Adare Helps Insurance Giant Meet Recycling Targets

Corporate and marketing communications provider, Adare, has helped Legal and General strengthen its environmental credentials with an increase in the amount of recycled content.

Corporate and marketing communications provider, Adare, has helped Legal and General strengthen its environmental credentials with an increase in the amount of recycled content used in its marketing literature.

The move has signalled a substantial reduction in the amount of virgin pulp used in the insurance company's extensive range of UK-wide marketing material, with far reaching and immediate environmental gains, said Adare.

Adare, Legal and General's approved print management company, was part of a cross-divisional project team set up to review the possibility of increasing the amount of recycled content in the company's coated marketing literature.

Adare researched the UK and European paper market to find a range of suitable paper stocks.

The project team then refined the options presented down to a shortlist of three that met the commercial and quality criteria of the Legal and General marketing and brand management teams.

The three paper stocks were print trialled by Adare, and reviewed by the project team, with only one taken to the final stage of testing.

It contains 55 per cent recycled fibre of which 25 per cent is post consumer waste and 30 per cent is pre consumer.

The existing paper, by comparison, contained 100 per cent virgin pulp.

Adare worked with paper manufacturers to obtain the certified evidence of the stock's origins and content ensuring that the new stock lived up to its recyclable billing and that the recycled content satisfied the NAPM definition of recyclate.

The requirement that the 'balance content' was also environmentally sound was satisfied by the achievement of FSC accreditation by the mill and paper merchants.

The UK Forest Stewardship Council (FSC-UK) has confirmed that Legal and General can publicly state that it 'specifies FSC certified paper'.

The first marketing campaigns using the new paper rolled off the presses early this year, deliberately involving a variety of paper weights and finishes to cover many areas of marketing activity.

The Customer Experience Communications' Guide, which was issued to all staff in February, contained the strap line 'this paper contains at least 55 per cent recycled content'.

Following the successful market trial, Legal and General made the decision that as from June all of its coated cut sheet marketing paper would also be produced on the new material.

Legal and General has also pledged to continue trialling with web printing and will review the results later this year.

Linda Skinner, Legal and General's corporate procurement's risk and project manager, said: "Working collaboratively with Adare on this project has been extremely successful.

Its expertise and market knowledge has proven invaluable to the delivery of this important initiative.

We are continuing to work in partnership with Adare on other paper projects and environmental opportunities across Legal and General's business." Adare said it is keen to keep up momentum and is currently reviewing options to increase the amount of recycled content in Legal and General's uncoated paper, including letterheads and envelopes.

The current letter headed paper already contains 15 per cent recycled content.

Adare client services director, Steve Pomeroy, said: "We had no hesitation in supporting this exciting initiative.

Over the past five years we have developed a strategic business partnership with Legal and General and innovative environmental projects like this are very much part of that partnership.

It's important for Legal and General's business, and our own that these initiatives are taken seriously and our team has worked hard over the past year to deliver a sustainable, commercially robust environmental solution for Legal and General." Paul Lee, Legal and General's purchasing director, added: "Adare's commercial experience and negotiation of the recycled paper price contributed greatly to the success of this project." The project has been delivered in conjunction with WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) and PIRA International.

WRAP is a major UK programme established to promote resource efficiency.

Its particular focus is on creating stable and efficient markets for recycled materials and products and removing the barriers to waste minimisation, re-use and recycling.

A not-for-profit company, WRAP is backed by substantial Government funding from Defra and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Adare commented that it is keen to introduce similar environmental initiatives in to more of its clients businesses.

Pomeroy added: "Legal and General has seen significant benefit from the project and we will be focusing on incorporating this type of scheme as part of the services we offer to our clients in the future.".

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