Seacourt is the UK’s most sustainable printing company based in Oxford. They got in touch with OxFutures for a grant to develop a roadmap to sustainability for all businesses to follow.

The Organisation

Seacourt have been printing in Oxford since 1946 and have been a sustainability trailblazer since they realised just how damaging the printing industry was back in the late 1990s.

Over these 25 years Seacourt have learnt many lessons and followed a path of their own making, as the steps that they took had not been done before. The organisation went from one of 20,000+ printing companies in the UK doing the same thing – namely consuming lots and lots of resources and responsible for generating a significant environmental footprint, CO2 and landfill to one of one – where they are now a carbon net positive printing company. Recently, Seacourt has been named the highest scoring B Corp print and media company worldwide, recognised as most sustainable SME in Europe 2017 by the EU and x3 Queens Awards for Sustainable Development.

“The “Environment” is a big subject and unless you have specialist knowledge to hand it’s very difficult to know where to start or what the most impactful things you can do to make a positive difference.“

Gareth Dinnage, Managing Director, Seacourt Ltd

Seacourt wanted to create a resource that other Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs) could utilise, regardless of sector.

The Project

Seacourt reached out to OxFutures with the intention of being able to support fellow SMEs locally. They wanted to share their knowledge and experience in a way that they felt would be most beneficial for business owners who needed guidance on solutions

Working alongside Jake Backus (Head of Sustainability at Seacourt and MD of Empathy Sustainability), Seacourt created a nine-step roadmap that all businesses could follow at their speed, helping them transition to working within the low carbon economy. In doing so, futureproofing their business, making a positive contribution to the world around them, and demonstrating a leadership agenda to all stakeholders.

Seacourt received a grant from OxFutures to develop a website that could be a free online resource for businesses to improve their sustainability.

The aim for the Better Business Pack is that all the various stakeholders within the project would see the benefit of the resources and to use this to promote sustainability awareness to Oxfordshire SMEs. This in turn will hopefully encourage the implementation of energy efficiency measures which will contribute toward the targets for reducing CO2 in Oxfordshire.