ESG at Fretwell: Our Actions and Ambitions
Where we stand today on climate, nature, waste, gender equality and fair pay, and what we are working towards.
Our clients increasingly need to know how their suppliers manage their environmental and social impact. This page sets out our position on five areas. We keep what we already do separate from what we are aiming for, and we point out gaps such as the net zero target we have not yet set and the gender figures we do not publish.
Net zero
What we do today
- We run an environmental management system certified to ISO 14001:2015 for the printing of paper products at our Keighley site (certificate 11595-EMS-001).
- Our environmental policy commits us to reducing single-use energy sources as far as is practical and operationally possible.
- We have not yet set a dated net zero target, because we want it to rest on a measured carbon baseline.
Our ambition
We intend to reach net zero. We will measure our carbon baseline first, then publish a dated target based on it.
Biodiversity
What we do today
- For a printer, paper is the most direct link to forests, so this section is about paper. Fretwell has been FSC® chain of custody certified since 2007 (licence code FSC® C013888, certificate SGSCH-COC-003387). Chain of custody tracks certified material through the supply chain. It does not measure our own effect on biodiversity.
- Our certificate covers buying FSC Mix and FSC Recycled paper and board, and converting and selling them as FSC Mix and FSC Recycled printed products. FSC-certified stocks are available on request across our gloss, silk and uncoated ranges, at no extra cost for standard weights. Specialist and recycled stocks are priced to the specification.
- When a job is supplied as FSC-certified, the claim is stated on the invoice and delivery documents, so you have evidence for your own reporting.
Our ambition
We aim to keep our FSC chain of custody certification and to make FSC-certified paper a straightforward choice for our customers.
Waste
What we do today
- Paper offcuts and make-ready waste go to a licensed recycler.
- Our environmental policy commits us to monitoring our business activities and resource use to find ways to minimise waste, and to using recyclable packaging and materials wherever practical and operationally possible.
- We help clients avoid waste before it happens, with realistic print runs, digital printing for short runs, and data cleansing that removes duplicate and gone-away addresses before a mailing.
Our ambition
We aim to reduce the waste we create, using objectives and targets set and reviewed under our ISO 14001 environmental management system.
Gender equality
What we do today
- We have a written equal opportunities policy that applies to recruitment, pay and progression.
- We do not currently publish gender figures.
Our ambition
We want everyone at Fretwell to have the same access to opportunity, fair pay and progression, whatever their gender, and we aim to apply our policy consistently to achieve that.
Living wage
What we do today
- We are an accredited real Living Wage employer with the Living Wage Foundation.
- Accreditation requires us to pay our directly employed staff aged 18 and over at least the real Living Wage, subject to the Foundation's rules on apprentices and third-party contractors. The real Living Wage is a voluntary rate that is independently calculated and higher than the government's National Living Wage.
Our ambition
We aim to keep our accreditation and to apply each new rate by the Foundation's deadline every year.
The evidence behind this page
The documents below are published so you can check them. Validity dates are on the certificates themselves.
They do not cover everything on this page. Our equal opportunities policy, Living Wage accreditation and recycling arrangements are not published here, so ask us if you need evidence of those.
Related guides
Last updated November 2026.
Completing a supplier questionnaire?
Send it to sales@fretwell.co.uk and we will come back to you with what we can evidence.