Our
Commitment
to
Sustainability
WE LOVE TO HELP BRANDS AND RETAILERS MAKE A POSITIVE, LASTING IMPACT WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS.
But we don’t like to do that if it means contributing to the destruction and exploitation of our environment, natural resources, and fellow living beings along the way.
Since our foundation in 2010, “Going Green” has been more than just a box to check off on the way to becoming a “next generation” retail supplier. We’ve been in the retail manufacturing business long enough to see how careless decisions, selfish objectives, and humanity’s overall disconnection to Mother Nature has radically affected the livelihood of our earth and all who dwell on it. We decided that if we were going to further contribute to this industry, we were going to do so responsibly. We were going to do it sustainably.
As with any young dreamer, idealization can sometimes prove difficult to actually realize. We’d be lying if we said embarking on this commitment has been easy. We’ve made mistakes along the way. Resorted to old practices and had to course correct. We’ve learned. Apologized. We’ve lost clients who weren’t aligned with our mission, and occasionally forwent profit, too. But staying in integrity was more important, and now, we’re getting more comfortable with this process. We’re getting more agile. More adaptable. More educated. More responsible.
With this Playbook, we’d like to outline some steps we’ve taken on this ongoing, ever-evolving mission we’ve deemed the AXIS “GoGreen Initiative.” We hope that this will inspire you and your teams to remain ever-seeking and always open-minded to each and every opportunity your retail development process has to do better.
THE DREAM: GOING GREEN
Initially, our GoGreen Initiative consisted of three parts. These are areas that every single business - brand, retailer, partner, supplier - can examine within their own infrastructure to gain a better understanding of where their operations currently stand and what they could aspire or evolve to in the future.
Material Assessment
Manufacturing Assessment & End of Life Planning
Transportation Assessment
Over the years we’ve come to adopt a mantra: if you don’t know, how do you know? Ask.
In other words, we’ve remained consistently curious about which materials, manufacturing processes, and transportation means have the most and least negative environmental impact. We decided to look to look to the experts in each respective areas of our GoGreen Initiative to help us formulate our plan and bring it into action.
Material Assessment:
First, we contacted Waste Management and had extensive conversations about every single product or packaging material we’ve used in the past or have considered for the future. We discussed which options are most recyclable and why, as well as a material’s overall lifespan and toxicity threat to humans, animals, and natural resources. We looked at what sustainable replacements and alternatives existed if we chose to reduce or eliminate certain materials from our offerings, and eventually came up with a material rating matrix. In this matrix, which we simply call a “Survey of Materials,” we assign a Green Value ranging from 1 - 10 (10 being best). Our goal for any project is to maintain an average of 9.7 or better for project and packaging material usage.
Manufacturing Assessment:
Next, we applied that same logic to our manufacturing processes. As a company boasting hybrid manufacturing (meaning fluidity between our global and domestic facilities), we have a lot of details, people, and operations to keep in check. We created a smart manufacturing process known as GPM (Green Manufacturing Principles) that uses a rating scale similar to our “Survey of Materials” to ensure we are working with manufacturing partners who share our mission and have verifiable sustainable manufacturing practices in place - regardless of their global coordinates.
By talking to manufacturing experts, tapping into our own decades of manufacturing experience, doing our fair share of reading and researching, and learning from the practices of other Green-Initiated retail producers in our industry, we’ve come to define “sustainable manufacturing processes” as a growing list of environmentally-minded plans addressing issues such as energy input and output, resource utilization, waste reduction/elimination, and end-of-life program management practices.
When we make a decision on what manufacturing processes to implement for a client, we do so on a project-by-project basis. There are too many variables to consider to ever adopt a restrictive, one-size-fits-all manufacturing approach. Flexibility is a key ingredient to navigating sustainability. Like the materials, a score between 1-10 is given to the overall production process, and if we’re not above 9.7, we’re back to the drawing board making sure we’ve exhausted every possible solution.
We’ve found that using a structure like GPM has substantially minimized environmental impact, maximized productivity, and reduced overall project cost for our clients. Fun fact: being “green” does not equate to more expensive program costs. If you’ve been led to believe that, find a different supplier.
Transportation and Logistics Assessment:
Some of the biggest gains our industry can make in reducing the impact we have on the environment is through efficient transportation methods. In addition to partnering with transportation companies that keep eco-friendly innovation top of mind for air, rail, sea, and sky (i.e. drone) operations, we’ve applied the adage of “work smarter, not harder.” We believe the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and that is how we go about transporting our projects and products. We avoid cross-continental shipments of displays and fixtures, are strategic in how we fill every square inch of trailers and containers, and work to improve project communication between transportation and logistics counterparts in order to get it right the first time and avoid redoing it in the future, saving all involved time, money, energy, and negative environmental impact.
Like materials and manufacturing, our transportation vendors and their associated practices are rated from 1-10. It’s our standard to ourselves and commitment to our clients to be the best stewards of their project. It is our duty to help them reduce their overall environmental footprint, so if we’re working with a transportation partner who is not able to meet a specific need, we will move on and shift the project to a more economically and environmentally-sound solution for all. This is the beauty of agile adaptability in today’s marketplace.
THE ACTION: HITTING MILESTONES & PLANNING FOR TOMORROW
Since 2017, Axis Display Group has reduced the use of non-recyclable packaging materials by 70%
In January 2020, we eliminated use of all polyethylene (foam packaging) materials
We continue to expand our efforts in repurposing and reusing all leftover project materials by incorporating them as design elements into future display, fixture, and other retail programs
We are significantly ramping up the next phase of our GoGreen Initiative, which is a prioritized commitment to Zero Waste Project Development. Zero Waste to us means:
Smart, sustainable design
Zero waste in material selection
Zero waste in manufacturing processes
Zero waste in transportation logistics
Zero waste of precious time
We may not be the leanest, greenest company out there, but we’re an open, honest, and transparent one that believes personal responsibility is a step we can all take in a great movement to improve the environmental conditions for all.