A host of industry and company activities and events have made 2022 an interesting year for those operating in the health and safety arena.
A hot topic for everyone has continued to be sustainability, something which Contego Safety Solutions has always been committed to in our supplier choices and the way our business is run.
With the demand for sustainable PPE and safety workwear increasing, we strive to ensure our customers have the best possible choice to meet their PPE needs and to stay ahead of environmental and sustainability issues by examining and changing our business operations where we can to ensure they can achieve sustainability in their supply chain too.
As an ISO 14001 accredited company, we have adopted many sustainability policies, including recycling everything we can, adapting our workplaces to be as environmentally friendly as possible and working closely with manufacturers to check that new-to-market products are eco-friendly.
We believe that it’s vitally important to do everything that we can to protect the environment and play our part in striving for the UK Government’s target to cut greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible by 2050.
Environmentally friendly packaging
In early 2022, we reviewed our packaging solutions with our supplier for our own WEARMASTER© brand of PPE and workwear. We opted to remove all individual garment plastic packaging and will use cardboard sleeves and kraft paper instead.
To give you an idea of the impact this change will have on the environment, we ordered 77,541 garments (not including gloves) in our WEARMASTER® brand in 2021. That’s 77,541 pieces of plastic packaging that we will no longer be using and our customers have to dispose of.
The change will have a significant impact on our carbon footprint and create less plastic pollution for the environment in every order we make.
In September, we exhibited at RWM Letsrecycle Live 2022. Our skilled in-house embroidery team got us kitted out for the event and the sales team met with many businesses over the two days to discuss PPE and workwear solutions that meet their requirements.
Eco-friendly customer visits
In-person reviews and site visits are a core part of our service offering and we currently drive over 65,000 miles a year to meet with our valued clients. This may be positive for business relationships but it is not environmentally friendly.
It is likely, therefore, that the next time you meet with your Relationship Manager or Business Development Manager they will arrive in a Tesla. The decision to move to electric vehicles in 2023 will help us to reduce our emissions and mean that every mile we drive to meet you will be a more sustainable one.
Changes to Health and Safety regulations
A year on from the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, health and safety has remained a vital factor in the way most businesses are run.
As many people returned to the workplace, increased awareness of the importance of stringent health and safety practices held fast and was accompanied by changes to legislation designed to protect even more of the UK workforce.
The new Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (PPER 2022), came into force on 6th April 2022, amending the 1992 Regulations (PPER 1992). In addition to being legally obliged to provide the correct PPE and safety workwear for employees, employers also now have a duty to do the same for casual limb (b) workers.
With the ‘gig economy’ burgeoning (which includes short-term contracts and freelance work) many more UK workers are now afforded the same levels of health and safety protection as their full and part-time employed counterparts.
Customer service at Contego’s core
This year has seen us grow in almost every team in the business, from customer service, sales and purchasing, as well as the addition of many operations team members, who all enable us to deliver a more efficient service to our customers.
The forthcoming implementation of a new CRM system will enable us to streamline all internal and external communication between departments and customers, and make for a smoother experience whenever you interact with our business.
Contego Safety Solutions stocks a wide range of corporate workwear, protective clothing and PPE, including our WEARMASTER® range. We also provide a bespoke uniform design and manufacturing service to ensure that you get precisely what you are looking for in a company uniform.
The friendly and expert team at Contego Safety Solutions is always on hand to give advice and guidance on the right PPE and protective clothing for your needs. Contact us now on 0800 122 3323 or sales@contegosafety.co.uk to discuss your requirements.
