Environmental Policy

Barber Healthcare is committed to the continuous reduction of its CO₂ emissions and waste output through a number of key initiatives, including:

Manufacturing:
o    Our factories have installed state of the art biomass boilers which burn palm nut shells, a waste product of the palm oil industry, to create the heat required to manufacture our products.
o    Both our Latex and Nitrile factories employ heat exchange units which recycle the escaping hot air, adding it back into the manufacturing process, maximising the heat output of the biomass boilers.
o    The Malaysian government have introduced a number of excellent environmental policies; one of which includes the cleaning of all waste water created in the manufacture of our products, ensuring that the water returned to the environment is cleaner than that taken out!
o    The waste chemicals of the manufacturing process are strictly regulated and reprocessed or disposed using the most environmentally friendly methods possible.

Products:
o    Latex is a truly renewable resource, with 2 trees planted for every 1 removed at the end of its life, ensuring product continuity for now and the future. The trees removed are then used in the manufacture of furniture and other wooden products.
o    As both Nitrile and Vinyl materials are derivatives of the oil industry, we make no environmental claims about these products. We do, however, manufacture all products to the highest possible standards and strive to make every glove in the box useable by making them strong and easy to don which reduces the number of ripped and torn gloves. This in turn reduces waste – as well as being good for the environment, it makes our gloves extremely cost effective.

Packaging:
o    All packaging is manufactured from recycled materials, with the actual recycled material levels printed on all packaging from 2010.

Please help make our actions more effective by recycling all packaging and dispose of the gloves in line with your health and safety disposal regulations.

Logistics:
o    We maximise the space in all our container shipments to reduce the number of containers used and our annual freight miles.
o    We work closely with our strategically positioned Distribution Partners to take products from factory to point of use by shipping containers direct to our Partners, reducing the links in the supply chain and the number of lorries on our roads.

Head Office/Warehouse:
o    All our electric is sourced from Good Energy, an energy provider independently audited as only supplying electric from renewable resources such as solar and wind power.
o    We regularly conduct power audits to monitor our energy consumption to ensure that we keep our energy usage at an absolute minimum.
o    We have a stringent policy of recycling all our office and warehouse waste and are registered with our local councils Recycling Partnership Scheme.
o    We are investing in state of the art websites that will provide all our promotional media in a digital format for simple downloading and reading, without the environmental impact of producing printed materials.
o    Where printed materials are required, we only use 100% recycled paper/boards, with the 100% recycled logo appearing on all media from 2010, reinforcing our commitment to the environment.

10:10
o    We are registered with 10:10 – a UK government initiative to reduce CO₂ emissions by 10% by the end of 2010.

We’ve already reduced our energy consumption by more than 10% through 2009 and are working hard to reduce our consumption by a further 10% during 2010.

This is only the start. We are continuously investigating ways to reduce our carbon footprint.