INDUSTRY ROUNDTABLE
THE GREEN DREAM
PPS invites four senior executives from across the publishing, toy and apparel categories – Steve Cox, UK sales director, Keel Toys; Pamela Gill-Alabaster, global head of sustainability, Mattel; Julie Jones, md, Redan Publishing; and Lorraine Westbury, director of corporate social responsibility, TDP Textiles – to discuss the changes being made in their businesses, key milestones and goals and why, despite several other major challenges, it’s vital that sustainability remains on the agenda for the entire preschool sector.
Steve Cox
Pamela Gill-Alabaster
WHAT SUSTAINABLE STEPS HAS YOUR COMPANY BEEN TAKING OVER THE PAST YEAR/18 MONTHS? Steve: “January 2020 saw the launch of Keeleco endangered wildlife soft toys which are 100% recycled, 100% huggable and manufactured from plastic waste. Straight from the launch, Keeleco has been a great success with consumers looking for a sustainable alternative. The range has been extended in 2021 to include British Wildlife and a Keeleco Baby range featuring toys, rattles and comfort blankets. Through the business we have looked to reduce energy consumption, as an example by changing office and warehouse lighting to LED and replacing cars to electric or hybrid alternatives.” Pamela: “At Mattel, we are committed to managing the environmental impact of our products. We recently launched Mattel PlayBack, a new toy takeback programme that enables families to extend the life of their Mattel toys once they are finished playing with them. It is designed to recover and reuse materials from old Mattel toys for future Mattel products, and supports our broader goal to achieve 100% recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastic materials across all products and packaging by 2030. We are also engaging in pre-
Julie Jones
Lorraine Westbury
competitive collaborations with other members of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and recently conducted circular design training, led by global design firm IDEO, for our design, development, global brand and supply chain teams. We are actively looking for ways to reduce packaging materials in toys and we have been working to reduce our environmental impact tied to carbon emissions, energy consumption and waste generation.” Julie: “With regards to packaging, over the last two years we have worked hard to reach a point where all of our single-use packaging is made from materials that can be recycled with regular household waste or at a recycling facility. Any cardboard packaging we use is responsibly sourced from sustainably managed forests. We have also taken steps to limit the presence of nonrecyclable components in our plastic covermounts. We recognise the need to steer away from non-recyclable plastic components and have reduced our usage by 70% over the last two years. We are on target to reduce this further. In 2022 we anticipate having only 10% non-recyclable materials in our covermount products. We have also recently invested in a new national campaign which is launching later this year, called Recycle to Read.” Lorraine: “We have continued to review all areas of the business where measurable improvement can be
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