Established in 1993, The Green Stationery Company is the UK's premier recycled paper and green office products supplier; we select products that are environmentally benign or have environmental advantages over their standard office products equivalents. We are a mine of information on all green office issues, as well as providing promotional products overprinting service, allowing customers to present ranges of their own individualised eco-friendly stationery for use in conferences, corporate gifts and giveaways. We also aim to untangle most of the competing environmental claims made by manufacturers.

Founder and MD Jay has spent most of his life actively engaged in green politics, and, in 1989, combined this drive with a working background in both overseas development and the paper industry: it was a natural step to co-found Bath Green Papers, a local supplier of recycled papers - a market then in its infancy. Later, in 1993, Bath Green Papers, helped along by the rise of internet, went national, and Green Stationery was born. An epic tale.

Business vision

We aim to maintain sustainable business practices within a culture that respects all life and honours its interdependence, and to ease our customers' path to a modern, low-impact office.

We operate on the Schumacher principle of 'small is beautiful,' keeping the company's physical size as small as possible so we can achieve the lowest ecological footprint. We've invested heavily in the latest technology so we can provide the most efficient service to our ever increasing number of customers, yet keep our business size relatively small.

Business philosophies and beliefs

Although we have been part of the 'green niche' since the company's inception, we are primarily aimed at bringing the frontier of sustainability and ethical considerations to the office environment- combining the economic pragmatism of the bottom line with the holistic pragmatism of the survival of life itself.

Buying green office products does not mean a compromise on the price and quality of your stationery service. The Green Stationery Company is now in its 15th year of operation and we supply over 2,000 small, medium and large organisations with all their office needs. We do the work of finding and supplying the best green office products available in the UK today: so when you order from us, you are ensuring the greenest possible supply chain. Green purchasing is an essential element in reducing the huge amount of waste generated by our disposable consumer culture, endemic in most offices.

Business Information

Date established:: 1st August 1993
Contact details: JAY RISBRIDGER DIRECTOR jay@greenstat.co.uk 01225 480556
Business structure Help Basic business structures under UK law include: sole trader, partnership, private company limited by shares, private company limited by guarantee, community interest company, public limited company, private unlimited company, and franchise.: limited liability company
Address of company headquarters: Studio One 114 Walcot Street Bath Somerset BA1 5BG
Countries of operations: UK
Countries where goods and/or services are sold: Mostly UK, and also some EU countries and USA, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada.
Size of workforce: 4
Financial year Help The 12 months used as a company's accounting period. This may or may not be a calendar year.: 1st July to 30th June
Market capitalisation Help The market value of a public company's issued share capital, i.e. the number of shares multiplied by the current price of those shares on the stock market. For private companies, 'company value', estimated by the book value of all assets or by using comparable companies, is a more appropriate term. This information is not compulsory.: GBP 150,000
Turnover (last financial year) Help Income that the business receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. Also known as total revenue, total sales or the top line.: GBP 255,000
Profit (last financial year) Help Gross profit is the total turnover minus cost of sales. Net profit is the turnover minus all expenses, including payroll and tax. Businesses are asked to state gross profit, net profit or both. This field can be left blank.: GBP due to reduced turnover we made a loss last year
Details of owners: Mr Jay Risbridger [75%] 5 minor shareholders [25%]
Directors' other business interests Help Businesses are asked to list other directorships held by their directors and company secretary: None.

Goods and Services

The Green Stationary Company provides goods that are environmentally benign or have environmental advantages over the standard stationery items.

As well as our green products, we supply all the other standard products your office needs, where there is no green alternative. Some goods that are offered by the company include (but are not limited to), printer papers, printer cartridges, envelopes, designer letter papers, bags, files and folders, desk accessories, coffee and tea, packaging materials and bins, computer supplies, solar and wind-up products, and printed promotional products.

We are able to provide service to all parts of mainland UK as well as some areas in the UK Highlands and Islands.

Business Responses

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Human Rights

Does your company have a policy to ensure that neither the company nor its suppliers or contractors use forced, bonded or child labour?

Question developed with ActionAid

Rationale for question

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and subsequent human rights documents set out protection against servitude and forced labour as a fundamental human right, i.e. a right from which there can be no derogation. It can never be right to tolerate forced labour in the supply chain.

Forced and bonded labour is not an issue limited to companies operating in developing countries. For example, research from Anti-Slavery International has uncovered forced labour in the United Kingdom. The NGO explains that forced labour occurs primarily in industries that depend on casual and temporary labour, offer low-wages and predominantly subcontract, which often makes it hard to track supply chains. Forced labour is most likely to be found in agriculture (along with related businesses, such as food processing, packaging and shellfish picking), construction, services (restaurants, hotels), domestic work, nursing and care, and the sex trade. In addition to the damage to the individual, society also suffers the effects of the criminal activity generally associated with forced and bonded labour.

Some forced or bonded labourers may be children. However, other children may take on work 'voluntarily' as a means for survival. As pointed out by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other child and labour advocacy groups, the question of acceptable and unacceptable work done by those under 18 years old is a complicated one that is dependant on numerous factors, including the child's age, type of work, and conditions of work.

Defining Terms

As stated in International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 29 concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour, 'forced labour' is all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily. The individual may be paid little or no wages for the work. Another example is an employer holding the identity papers or travel documents of workers so they are unable to leave their employment.

One form of forced labour is 'bonded labour', which is work exacted from a person as means of repayment for a loan or a debt. Such bondage is designed to hold the person in perpetual servitude, long after the value of the original debt has been paid off. It may even be inherited. Debt bondage is the most widely used method of enslaving people, with at least 20 million bonded labourers around the world according to the ILO.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 'child labour' is work done by children that amounts to economic abuse (e.g. unpaid work) and/or work that is likely to be hazardous, interfere with the child's education, or harm the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.

'Light work' will not be considered as child labour for the purposes of this question. The ILO identifies 'light work' as work that is not likely to be harmful to children's health or development and not likely to be detrimental to their attendance at school or vocational training.

Primary and Secondary answer requirements

ANSWERING YES

Companies must:

describe their policy against the use of forced, bonded or child labour in their operations and those of their suppliers and sub-contractors;
explain how they communicate the policy to workers and suppliers; and
specify how they ensure that the policy is being observed, e.g. through independent verification and/or contract specifications.

Companies may:

state where this policy is published and provide a hyperlink, if available;
describe any other good practice they implement, such as setting out directives to follow should forced, bonded or child labour be discovered in the supply chain and ensuring that adequate returns are given to suppliers; and
state whether they are members or supporters of any organisations seeking to improve labour standards in supply chains.

ANSWERING NO

Companies must:

explain why they do not or cannot answer YES to this question, listing the business reasons, any mitigating circumstances or other reasons that apply.

Companies may:

explain the extent to which they do follow any of the practices detailed above; and
mention any future intentions regarding this issue.

DON'T KNOW is not a permissible answer to this question.

NOT APPLICABLE is not a permissible answer to this question.

NO ANSWER YET is only permissible under extraordinary circumstances and then for only a limited period.

The Green Stationery Company

NO

Whilst we are opposed to forced, bonded and child labour, we don't have a formal policy set out to ensure that these practices are exempt from our chain of supply.

With our fair trade products, we believe labour abuses aren't an issue, and we source these mainly through Essential, an ethically-accountable wholefoods co-operative. We are also content with the products we have manufactured specifically for ourselves, such as the Greenlok stapleless staplers and conference folders, manufactured in China and India. We don't have an ongoing monitoring scheme but we are satisfied by their responses when questioned.

However, we sell, potentially, up to 10,000 different products and we simply don't have the resources to independently verify the production of each one. Also, as labour abuses seem to occur particularly in the agricultural, textiles and service industries, we are reasonably confident about our sourcing.

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