Roper Rhodes has announced they have undertaken many initiatives to improve the company’s environmental impact including solar panel installations at Head Office, re-wilding of areas around its Distribution Centre and electric vehicle trials amongst the Sales Team. The company says, for some time they have realised the importance of sustainability with the need to take positive action now.

Leigh Leather, Managing Director commented: “We have a long history of being community-minded by supporting local organisations through our charitable trust, these initiatives build on this to ensure we are playing our part to look after the wider environment and help protect it for future generations”.

Solar panel installation and re-wilding

Although there are several exciting new initiatives being introduced Roper Rhodes says this is not a novel thing for the company, for example, solar panels were installed at the Brassmill HQ as early as Summer 2018. These panels are now generating about 15,000kwh of electricity per year, providing a significant contribution to powering its building where 70+ people work every day. At its other key site near Bristol, a rewilding initiative has been introduced resulting in new trees, shrubs and pollinating flowers being planted to encourage insects to return to the area with the view to attracting other wildlife in the future.

Electric delivery vehicle trial and new electric salesforce fleet

In conjunction with the vehicle manufacturer Maxus the company has started an innovative trial by adding a fully electric vehicle to its delivery fleet. The vehicle, a 3.5t long wheelbase van is performing deliveries to customers in the Bath and Bristol area and if successful will be rolled out further.

William Steele, Operations Director added “whilst there is a good deal of discussion about the switching of delivery vehicles from Diesel to Electric, not much of it has converted into action yet, particularly for larger format vehicles. The technology poses challenges in terms of payload capacity and range.  Therefore, many businesses are understandably wary of adopting them. But until businesses start to perform extensive real-world trials, we are unlikely to see much real-world progress.  We want to be part of this progress.  The fact that we operate a dedicated fleet of delivery vehicles gives us the flexibility to incorporate such a trial”.

Another trial is also underway to provide the sales force with fully electric vehicles. Initially starting with a test in selected areas, if successful these will be rolled out across the sales force where practical within a year. Gemma McGruddy, Head of Sales added “we have over 2,000 valued customers who like to see as frequently as possible, this introduction to the fleet means we can get to them but without damaging the air quality in the town/cities in which they live”.

Packaging reduction

Ensuring products reach customers in the best condition possible packaging is essential for the business, but this has inevitably led to an increase in the usage of more plastic and polystyrene materials. To address this a task force was established a year ago with the sole purpose of reducing wasteful packaging across all Roper Rhodes categories & in particular to work toward the eventual elimination of all plastics. Consequently, polystyrene has now been eliminated from the packaging of cisterns, and will imminently be removed from all mirrors, to be eradicated from all furniture by the end of the year. Simon Taylor, Marketing Director commented, “I’m proud to say that this concerted effort across the business has received passionate support from all involved”.

To learn more about Roper Rhodes click here:

Oxfordshire based VitrA Bathrooms has published a new library of award-winning print brochures for both their Bathroom Collection and their Designer Collection.

For each collection, the company has produced one brochure with the end-user, the bathroom-purchaser in mind, and another brochure that acts as a complete technical guide for retailers and specifiers.

Each brochure offers an easy, instinctive journey through the best bathroom product design with the consumer brochure being peppered with style and design recommendations, sizes, prices, and suggestions for complementing ideas and products. The brochures share stunning lifestyle imagery of VitrA’s in-house designs as well as collaborations with international designers.  Available in print and online, the design of VitrA’s brochures has been recognised with an award for Best Catalogue Creative & Print Production Partnership – awarded by the Direct Commerce Association to VitrA Bathrooms and its creative agency commissioned for the project Mark-Making*

Margaret Talbot, marketing manager for VitrA in the UK and Europe, explains, “These brochures are a step-change in bathroom marketing tools, each is a detailed and inspirational bathroom guide for consumers, designers and importantly our retailers.    This suite, complemented by online formats along with a range of videos, aims to provide maximum support for anyone interested in bathrooms for themselves or their customer.”

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Online bathroom retailer Victoria Plum has pledged to fund the planting of thousands of trees around the world over the next 12 months.

The company has partnered with JUST ONE Tree, a non-profit initiative working to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and reverse biodiversity loss through global reforestation. The Barnet-based organisation provides a platform for businesses to take collective action on rising global temperatures.

Every pound donated funds the planting of one tree and also supports JUST ONE Tree’s oceans project which sees it plant mangroves and implement kelp regeneration programmes worldwide. Donations also enable the initiative to take environmental education into the classroom and fund reforestation organisations in countries such as Madagascar, Haiti, Indonesia, Mozambique and Nepal.

JUST ONE Tree also helps to provide agricultural training to local communities on how to plant and care for trees and ensuring sustainable incomes.

Victoria Plum’s commitment will see the company donate funds from the business on behalf of its employees in place of birthday, wedding or Christmas gifts to help it plant thousands of trees within 12 months. The retailer has already donated a tree for each one of its 400 employees, who are also encouraged to fundraise for the cause throughout the year.

Victoria Plum chief executive, Paul McClenaghan, said: “Environmental concerns continue to dominate the narrative across the globe. It is a topic close to the hearts of many of our colleagues at Victoria Plum, so I am very pleased to launch this partnership.

“JUST ONE Tree is doing phenomenal work facilitating action within schools and business and making a real difference to people’s lives and the environment.

“In business, there’s always room to do the right thing. We are proud to support such an important initiative and play our part in the fight against climate change by enabling the planting of thousands of trees, helping restore the oceans and assisting the provision of continued education on the environment.”

The JUST ONE Tree initiative is one of several new sustainability measures introduced by Victoria Plum. Others include a reduction in packaging, replacing plastic with recyclable materials where possible and the creation of an eco-bathroom range with features designed to help save water.

Eco deliveries have also been introduced by Victoria Plum with cleaner, more efficient vehicles and better route planning to help reduce driver time on the road. Furthermore, if a customer opts for an eco-delivery for their bathroom Victoria Plum will donate a tree on their behalf.

JUST ONE Tree founder, Amanda Bronkhorst, commented: “JUST ONE Tree is founded on the principle of collective action. Now more than ever it is imperative we give back to our environment and dramatically restrict our carbon emissions to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

“To have a business such as Victoria Plum supporting us is fantastic. JUST ONE Tree is a collective of individuals schools and businesses all coming together to have the greatest impact, so we are thrilled to have an organisation such as Victoria Plum join with us. We look forward to a long and successful partnership together.”

Doncaster-headquartered Victoria Plum was founded 20 years ago, has a turnover of £103m and employs close to 400 people.

To find out more about Victoria Plum visit www.victoriaplum.com