Bryan S Ryan’s Sustainability Vision and Goals

Can you tell us about Bryan S Ryan’s overall sustainability vision and goals?

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“It’s nearly 50 years since the first paperless office prediction yet our affinity to paper continues” according to Quocirca, a global market research organisation.

Whilst our industry has made significant progress on Sustainable goals, we continue to have the everyday challenges in meeting our recycling objectives. As a result of these complexities, the need for clarity around print sustainability remains. We feel that it’s our responsibility to provide the education and commitment across the print lifecycle, from manufacturing and in-use impacts to recycling and disposal.

Our Environmental Charter was developed to focus on our clients’ requirements as they look to partner with companies that have products and services produced and delivered in a sustainable way. We have a credible sustainability story, one that we can both articulate and provide the evidence to support. 

Our long-term vision is to operate and provide products and services that have a zero landfill policy.

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What are some of the biggest sustainability challenges facing the managed print services industry?

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I think the challenges in our industry and are no different to the wider sector. In Quocirca’s latest research,66% of UK organisations formally monitor the carbon footprint of their IT environment but this drops to 57% that monitor the carbon footprint of their print environment. Both stats still fall well short of the stated targets. Two challenges come to mind:

Cost and Resources: There is a cost involved but if you are clear in your vision and goals and aligned with reputable recycling partners then it’s affordable and you can plan for appropriate internal resources. Clients are also very keen to understand what happens to their old equipment and consumables and in most cases, they are willing to pay a greenium, a premium of sorts to ensure safe recycling.

Cultural and User understanding: Don’t automatically assume that users are in tune with your sustainability goals. In fact, in a lot of cases it can be the opposite. We have developed bespoke campaigns both internally and externally to educate our staff and clients.

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What advice would you give to companies looking to improve their sustainability practices, especially in the print and document solutions sector?

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Our sustainability journey has been very interesting. We’ve worked closely with our key OEM partners, Kyocera & Canon, in understanding their objectives and we’ve adopted some of their insights and best practice on global initiatives. We would advise all services based organisations to do likewise. This will enable you to accelerate your own specific Sustainable Goals.

Away from our industry, we are constantly benchmarking progress and reviewing wider environmental considerations. What has become very evident is that Sustainability is a proactive goal for companies. Research shows that on average 78% of all clients are looking for their vendors to integrate into their ESG initiatives. So really what it all comes back to is ensuring we have a credible sustainability story, one that we can both articulate and provide the evidence to support.

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What personal advice would you give to anyone starting on their Sustainability journey?

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Sustainability is part of everyday life. We all have a responsibility to educate those around us, whether it’s in the family home or in a working environment. Influencing positive cultural behaviour and best practice is the starting point. For some leaders it can be onerous but once you are on the journey it becomes very worth while as you view your organisation positively through a different lens.

It is vital that company leaders embed sustainability into their business strategy. That way they can identify and manage risks, seize any opportunities and create long term value.Investment and training are critical to that overarching strategy.

Aligning yourself with key suppliers who share your vision, will allow you to attain accreditations, safe in the knowledge that you are not alone on this journey.

And finally, it is pivotal that your staff are empowered to make tangible sustainable decisions. We need to recognise the role played by employees and continue to encourage them to actively participate in sustainability initiatives.

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In our next post we will outline our various recycling initiatives under the 3R policy which will also include our official accredited processes.

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