Pureprint has been awarded a Big Tick in the 2009 Business in the Community (BITC) Excellence Awards

The Group won the Big Tick for the Impact on Society Award for SMEs

Pureprint Group, including Beacon Press, has been awarded a Big Tick in this year’s BITC Excellence Awards announced in the Responsible Business supplement of the Financial Times (10th June 2009 issue). The Group won the Big Tick in the Impact on Society Award for an SME.

The Big Tick is awarded to businesses able to demonstrate significant impact and high quality management of their responsible business practices and who can show a positive impact both on society while still achieving their business goals.

The BITC Big Tick awards are the most respected endorsement of responsible business practice in the UK and are now in their twelfth year. The decision to award the Big Tick is made by a panel of independent, experienced practitioners, and as such is both hard won (only 39% of applicants in 2008 were successful), and highly prestigious.

Pureprint have been able to maintain this award gaining re-accreditation for the second consecutive year because they have proven their continuous efforts to reduce the environmental impact of their operations while at the same improving business and contributing to the local community.

Some of the highlights of the past year in terms of business and environmental performance include:
• 81.5% of Pureprint’s customers influenced by the Group’s sustainability accreditations and awards
• 83% of Pureprint’s 2008 business came from existing customers
• 98% of Pureprint’s dry waste was diverted from landfill
• 97% of paper purchased by Pureprint is FSC, PEFC or recycled content.

Stephen Howard, Chief Executive, Business in the Community said: “I congratulate all the winners of a Big Tick this year. In the current economic climate it is fantastic to see so many strong examples of businesses that recognise the benefits, both social, environmental and to their bottom line, of being a responsible business.

The Big Tick is now recognised as both a valuable and difficult award to achieve. It means a company has demonstrated ways in which they positively make a difference to the environment, their workplace, the community or in the marketplace in which they sell, advertise or trade.

Those who achieve the Big Tick are leading companies, ones that run their businesses aware that they depend above all on the talent, innovation and loyalty of their people. They know that they cannot build a successful sustainable business without constantly showing their commitment to being a better business.”