Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility

Bowden Print Group is committed to providing sustainably conscious printing services without any hidden costs to the world we live in. We actively work to have a positive influence on the world around us, including the environment and the community. To demonstrate our commitment to corporate social responsibility, we created our B-Sustainable Initiative. This initiative is designed to foster a long-term culture of sustainability in our business based on ethically oriented practices and management systems. Our B-Sustainable framework ensures the sustainability of our workflows and processes to benefit our clients, the community and ourselves. It provides the guiding principles to ensure we balance our business priorities and everyday activities with our social, economic, environmental and industry responsibilities. Learn more about Bowden Print Group’s commitment to sustainability on our B-Sustainable Initiative website.

A brief history…

At Bowden Print Group, we believe in sustainable business. A business that puts the sustainability of the environment and its community first is a business that will thrive. We formalised our sustainability framework to ensure that sustainability underlies every decision and action that we take as a business. In July 2009, the Bowden Print Group became the first Australian company in the printing industry to join the UN Global Compact. As a South Australian business with a social conscience, we have promised to actively participate in solving global societal problems such as labour, human rights, environment, and anti-corruption. In 2019, we set an objective to consider environmental impacts from a Life Cycle Perspective (LCP). That means examining our manufacturing workflows, engaging in client education, and using innovative methods and techniques for our print, procurement and digital services

How we do sustainability…

Our B-sustainable framework is based on five pillars – environmental management, organisational culture, community engagement, risk management and shared value. This framework has helped us develop ethically-oriented practices and informs the day-to-day management of our business. We have implemented management systems to measure and report on our performance. To us, a key element of sustainability is transparency, transparency about your business operations, your performance against your sustainability targets and acknowledging where there is room for improvement.

Environmental Responsibility

Objective: To influence environmental performance beyond our own. When we consider our environmental performance, we consider the impact our products and services have beyond our operations. That includes:

• Using secondary raw materials and compliant suppliers.
• Monitoring our energy usage and favouring sustainable energy choices where possible.
• Carrying out regular checks of legislative compliance.
• Monitoring pollutants and waste production.
• Regularly reviewing the design and use of our products and services.

Culture

Objective: Recognise the value of healthy staff and instil and sustain a healthy performance culture of continuous improvement. Organisation-wide commitment to sustainability is essential to achieving our corporate social responsibility goals. We drive positive business outcomes through:

• Connecting our team to Bowden Print Group’s reason for being and the difference we can make in the world.
• Providing our team with resources to learn new skills, develop, and contribute.
• Maintaining a focus on health and well-being to improve the team’s physical, emotional, social and financial health.
• Encouraging our team to innovate, do meaningful work, and achieve targets and objectives.
• Showing appreciation to recognise employees’ outstanding work and unique contributions.
• Leadership that connects the team to a sole purpose empowers them to do great work and creates a ‘team’ mentality.

Community Engagement

Objective: Provide support to local communities and engage stakeholders in global-based initiatives. In 2018, we established our Grass Roots Print program to provide free printing services to local sporting and community organisations to help them promote and grow. On an international level, the Bowden Print Group is proud to have been the first printer in Australia to join the UN Global Compact and actively participate in overcoming global societal challenges, including human rights, labour, environment, and corruption.

Risk Management

Objective: Ensure pre-emptive and proactive risk mitigation measures are in place. At Bowden Print Group, we align our risk management systems with our sustainability management principles. We view potential risks as opportunities for improvement to help us grow as a business and continue to contribute to our community positively.

Shared Value

Objective: We strive to create shared value throughout all our operations. Creating shared value is fundamental to how we do business. We believe that by creating value for both our shareholders and society, we all benefit. Our commitment is to make sure that our operations do not have negative impacts on the environment, the community or our people.