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Member Profile | Steve Plackett and Carousel Calendars: "Customers and licensing partners are taking greater interest in what we do"

Thu 05 May 2022 | 09:17 am GMT
Rob Hutchins | Products of Change Writer

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Products of Change getting to know our members better

Continuing our regular series of quick-fire Question and Answer sessions with members of the Products of Change community, we catch up with Steve Plackett, managing director of Carousel Calendars, to learn more about the company’s relationship with sustainability and the fantastic journey it is on.
Steve Plackett (left) and the Carousel Calendars team announced it was Carbon Neutral for direct emissions on Earth Day 2022
  Hello Steve and the Carousel Calendars team. It’s wonderful to have you guys as part of the Products of Change community. To kick us off, why did you decide to become a part of the network? The timing was perfect as we were only a year or so into our own journey across Calendar Club, Otter House, and Carousel Calendars, so it helped to see that we were not alone in our efforts to improve environmental standards in our industry. What was it that put you and the team on the path towards better sustainability – whether that’s through partnership you are seeking or through measures you are adopting and implementing in the business yourself? I think my interest has always been there… for decades. I am a great lover of outdoor sports, so I am forever walking, climbing, or running in the fells in the Lake District or Peak District, so I think you just develop a love of nature and protecting it over a lifetime of enjoying it. I was very pleased and reassured to find out that my fellow shareholders and directors in Calendar Club and Otter House were also like-minded. In a previous job, I helped put ISO 14001 systems into our print and publishing business back in the 1990s, so even then we would try to operate in a very environmentally responsible way. Where has your sustainability journey led you to date? We have implemented some stringent measures across Calendar Club, Otter House and Carousel Calendars in the last year or two, reducing scope 1 and scope 2 emissions and working on scope 3 with partners. I and the team are constantly learning and learning to operate as a business in the same way you do personally in terms of energy and waste. What are you looking for from the Products of Change platform and its network? Increasing awareness and training, and for a platform for sharing ours and other people’s ideas. It also feels like a nice community of like-minded people, which helps. What is exciting you the most about the topic of sustainability and sustainable – or even regenerative – business right now? What about sustainability in the licensing space? We are starting to see an increase in customers and licensing partners who are taking an interest in what we do. It’s really nice because when we started our journey, it certainly wasn’t due to any commercial pressure at all. It was just our desire to reduce our environmental impact in terms of plastics and carbon. What kind of conversations would you like to be having around sustainability to advance your journey and business? We’d like to be having conversations with manufacturers, publishers, and retailers around the world to adopt the Science Based Targets initiative, or at the very least the principles of SBTi. How can like-minded members of Products of Change connect with you? By any means whatsoever. Visit us in Exeter or Norwich or mail or phone.
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