Carousel Calendars and Danilo have announced they are to collaborate on a long-term sustainability programme to improve the environmental practice within the calendar sector.
These two UK leading calendar publishers, together with other key partners, including retailer Calendar Club and Avonside Publishing have joined forces to create an informal working group who will share product development and packaging ideas to help reduce the industry’s overall environmental impact.
The key areas the working group have already earmarked to confront include:
- Finding plastic-free packaging solutions for calendars.
- Removing all plastic components in products.
- Removing single-use plastics in the supply chain.
- Discovering alternatives for non-recyclable product elements, such as laminated covers and plastic-coated wire.
“We are delighted with the support and cooperation we have received from our industry partners,” stated Steve Plackett, managing director of Carousel Calendars, part of the same group that owns leading calendar retailer, Calendar Club. “We all have a responsibility to understand the environmental impact of our business operations and to actively seek ways to measure and mitigate these impacts.”
Adding his commitment to progressing on the environmental front, Daniel Prince, managing director of Danilo told PG Buzz: “The formation of this working group is a positive step in our sector’s progress and protection.” He added that “by committing to sharing ideas, we can work together to address concerns and develop comprehensive sustainable practices across the industry.”
Danilo has already taken several steps forward on the environmental front and is well underway with trials with its trade suppliers to further improve its products eco-credentials for its 2021 dated products.
Meanwhile, Carousel Calendars’ Spring Fair stand and current product catalogue gave prominence to its pledge to improve its environmental footprint. The Exeter-based calendar company, which offered seven wall calendar titles with plastic-free packaging for 2020 is increasing this to 200 products in its 2021 collection. In addition to plastic-free packaging for its wall calendars for brands that include National Geographic, Emma Bridgewater, Marine Conservation Trust, Pabuku, RSPB, National Trust, River Cottage, the company has also re-engineered the design of its ‘page a day’ calendar blocks to take out the plastic elements.
As part of the Otter House Group, which also includes Calendar Club and Otter House, Carousel Calendars is part of the group’s series of pledges which come under its group-wide set of targets which come under its Zest project.
These include:
- Calendar Club, Carousel Calendars and Otter House will each become a carbon neutral company from July 2021 for their direct emissions.
- Each company, and the Group overall, will reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2024.
- 100% of calendars published by Carousel will be printed on FSC-certified paper by 2022.
- 95% of the calendars sold by Calendar Club and distributed by Otter House will be printed on FSC-certified paper by 2022.
- 50% of calendar product published by Carousel and sold by Calendar Club and Otter House will come in plastic-free packaging by 2022
The Zest team is chaired by Steve Plackett, who said: “It’s only too easy to carry on regardless and do nothing, but we all have a responsibility to look after our planet. We have set challenging targets to hit which will require a lot of dedicated and detailed work by all our staff, and I’m proud to say that we have a committed team that is passionate about improving our environmental performance”.
Top: Retailer Calendar Club UK, part of the Otter House group, along with Carousel Calendars is committed to upping the sector’s environmental practices further.
