As you know, we have officially joined a growing global community who are choosing to use business as a force for good. We are incredibly proud to be B Corp certified, but our steps towards creating a fairer, greener, and more sustainable planet don’t stop there.
We have been working hard on embracing our responsibility to do the right thing for the planet since 2019. Today, we can confidently say that we have taken and are continuing to take positive steps forward in reducing our environmental impacts and using business as a force for good among workers, suppliers, the community, and the environment.
What does that mean company-wide for the UK’s leading supplier of school uniforms and sportswear?
We approach our sustainability journey in a holistic way across six key sustainability pillars.
- Environment
We are a carbon-neutral business and have committed to measuring our Scope 3 Carbon footprint annually and implementing an annual carbon reduction plan. We ensure all our emissions are offset through offset programmes that have a positive environmental and social impact.
We have a 100% green energy strategy and a 100% Hybrid/EV strategy for company vehicles.
We are improving our packaging strategy to eliminate single-use plastic and achieve our goal of 100% recycled content for all packaging in 2025.
- Product
Around 75% of our product offering is now eco meaning they are manufactured using recycled and environmentally accredited material! By 2025 we aim to transition 100% of our garments to more sustainable fabrics, meaning we are already close to reaching our goal.
We have increased the use of OEKO-TEX-certified products, including the champion Tee, lessening the harm to humans and the environment.
Across our shirts and blouses range, we have transitioned to eco with 100% recycled packaging, whilst the product’s fabric make-up is 65% recycled polyester and 35% cotton.
- Supply Chain
We continue to work with our suppliers to improve environmental and social impacts, regularly completing Banner’s sustainability audit and SMETA 4-Pillar audits. That means we ensure our suppliers are compliant with high standards that are externally verified.
- Customers
We engage with as many customers as possible to help support them on their sustainability journeys.
- People
We offer colleagues involvement in engagement programmes, well-being benefits, training and colleague recognition awards.
We have a dream green team of SER (Social and Environmental Responsibility) Stars, volunteers from across the business, who help us deliver green initiatives and embed sustainability into everything we do.
Our Sustainability Manager, Sarah Robins, regularly attends events focused on B-Corp and sustainability within businesses. She recently attended PurposeFest and had this to say:
“What an inspiring event. It was great to have the opportunity to network with like-minded purpose-driven businesses and meet some of the B Lab UK team. B Lab gave a top-line overview of the new standards and encouraged us to give feedback.
At last year’s event, there were just over 200 B-Corp certified companies and those who were thinking about making the change, just like us! But this year there were about 450 which clearly shows that that more and more businesses are recognising the importance of putting an equal focus on people and planetary needs as well as profit!”
- Community
We ensure every employee has one paid day (Gift of Time) that allows them to volunteer in their local community, with a focus on social and environmental projects, as well as charitable giving.
Fun fact! 500 hours of volunteering was completed in 2023.
We are hugely proud of the Banner Foundation, our charity, that uses Banner’s scale and influence to support charitable causes that directly benefit the lives of children and our environment.
Our ambition is to be recognised as the market leader in sustainability. We want every garment Banner produces to have a positive impact on our planet, the people we work with and the students who ultimately wear our products every day.
Sarah Robins, our Sustainability Manager, states: “We know we are still at the start of a very exciting journey with lots more to do and will continue to challenge ourselves to improve our sustainability performance across all areas [of the business].
As a new B-Corp certified business, we look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with other B-Corp businesses and ensure we grow sustainably and work towards driving long-term systematic change in our industry.”