• 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 aware 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:

• Support the Get a Bag Habit campaign to help reduce the number of bags in circulation. See Links to Get a Bag Habit and register at the RecycleNow Partners website for the Retailer Toolkit.
• 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

Did You Know?

• More than 13 billion carrier bags are distributed in the UK every year. These account for approximately 0.3% of the domestic waste stream.

  Source: HM Treasury - Plastic Bags Tax Assessment, December 2002 [183220]
  www.defra.gov.uk

• Plastic carrier bags account for 0.064% of litter pollution. Whilst experience in other countries shows that introducing a ban or levy will reduce the number of plastic bags in circulation, it does not make a significant difference to the amount of street related litter.

   

  Source: ENCAMS survey in Scottish Executive Proposed Plastic Bag Levy – Extended Impact Assessment Report, July 2005
  www.scotland.gov.uk

• Research indicates that the term ‘single use bags’ is something of a misnomer. Only one or two respondents claim that they discard these bags after only one use. The overwhelming majority claim to re-use these bags for a variety of other purposes including rubbish disposal, carrying sports kit, etc. Some are taking surplus bags back to supermarket recycling banks.

  Source: Carrier Bag Usage And Attitudes - Benchmark and Target Market Study 2005
  On behalf of: WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme)
  www.wrap.org.uk

• The contribution [of plastic bags] to climate change is miniscule. The average Brit uses 134 plastic bags a year, resulting in just two kilos of the typical 11 tonnes of carbon dioxide he or she will emit in a year. That is one five thousandth of their overall climate impact.

  Source: George Marshall: ‘Can this really save the planet?’, The Guardian, 13 September 2007
  www.guardian.co.uk

• All the UK governments have committed to fund public education campaigns to support retailer action on plastic bags, with supermarkets committing to reduce by 50% by mid-2009, and to continue efforts towards a 70% reduction. The wider retailing community will continue its work to reduce carrier bag use and support the overall campaign, including bookshops.

  Source: Martin Hickman: ‘Supermarkets banish the plastic bag’, The Independent, 27 November 2008
  www.independent.co.uk
  
  Source: British Retail Consortium
  www.brc.org.uk

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
• This factsheet from Ofgem gives advice to customers on the options available: www.ofgem.gov.uk/Media/FactSheets/Documents1/greentariffsfs.pdf
• 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 website to find out how to become more e-commerce efficient
• Apply for BIC’s Supply Chain Excellence Award 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 this 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

• Download the Envirowise Guide To Green Procurement
• 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