Posted on 24-September-2020   by Imogen Jones

Our commitment and steps to sustainability

Here at Daniels Healthcare, we recognise the importance of our responsibility to the environment beyond the legal and regulatory requirements, and are committed to minimising the impact of our activities.

Our long-term approach aims to reduce any damaging effects on the environment from our business processes and products. These measures cover the breadth of our business practices and range from working with suppliers that have environmentally friendly processes themselves, right through to developing new sustainable clinical waste containers.

A multitude of small changes can make a big impact on our planet and we wanted to share some of the lesser known initiatives and practices we have in place.

Mauser ethos: produced – reused – recycled

• ISO 50001 is an international standard recognised across the globe. The whole company/site is ISO 50001 certified. It provides a framework for us as a company to improve our energy efficiency. We are audited each year in 5 years cycles where we have to show what areas we have addressed and energy efficiencies we have implemented – some of the following initiatives have been driven due to this standard.
• ISO 14001 is an international standard we as a company are signed up to, as a company we have to consider all environmental issues relevant to how we work, such as potential to pollute our air or water ways, how we manage our waste among other was we can impact our environment. Another areas this standard helps us monitor is the use of resource and how to introduce efficiencies, in this way this standard overlaps with the ISO 50001. We are audited against this standard every year and need to demonstrate continual improvement as a business – some of the following initiatives have been driven due to this standard.
• We are proactive in minimising our production of waste and reusing or recycling materials. For example, all used cardboard is recycled and all of our cardboard packaging is made from 80% recycled materials and is 100% recyclable. This is sourced locally in Manchester to lessen transportation distances.
• A change in our 5l container has reduced the amount of cardboard packaging by 2153kg per year which is 37 trees.
• We ‘rechip’ (reclaimed by shredding or granulating the plastic from all fabrication processes) and reuse plastic waste wherever possible, limiting waste going to landfill.
• Part of ISO14001 is showing our commitment to not impact our local environment with our operations, so we took the Operation Clean Sweep® company pledge to eliminate plastic raw materials entering the local water course and ran a staff awareness campaign.
• The introduction of our new multi impression tooling has meant that we can manufacture more containers an hour which not only means a better continuity of supply and efficiency, but has also seen a reduction in electricity consumption.
• Our SHARPSGUARD® lids have changed from concave to convex to maximise disposable capacity meaning less containers are required over the long term à bigger volume fewer containers (https://daniels.co.uk/blog/daniels-leads-the-way-in-savings-and-international-standards-on-lids-and-technology-enabled-labels/)
• We have invested in a strap tool, currently being trialled, which will reduce the amount of plastic used in each strap and saving an estimated 2508kg of plastic per year.
• Our chillers cool our machine tools that are moulding our containers with hot plastics. We have reduced the chiller usage from seven chillers to two and are currently working on a new cooling chiller project. The newer chillers are more efficient using less energy and use less refrigeration chemicals which is more ozone friendly.
• Motors are found in many bits of machinery, from the gears in the container moulding machines, to the robots that label and stack the containers. When these become inefficient or come to the end of their life they are replaced with efficient motors.
• We monitor and support our suppliers’ and carriers’ environmental impact reduction performance. For example, DPD guarantee that every parcel that they deliver is carbon neutral, and we use Watershed Packaging for our label production which runs on 100% renewably sourced electricity.
• Collaborating with customers who are trying to reduce their glove usage – labels designed and distributed to make people think twice about needing to wear gloves https://daniels.co.uk/blog/glove-awareness-advice/.
• A small step that was introduced when implementing ISO 14001 – some of the company cars Co2 emissions were over 200g/km. Our car policy now caps Co² emissions at 119g/km and fuel consumption must be at least 50 MPG.
• A recent packing efficacy project, where pallet builds were analysed to ensure that products where packed and stacked optimally, this brought to light a couple of savings. The 1l variants can be rearranged to fit an additional 4 cases, and the 3.75l product variants allowing an additional 3 cases. This change increases the pallets stability and reduces over 15 lorries on the road over the year.
• Sustainability forms part of our induction process and we run staff environmental initiatives to minimise the environmental impact of our activities.

Kevin Cundy, Sales and Marketing Manager, UK & Ireland, said: “Being environmentally aware must be ingrained in everything we do and the responsibility of everyone.

“We’re focusing on developing products, methods and systems that contribute to infection control while operating in an environmentally conscious way.

“Our commitment to environmental sustainability extends to all Daniels’ operations, from the moment a product is designed to the manner in which it is treated at its end of life. This holistic approach is taking the entire life cycle into account, not just disposal route.

“We will continually seek to measure and improve our environmental performance while balancing it with necessities to fulfil our safety and quality mandate, and value and affordability for our customers.”

Imogen Jones

Imogen is the Product Manager for our SHARPSGUARD® range, and our Marketing Manager for the UK & Ireland.