• Measure your current recycling levels and target yourself to increase the % recycled and tell staff what you're doing
• Encourage the use of recycled, environmentally friendly stationery products (not just paper) from your stationery supplier
• Use recycled or FSC approved paper in copiers and printers and for printed business stationery & envelopes
• Set all copiers and printers to default to double-sided printing
• Use electronic templates rather than print
• Encourage the use of email attachments/shared drives rather than printing documents - share printed copies in meetings or use a laptop and project onto a screen instead
• Use recycled card for your business cards
• Provide facilities to recycle toner cartridges, CDs, batteries, PCs, office furniture
• If you are recycling electrical goods, you need to ensure that you do so in a way that supports the WEEE Directive
• Re-use boxes, stationery, envelopes, jiffy bags etc
• Install recycling bins and remove under-desk bins to encourage staff to recycle
• Replace catering and other products with biodegradable and recycled alternatives
• Use less - recycle more!
• Put pressure on your local council to provide better recycling facilities for businesses
• If you don't like the recycling services provided by your local authority, contact Joan Ruddock, the Minister in charge of recycling.

• Use material that can be re-used - ensure material is recycled, recyclable or fully biodegradable
• Review your current packaging materials
• Don't use plastic wrapping or polystyrene chips - look for recycled or biodegradable alternatives
• Minimise the amount of packing used - whilst maintaining safety and keeping product damage to a minimum
• Challenge your suppliers about their packaging materials and make sure you recycle where possible
• Encourage bookshop customers to return packaging materials for reuse

Publishers:

• Avoid providing plastic bags for promotional use
• If you must do so, provide biodegradable bags (eg made from cornstarch), or recycled degradable polypropylene bags or calico bags
• Make readers away of the issue - consider an information leaflet for booksellers, or use the last page within books to raise the issue and/or give an example about how to make a string bag

Booksellers:

• Display the BA produced sign asking 'Do You Need A Bag?' at the till point and get into the habit of asking the customer the same question. Most customers don't want a bag for a single book or a card - some don't want one at all ever!
• Source the bags you provide very carefully - see greenfeet.net for the pros and cons
• The BA supplies a range of high quality cotton or recycled plastic bags in a variety of designs
• Degradable polythene breaks down quickly under the influence of light and heat which means that this type of plastic can be disposed of safely with household rubbish
• Offer extra loyalty card points to customers who re-use your bookshop bags, whether plastic or cotton
• Offer your customers a Bag For Life - free if they spend over a certain amount
• Charge for bags and advertise that you will donate a percentage to an appropriate green/local charity
• Question whether you really need your bookshop logo printed on your bags - it looks good but how much difference does it actually make to the customer or on a bigger scale? If paper bags are thrown away, then it is a complete waste
• Offer incentives for customers bringing paper bags back for recycling
• Install a recycling point in your shop and extra loyalty points or a voucher of some kind for customers using this facility
• Recycled paper bags could be shredded and used as packaging
• Support the Defra/BRC Voluntary Code to reduce plastic bag usage by 25% by the end of 2008

Defra Voluntary Code to reduce bag usage

In response to Ministers from Defra, the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Office, and in the context of widespread public interest, the UK Retail sector has agreed to take action and is proposing to set itself a shared objective with the government and WRAP to reduce the environmental impact of carrier bags. This will be achieved via the following routes:

• by reducing the environmental impact of each individual carrier bag
• by encouraging customers to significantly reduce the number of carrier bags they use
• by enabling the recycling of more carrier bags where appropriate

Further discussion will be required to agree a baseline figure and appropriate unit of measurement to report annually on meeting reduction targets. This will need to take account of reusable bag initiatives and the use of recycled materials in preference to virgin.

The circumstances in different parts of the retail sector vary and so a uniform target reduction for all sectors will not be appropriate. Store location, format, frequency of visit, product range and average spend per shopping visit are all factors which have an impact on the potential for reducing the environmental impact of bags.

In becoming a signatory to this statement, retailers have agreed:

• to work jointly with government and WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) to monitor the environmental impact of carrier bags and to agree a baseline figure from which to measure reduction
• to work with the above parties to reduce the overall environmental impact by 25% by the end of 2008
• to review experiences by the end of 2008 in order to determine what would be required in order to make a further reduction by 2010

Identify your opportunities:

Compile an energy checklist

• Walk round the building at different times of day (including after hours) and identify where savings could be made
• Capture gas and electrical usage patterns and work out key areas of focus
• Switch it off if not in use - a PC running 24 hours a day costs around £65 a year and the monitor uses two thirds of this energy
• Run a 'switch off' campaign - place stickers by light switches and electrical appliances and have a dedicated page on your intranet
• Turn it down - reducing heating by 1 degree can reduce heating costs by as much as 8%
• Install double glazing.
• Allow as much natural light into the building as possible.
• Install energy saving lighting - use low energy light bulbs and PIRs, intelligent switches and zonal lighting
• Assess your energy costs over the last 12 months to provide a base figure for comparison
• Look at sourcing from green energy suppliers
• If the green electricity is certified as 100% from non-fossil fuels, it is regarded as zero CO2 emissions and is exempted from the Climate Change Levy
• Investigate in-situ electricity generation with projects such as solar panels and micro wind turbines
• Air conditioning - how cool does the office/bookshop need to be?
• Do you have an open door policy for the bookshop? Is this cost effective?
• Use building management software (BMS) to automate lights, central heating and air conditioning.
• Monitor water usage and use flow-metered WC systems

Involve your staff

• Explain why you want to save energy
• Canvas staff for ideas
• Appoint an energy champion to coordinate all energy reduction initiatives
• Keep staff informed of progress

Prioritise your actions

• Draw up an action plan detailing a schedule of improvements
• Allocate resources
• Identify the individuals responsible for carrying out the improvements
• Identify the responsibilities for ensuring that policies are adhered to on a daily basis. (who turns out the lights?)
• Set energy reduction targets and deadlines

Seek specialist help

• Many of the energy saving measures may be simple to implement, but others may require specialist technical assistance
• Implement the changes
• Measure the results against the original figures and calculate the savings
• Don't let up! Continue to enforce policies
• Although there may be enthusiasm for energy saving it is important that momentum is maintained
• Reinforce the message with stickers/posters leaflets - these can be easily be produced in house
• The Carbon Trust sometimes offers grants to help a business reduce its energy costs

Supply chain efficiencies

• Support the BA/PA's Life Cycle of a Book, which can deliver very considerable supply chain efficiencies
• Use BIC's e4books website to find out how to become more e-commerce efficient
• Apply for e4books accreditation to measure your progress
• Use batch.co.uk for electronic invoicing and payments
• Use TeleOrdering and PubEasy for electronic ordering
• Find out what e-commerce systems are available from your wholesaler
• Look to consolidate orders as far as is practical - encourage customers to accept merged orders on set delivery days
• Consider using tote boxes within 'closed distribution systems'
• Audit your current transport operation
• Larger retailers should review their intersite and depot to store transport policies - maximise vehicle utilisation and keep the updated

Reducing returns

• In order to maintain cultural diversity and seek out future successes, there will always be a need for returns
• But it is simply not good economic practice to return stock which would subsequently be reordered
• 20-25% of bookseller supply chain costs are spent on returns processing
• Good range planning - will it sell in my store?
• Collaborative planning and demand forecasting between publisher and bookseller to agree quantities, minimizing overselling and overbuying
• Review replenishment/reorder cycles to avoid overstocking
• Review 'Minimum Order Quantity' with publishers and distributors
• Simplify promotional strategies - concentrate on sell through not just volume purchased
• Consider firm sale on deep backlist and known 'brands' with a sales history
• 'Recycle' books for sale elsewhere within your own business
• Consider supplier/jointly funded markdown rather than incur returns costs
• Put in place local destruction agreements to reduce 'book miles'
• Less stickering will make books cheaper to return (and enable resale)
• Support the Industry Returns Initiative to reduce costs
• Batch automated returns system is free to BA members

• Fly less - consider travelling overland where practical - use trains rather than cars
• If you must fly, travel in economy and extend your trip
• Use video conferencing/conference calls rather than face-to-face meetings
• Offset the CO2 emissions that your travel causes
• Wherever possible, don't organise conferences or other events that involve flights
• Larger companies might usefully review fleet vehicles - move to hybrid vehicles, reduce fleet size
• Encourage the use of public transport/car sharing/cycling for staff (e.g. season ticket loans, cycle purchase or to cycle to work schemes, include safe storage for bicycles and install showers)
• Use public transport rather than taxis
• Have a written policy clearly understood by all your staff

• Talk to your buyers about sourcing from ethical suppliers
• Buy Fairtrade/Traidcraft products where possible - eg tea, coffee, sugar, biscuits, loo roll, tissues. Many items are available at very reasonable prices if you open a Traidcraft account as a retailer
• When buying cards and stationery products, make sure wherever possible that the paper is recycled
• Stationery - buy from local suppliers and work with them to source green products, looking at all aspects of production including where the paper comes from and what kind of ink is used
• Check that your printer is using ink that is vegetable-based and/or recycled
• If buying plastic (eg for direct mailshots) check plastic is biodegradable
• Use eco-friendly cleaning products
• Create your own ethical trading scheme by joining up with other local businesses to buy in bulk and cut costs and carbon emissions on deliveries
• Look at ethical banking two banks worth looking at are The Co-operative Bank and Triodos