Energy

Our warehouse electricity is supplied by GreenEnergy, one of the market leaders in supplying electricity from 100% renewable energy sources. Only buying from 'green sources', GreenEnergy have no fossil fuel tariffs in their product range and actively support emerging technologies to help reduce our reliance on oil. Find out more at www.greenenergy.uk.com

Simplyfair's website is hosted with 1and1 who are the first, large web hosting company to be powered solely by renewable energy. For a company that runs some 40,000 servers across Europe this represents a major commitment that hopes to save some 30,000 tons of CO2 every year. Operating in accordance with the Renewable Energy Certification System (RECS), 1and1 are also committed to reducing energy consumption such as the active use of open-air coolers for their data centres when outside temperatures fall, saving those energy consuming compressors. 1and1 plan to make their entire US operation powered by renewable energy during 2009. Find out more at www.1and1.co.uk

Packaging

While it is important to make sure products are shipped safely and securely (additional dispatches for breakages means double the transportation) we only use recycled or sustainably produced materials for our packaging. This consists mainly of recycled brown packing paper, FSC approved wood-wool, degradable bio-bubble wrap and degradable packing peanuts (made from vegetable starch). We also re-use all packing materials that come with deliveries to our warehouse, including bubble wrap, packing paper and boxes. At Simplyfair we do not produce branded boxes for our deliveries, we use plain single or double walled boxes made from recycled cardboard when a new box is needed for the hampers or gifts for example or, we re-use the many boxes that come to us in good condition from our suppliers. All boxes and packaging that can't be re-used is recycled.

Workplace

Within a busy work environment it can be easy to forget the little things that can really help make a difference. At Simplyfair we aim to 'reduce, re-use and recycle' every day by taking some simple steps:
- Only use refurbished ink cartridges for printing and recycle the empties
- Operate a paperless office as much as possible, such as sending all invoices via email rather than hard copy through the post
- Use Navigator eco-logical FSC sourced paper when we do need to print for packing slips, shipping address labels etc
- Use scrap paper instead of post-it notes
- Recycle all used paper, envelopes and shredded paper
- Turn off all the lights and power points when the office, staff room or warehouse isn't in use (except of course the phone and fridge!)
- Our north facing warehouse is naturally cool in summer and as such we have no need for energy guzzling air conditioning systems.

Printing

Every business needs to promote itself and when the time comes for business cards and flyers, we turn to printing.com and their great range of recycled materials. We endeavour to use 100% recycled materials for all of our promotional materials (and we don't have many). In addition, by using printing.com we are proud to support their 50,000 Trees for Schools appeal. Find out more at www.printing.com

Social responsibility

Simplyfair supports several local projects and because we are a small family run business we find the best way for us to give back to the community is generally through donating our time and expertise. As an online retailer we have built up plenty of expertise in developing websites and we currently support several local projects in this way.