Sustainability - Blue Star

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We consider best practice sustainability and environmental practices to be an essential part of our market leadership.

At Blue Star we call our multi-dimensional sustainability programme Blue Skies. It’s our commitment to make the right decisions and to take the right actions to improve the social and environmental wellbeing of our people, our customers and the communities where we live and work.

Blue Skies has 3 core pillars:

Environment
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Blue Star’s environmental management systems form a vital part of our market leading production facilities, and have done for a long time. In 2006 we led significant changes in the way paper was sourced responsibly in New Zealand, helping to cut this market’s ties to a number of unsustainable paper mills overseas.

We offer highly advanced manufacturing operations with unparalleled environmental credentials including:

Toitū Enviromark Diamond Certification
Since our Toitū Enviromark journey began in 2018, we’ve made significant strides in sustainability. We’re proud to say that we achieved Enviromark certification, earning Gold status in 2021 nationwide. But we didn’t stop there and joined the fight against emissions and signed up for Toitū carbonreduce certification also across all our nationwide businesses, covering Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions in July 2021.

To enhance our environmental efforts, we further developed an Environmental Management System in 2020. We’ve been continuously improving and adapting it each year, leading us to achieve the prestigious Toitū enviromark Diamond certification in 2024. It’s the highest environmental certification in New Zealand, and we’re proud to have earned and retained it.

Our commitment to sustainability doesn’t waver. We strive to set a higher standard for ourselves and our industry, ensuring that our actions align with our values. With Toitū by our side, we’re confident in our ability to make a positive impact on the environment and contribute to a greener future.

Toitū Carbonreduce Certification
We are Toitū carbonreduce certified and as part of this programme, Blue Star are audited annually by Toitū to review actual carbon emission reductions vs targets year on year.

Forest Stewardship Council® Chain of Custody Certification
FSC® is a non-governmental organisation that promotes the responsible management of the world’s forests. Our FSC Chain of Custody certification allows our customers to use the FSC logo on the products we print for them. Blue Star was the first New Zealand print business to receive FSC multi-site certification in 2007.

Forest Certification™ Chain of Custody Certification
The Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to sustainable forest management. Our PEFC Chain of Custody certification allows our customers to use the PEFC logo on the products we print for them.

Our certifications aren’t the only evidence of our commitment to the environment:

We have led the industry by introducing mineral oil-free vegetable based inks.
In 2018 we introduced new efficient technology to replace 40% of our fleet of traditional offset printers. We now have fewer machines, less paper wastage and lower power consumption.

But it’s no good to say we’re doing our bit if the rest of the supply chain isn’t as committed as we are, which is why we only partner with like minded suppliers in our network. All our key suppliers are ISO14001 certified and we encourage all suppliers in our supply program to demonstrate sustainable sourcing practises.

We actively recycle toner bottles, so far over 3,500 bottles have been diverted from going to landfill.
One of our main suppliers, Ricoh has not only received ISO14001 but is also CarbonNZero certified.
Both HP, our supplier of our Indigo printing machines and inks, and our Offset ink suppliers have full ISO 14001 certification.

HACCP and GMP Food Safety Management Certification
Blue Star Wellington are HACCP and GMP Food Safety Management certified which represents another major step on our packaging journey and allows us to manufacture paper and board based packaging solutions for use in the food industry. This provides the assurance that the printed product is produced in a clean, hygienic and monitored working environment, which meets world class standards for the food and packaging industry.

People
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Blue Star employs more than 600 people across New Zealand and we believe they are a key point of difference. They’re our greatest asset. We value their diversity and individual contributions towards building a sustainable and successful future and this is reflected in our Diversity and Inclusion Policy.

Our manufacturing heritage has instilled a strong focus on health and safety across the business. We have robust training programmes, governance, and reporting is in place to ensure that we provide safe and well-functioning workplaces for all staff. A key metric we report on weekly is our Lost Time Injury days and we share this with all staff in our monthly newsletter.

Investing in our people is a critical part of Blue Skies. We have a number of programmes aimed at improving the diversity of our staff, further developing skills and qualifications and sourcing talented graduates and apprentices. We work with Competenz for ongoing development of our production staff and have invested heavily in sales and sales leadership programs for our client facing staff. With the implementation of new technology and service offerings a key piece is the ongoing retraining and upskilling of our existing teams.

The strength of our development and training programmes is reflected in the longevity of our staff – over half of our people have been with us for more than five years and one in six has worked for us for more than twelve years.

Some of the health, safety and employee-focused practices we have in place at Blue Star include:

WorkSafe New Zealand site audits
Annual employee wellbeing checks
EAP counselling services for employees in need
Annual influenza immunisations
Employee satisfaction surveys
Employee involvement in annual charity fundraisers

Community
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Our Blue Skies community involvement programme has a simple goal – to give back to the communities in which we live and work. Whether that’s through supporting our local sporting teams, charities, schools or community organisations, we believe they are all equally important in keeping our local communities and our country vibrant.

Blue Star has a proud history of supporting not-for-profit organisations. Our key areas of support are in health, education, sports and the arts.