Sustainability

We are on a mission to become the UK’s best digital printers, but not at the cost of the environment.

At Gecko, our core values lie at the heart of everything we do. As a result, we are committed to improving efficiency and increasing profitability for our clients whilst being proactive in protecting the environment. Although our credentials speak for themselves, we won’t rest on our laurels and continually strive to improve sustainability and reduce the impact of our business on the world around us.

Our forward thinking approach to making Gecko more sustainable has led to us acquiring:

ISO 14001 

We operate a fully certified Environmental Management System to BS EN 14001:2015. We are proud to demonstrate our pledge to improve sustainability and protect the environment by maintaining the highest environmental standards throughout the printing process.

Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC)

We are FSC registered to FSC-STD-40-004 V3-0. Whilst underlining our commitment to sourcing paper responsibly, being FSC certified adds weight to our vow to ensure a non-discriminatory and respectful working environment not just for our staff, but throughout the supply chain.  The FSC ensures a forest is managed to preserve its biological diversity, at the same time benefiting the lives of both forestry workers and local people. You can read more about our principles and working practices in our Modern Slavery Policy.

Carbon Neutral Status

Conscious of our impact on the environment, we recently took a big leap forward in our commitment to minimise this impact by being certified as carbon neutral by CarbonQuota. They assessed the greenhouse gas emissions for our printing operation, which met the PAS2060 standard for being carbon neutral.

Offsetting Carbon

At Gecko, we are never content with things as they are! We are always pushing for improvements in the way we do things, and this is true of our journey to become environmentally sustainable. This determination to be even better led to us being the first direct mail and digital printer to measure and calculate the carbon used in client’s jobs, via the Tharstern print management system.

This video shows how we help our clients to offset carbon costs

By detailing the cost of offsetting the carbon produced for every print job via our quoting system, our clients can make an informed choice according to their own environment policies. 

We currently contribute to three offsetting projects as part of our journey towards sustainability:

  • Tropical Mix in Panama – reforesting land and restoring the forest ecosystem

  • Pacajai REDD Project in Brazil – Protecting the Amazon’s ecosystems from destruction

  • Wind Project in Gujarat, India – a wind energy project that reduces the emission of greenhouse gases

We know that we are not there yet, and we need to continually drive for green efficiencies for the benefit of our staff, our community, our clients and the world around us. This is why we have set down a number of promises to:

  • Use recycled materials

  • Minimise waste to conserve the planet’s natural resources

  • Conserve the planet’s natural resources

  • Reduce transport via vehicles

  • Encourage customers to be environmentally conscious

  • Communicate our environmental values to our employees

 You can read more about these promises and our commitment to sustainability in our Environmental and Social Responsibility Policy.

For more information on our certifications, please click here.