Respecting People & the Environment

At Australian Printed Ribbon, we are committed to conducting our business with the utmost respect for people and the environment. We believe in promoting fair, ethical, and sustainable business practices that prioritise the wellbeing of our employees, customers, and communities while also minimising our environmental impact. We are actively working towards carbon neutrality.

These are some of the practices we have in place to help us achieve these goals:

Social Initiatives:

1. Ethical Sourcing: We are committed to ethical sourcing of our materials and products. Our ribbon is sourced from Australian and European manufacturers with ethical and fairtrade policies in place. We have been members of SEDEX since 2016, and our overseas suppliers and partners hold SEDEX certification, which assesses their social (health & safety, ethics, fair trade, anti-slavery etc.) and environmental performance.
2. Local Production: We are focused on keeping as much manufacturing and production in Australia as possible, with 95% of our printing taking place at our Melbourne facility. We are committed to supporting other Australian small businesses and source as much as we can locally. As an example, post-printing processing such as bowing and awareness ribbon assembly are done just up the road.
3. Community Support: We believe in giving back to the local community. We donate our ribbon offcuts and end-of-rolls to local kindergartens and primary school craft rooms, and we partner with many local charities in the provision of their ribbons.
4. Diversity and Inclusion: We believe in the importance of diversity and inclusion. We do not discriminate against any person or business based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or any other characteristic. We promote diversity and inclusion in all aspects of our business.

Environmental Initiatives:

1. Sustainable Production: We have deliberately designed and built our printing machines to be sustainable: well made, long lasting, and repairable. We use a safe, non-hazardous computer etching process to engrave logos on our printing plates, rather than a chemical process. Discontinued plates are rejuvenated and reused.
2. Sustainable Sourcing: We actively source environmentally sustainable ribbon, and we keep up-to-date with the latest innovations in sustainable materials. When outsourcing is required, we deal with a SEDEX-certified factory that adheres to our social and environmental values.
3. Energy Efficiency: We have implemented energy efficient practices in our office and factory, including the use of energy efficient lighting, low wattage globes, and skylights to reduce our energy consumption. We use 100% green renewable electricity supplied by Diamond Energy in our factory and office.
4. Waste Reduction: We strive to minimise packaging waste by using recyclable or recycled materials for our orders. We pack all orders minimally and request minimal packaging from our own suppliers. We also reuse or recycle all protective packaging, such as packing fill and bubble wrap. We don’t use virgin packaging filler. We also do not send additional invoices or packing slips unless requested, to reduce excess paper usage. Our office paper is made of FSC and recycled paper, and we only print out what is necessary. We segregate, reuse, and recycle all of the paper. Factory waste is recycled or repurposed whenever possible.

We believe that our commitment to social and environmental responsibility is not only the right thing to do, but it also makes good business sense. We will continually review and improve our social and environmental practices to ensure that we are making a positive impact on society and the environment.