Brands and the Environment - October News

David Platt • 30 October 2019

Keep up to date as to how a few brands are helping or hurting our planet.

Proctor and Gamble Pledge on the Use of Plastics

Many major news outlets carried the big P&G announcement, including the Grocer and BBC, that Procter & Gamble plans to take 9,000 tonnes of virgin plastic out of its supply chain every year.

The move, which will roll out in early 2020, will see 300 million Fairy, Viakal and Flash bottles converted to 100% recycled or partially recycled plastic bottles using post-consumer and post-industrial resin. P&G said this was “ equal to the amount of waste generated by 6.5 million Europeans per day”.

“We are proud of this significant milestone across our cleaning products as we know with our immense scale we can create a positive impact” said Elvan Onal, P&G vice president for home care products in Europe.

Ryanair the Low Emissions Airline - Or Not...

Matt Reynolds of the Wired launched into an attack on Ryanair this month because what of he saw as the worst king of PR and ‘greenwashing’. It all started with an advert

“Everybody knows that when you fly Ryanair you enjoy the lowest fares. But do you know you are travelling on the airline with Europe’s lowest emissions as well?” reads one advert.

The claim arises because Ryanair was using the figures for the CO2 produced per passenger kilometre. Ryanair’s figure – and the reason why it can lay claim to being Europe’s “lowest emissions” airline – is 67 grams of CO2 per passenger kilometre. That’s the lowest for any EU airline.

So far so good you might have thought. But, as Reynolds points out this is more than a little disingenuous and arises because of the short haul nature and the number of passengers per flight, rather than actually making any environmental improvements to their brand.

Of the European Union’s ten biggest carbon dioxide emitters, nine of them are coal-fired power plants. The tenth is Ryanair, the low-cost Irish airline which released 9.9 mega tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2018 – a 6.9 per cent increase from 2017.

Brands realise the importance of going green, but when you lie and get caught out, and you will, you can turn everyone against you.

The John Lewis Group to Remove Plastic Toys from Crackers this Xmas.

Pavilion was particularly interested in the announcement by the announcement that John Lewis and Waitrose would remove plastic toys from their Christmas crackers this year. This came from the realisation that novelty products may have their place, but it is unacceptable for them to be made of plastic, particularly ones that are commonly forgotten about before people dig into dessert. As a promotional products supplier surrounded by competitors selling single use novelty nonsense made from plastic, we are so pleased to see a big brand taking a position of this. We are not against fun, not against the giveaway just against the single use plastic

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Evaluating Carbon Footprint in Branded Merchandise

by David Platt • 13 April 2026

SUMMARY: Comparing eco promotional products is difficult because of the range of materials used Carbon footprint is a measure which allows comparison Need to look at CO2 equivalent because of the use of organic solvents in promotional merchandise There is a difference between Cradle to Gate and Cradle to Grave in the measurement, because we never know whether the end user will attempt to recycle products Pavilion is a specialist in providing branded promotional products, which are sustainable. The most common question we're asked, of course, is what's the most sustainable branded product? And how would you measure that? And that's a difficult question and often comes with hesitations. Why? This blog aims to try and explain eco credentials, particularly for promotional merchandise and how you might compare them. The first problem you have, is that you're comparing different materials. This is why it's difficult is because there's no true standard of sustainability. There is no international marking that says, this one's a 10, and this one's a 1. The nearest you have is carbon footprint. Carbon footprint generally means the amount of carbon dioxide measured in kilos, but you have to be a bit careful with that, particularly for promotional merchandise because carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas. You may be fully aware that methane, natural gas has a global warming effect 50 to 60 times more than CO2. So, you don't need to measure just CO2, you've really have to look at a CO2 equivalent. In other words, converting the methane. And why do I mention that? Promotional merchandise is often printed and unless you are using water based inks, there will be solvents, and therefore, CO2 equivalent is what you need to measure. The next problem that you've have is what are you measuring the carbon footprint of? Are we talking what's termed - Cradle to Grave or Cradle to Gate? The concept is explained in the diagram.

Cork for Eco Branded Merchandise

17 February 2026

Cork - what is it? where does it come from and is it a sustainable product? This blog answers these questions and explains why cork is such a great material