People, Planet, and Profit

We like to think that it’s no secret that one of our core principles is to drive practices for more environmentally-friendly packaging solutions. What might be a secret, however, is how this feeds into the wider aspects of our business, from our people to our profits. When you work to leverage a production process to ‘close the loop’, i.e. recycling and reusing end-products to create the next version, you open the doors to a more sustainably prosperous future with people, planet, and profit.

The Value of Our People

In all activities that we take part in, from curating the latest, innovative package design to our back-office administrative processes, we want to make sure that we’re creating some good for the world. And to achieve this vision, having the right people in the Greyhound Box team is vital.

Determined by our team, for our team, four important values spur on the work our people do day-in, day-out:

One: The Environment

Two: Our staff’s wellbeing

Three: Product and service quality

Four: Innovation and development

Ultimately, we all take inspiration from the goal of making our industry a greener space for producers, customers, and consumers. But, we also take inspiration from one another. You can spend all of the money in the world refining and servicing the machinery that makes up your production line, but it’s only as good as the people operating it.

The New Era of the ‘Open Door’ Policy

We’ve worked to implement an overarching awareness of positive mental health within our workplace. Proudly, this is laying the foundations for an open culture that encourages more honest conversations. In turn, we’re seeing that our staff feel more understood and content at work, stimulating higher levels of care and productivity of which both are advantageous to our overall business.

After all, teamwork makes the dream work. We know it’s a rather well-used cliché, but it’s well-used cliché for a reason! Small teams, like ours especially, boast an array of specialities and skillsets; we’re all talented in our own rights, but when combined, the end-product can be exceptional. A collaborative approach across all departments and tasks helps to move the business forwards, both in terms of improving production efficiencies, heightening customer appeal, and growing our value.

These four core values also guide us when looking for people to join our team. It’s been a fulfilling move to gradually focus less on someone’s skillset and more on their personality; after all, you can train somebody on the ins and outs of packaging, but you can’t retrain their core values!

A Catalyst for Environmental Change

In a similar way, a genuine desire to learn about, and promote, greener industrial practice is fundamental. Though Covid-19 may have been the catalyst for significant changes to business models in terms of the environment, the conversation has always been there. We’re enjoying the shift in focus from our business partners and clients away from a simple awareness of sustainability to more of a genuine interest in well-considered sustainability goals.

Combine this with the ISO14001 accreditation we received back in 2012, and you really begin to join the dots as to how our work truly links us to the planet. This international standard specifies the requirements of organisations for an effective environmental management system (EMS). It provides a framework for a business to follow to improve their environmental performance, something we’ve proudly taken and ran with.

Completing the Circle

Year on year, we review and improve our environmental objectives to ensure that we’re effectively learning and developing our knowledge of more sustainable practice. For instance, one of our current focusses is on reducing pollution caused by our vehicle emissions, which we’re achieving through optimisation of both vehicle load and transportation routes. In term, we save resources, like energy and time, as well as improving our all-important bottom line.

People, planet, and profit is something our customers don’t shy away from asking more about, too. There’s a lot to be said about the depth of the relationship you share with your clients, and it’s exceptionally rewarding to be known for going above and beyond. Whether they’re raving about the range of solutions we offer, the particularly personable levels of customer service we provide, or the fast turnaround of high-quality products to meet last-minute demand, the knowledge that we’re doing something well is inspiration in itself. And it allows our profits to take care of themselves.

You see? When you view people, planet, and profit as a whole rather than singular components, you get rather a pretty looking picture. Invest in and care about your staff, your customers, and the production practices that you preach, and everything else falls into place quite nicely.

Are you interested in finding out about our environmentally-friendly packaging solutions? Get in touch with one of our team members!