollution. Beacon Press has also become the world's first Carbon Neutral® printer, in a program developed and managed by Future Forests, by sponsoring the planting of 650 trees to compensate for unavoidable carbon dioxide emissions from its factory.

• Reduced Gas Consumption. Since 1995, gas consumption has been reduced by 45%, despite increased productivity.

• Water Conservation. Beacon has worked hard to save water and has reduced consumption from 30.8 cubic metres in 2003 to 25.8 metres per month in 2004. They have fitted push top taps and waterless urinals throughout the building. Their waterless printing process also helps to reduce water used.

• Reduced Waste Recycling is an important part of the philosophy and the company now recycles 84% of its waste, primarily paper.

• Reduced Use of Chemicals A recent installation of computer-to-plate equipment has eliminated all waste photographic chemicals, while waterless printing technology reduces the paper waste of conventional printing methods by 30%. Redundant machine parts are stripped and sorted into various metals and recycled.

Business Benefits

• Customer Relationships. The company's approach has delivered a clear differentiation in a competitive market with clients using Beacon Press to demonstrate their own corporate social responsibility.

• Savings. Many of the measures and technologies have also saved money. For example Beacon Press saves over £1,000 due to careful control of gas consumption. Careful use of water saves the company nearly £1,000. The recycling of waste shows a saving of £30,000. The recycling of cleaning solvent saves £30,000 per annum.

• Improved Working Environment. Staff say the emphasis on the environment makes Beacon Press a very caring, clean and safe place to work.

• Community Recognition Beacon was awarded the coveted Queen's Award for Sustainable Development last year.