“Our industry is extremely wasteful. Typically, around 85% of everything we manufacture for our clients is for short-term, one-off use,” said Mark.

“It is our priority to ensure that our industry changes its ways and that our competitors, customers, venues and event organisers do more to reduce their waste and minimise the impact on the natural environment,” he said.

COVID had a huge impact on the company, as it did for the whole live events industry. Whilst it was a challenging time, Mark recalls how it enabled the leadership team to start to look more closely at sustainability and what they might be able to do differently. “During lock down, I remember realising how the planet was starting to regenerate, as human impact slowed down,” he said.

The company wanted that trend to continue, so embedded sustainability into its core values. “It is the right thing to do, and we should all be more mindful of our impact,” Mark added.

Moss UK had to reduce its staffing level, as many organisations did, and “run lean” to survive in COVID. This left the company with limited resource and a need for external help to get started on its sustainability journey.

“When we met with Green Circle Solutions, we immediately knew that it was what we had been looking for and a consultancy service we had not found elsewhere,” said Mark.

“GCS really understood the legislation and carbon reporting requirements. They helped us organise the information we needed to understand our starting point and worked with us to formalise our strategy to make immediate, mid-term and long-term impact to improve our position.”

As Moss UK started the data gathering exercise during the pandemic, they decided to set their baseline on 2019 data, as 2020 was, of course, not a normal working year.

“GCS helped us identify and put together the data as well as understand what it really meant to our business. When we did our impact analysis, it was shocking to learn that the biggest issue was with our materials. It was then obvious what we needed to target to make the biggest impact,” said Mark.

Said Matt: “We started by implementing a rigorous process to select products for our customers which are less impactful but still deliver what is needed.”

Green Circle Solutions worked with Moss UK’s suppliers to help get more detailed information on the products and solutions they were sourcing. Developing a sustainable supply chain by using suppliers that have environmental standards compatible with Moss UK’s is now a key strategy.

In 2022, the company was able to set SMART objectives to work towards. With a robust data set in place, the team realised that they would never be able to get to Net Zero. “As long as we are using products, we will have a footprint. Our focus is to reduce our emissions – our target is to achieve a 50% reduction in impact, per metre square by 2030,” said Mark. This ambitious target will deliver enormous carbon reduction benefits to customers and further position Moss UK as a thought leader in sustainability in the branding and signage solutions industry.

Engaging staff was, of course, a critical step on their journey, so the company embarked on a programme of sustainability education and marketing.

“Having an independent consultant like GCS helped us deliver training which in turn increased engagement and attention from staff and customers,” said Mark. The Moss UK team has since delivered its own training and engages GCS in customer workshops on sustainability.

“Sustainable processes often make it easier for employees to do their jobs. We focused on the benefits to the employees when we changed the work process to be more sustainable and the biproduct was the benefit to the environment,” said Matt.

Moss UK has a strong culture of inclusion. All staff are actively encouraged to make suggestions for improvements across the business, not just in sustainability, and everyone receives a response, irrespective of whether the suggestion is adopted.

The company has also committed to remain conscious of the environment beyond their immediate operations and take steps to prevent pollution and minimise environmental harm and nuisance. They are seeking ways to minimise business travel and focusing on greener travel where possible, reducing the consumption of resources such as paper and plastic, minimising the volume of waste generated and maximising reuse/reduce, recycling, and energy recovery from waste.

A key strategy is to continue reviewing, and continually improving their environmental performance by regularly reassessing technology solutions, business requirements, and environmental best practices.

Green Circle Solutions continues to provide consultancy services to the team at Moss UK and is currently helping the company compile its annual Scope 1, 2 & 3 reporting data, as well as advising on how to further reduce its carbon footprint. This helps the company track progress against targets and demonstrates its long-term commitment to sustainability.

“GCS is an important partner to our business. Not only can we always ask for advice, but they help us find more sustainable product solutions which is an important part of our strategy,” said Matt.

“Sustainability is a big part of our culture, said Matt. “We recognise it’s more than just looking after the environment too.”

“Ethics are important to us. We challenge our customers on environmental ethics. If we all challenge each other and be consistent, then we can affect change more quickly, said Matt. “This is not just about commercial gain; it is about ensuring the right buying decision for our customers.”

Investing in the local community is an area that both Matt and Mark are passionate about. Moss UK runs an apprenticeship programme in conjunction with Learn2Print.

It also has a partnership with a local nonprofit, Inspire 2 Ignite to engage young people locally in Cambridgeshire aged 16 to 24 who are classified as NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training). They run open days to show young people what they do and the variety of roles, trades and professions in their industry. The company also offers opportunities for work experience to inspire the next generation of talent and future proof the business.

“We are acutely aware that we are not going to change the world on our own and need everyone to come along with us. We are very open to share learnings with the industry and anyone who has the intent to improve the industry as a whole,” concluded Mark.

Moss UK holds platinum status ESSA Sustainability Module and the BS:EN ISO14001 Environmental Management System accreditation.