Corporate Social Responsibility and Discovering the Modern Sheltered Workshop

We are not supposed to call it a sheltered workshop anymore… it’s not politically correct. But if you are searching for a sub-contracting partner that’s probably the term you are going to search. The modern sheltered workshop is now known as an ADE (Australian Disability Enterprise) and the reasons for choosing to partner with an ADE have evolved just as much as the ADE’s themselves.

Smart Business

ADEs offer a wide variety of services that are often in high demand for businesses looking to outsource part of their workload. These services are often not part of your core business so it makes sense to sub contract them, freeing up your staffs valuable time for critical matters. These are things that ADEs specialise in like co packing, kitting, contract manufacturing and packaging, shrink wrapping, specialised security shredding and third party warehousing. And because there local business they are not only faster than an offshore option but also a lot more flexible.

Competitive Edge

Many businesses looking for a competitive edge choose to search for an ADE partner, but not for the reasons they used to. Business’ today use ADEs for a competitive edge that fits in with their corporate social responsibility. Using an ADE means you are providing a job to a person with disability, contributing to a great social cause and that’s worth bragging rights.  

So while the term sheltered workshop may be old hat, the idea behind it isn’t and the value in the model is there for business to benefit from for their triple bottom line.

To discuss your outsourcing needs contact us on 02 9607 6159 or visit our website for more information www.hoxtonindustries.com.au

Nicole Bruce is the General Manager of Hoxton Industries. She has over 14 years’ experience in product packaging and shrink wrap.

Save In More ways with Sustainable Packaging

Plant-based plastics 

Plant-based plastics lead the way in showing the industry that efficient production of plastics from renewable sources is possible. Coca-Cola, Nestle and Nike set in collaboration together aimed at setting standards for the guiding and developing of plant-based plastics derived from feedstocks like corn and sugarcane in 2013. Bio-based plastics and product manufacturing trends show a lot of potential. While I’m excited to see where the growth of bioplastics, where will it end up taking us, I also hope leaders in the sustainable packaging world agree with my concerns moving forward through 2016.

This may help prove that our dependence on petroleum-derived plastics, that it isn’t as hard-set as we once thought.  We have a few of these facilities that are even equipped to process these bioplastics. Biodegradable and supposedly compostable plastics often have to be processed in an industrial facility to fully decompose.  So who will step up and help us save what is most important. Is Sustainable packaging and Bio based plastics here to stay for good?

Lightweight packaging

The benefits of lightweight packaging seem clear enough: reduced material and manufacturing costs, reduced environmental impacts from transportation and potentially less waste bound for landfills. Retail giants are reducing consumables consistently. Consumers see this as paying more for less product….. Are these giants really trying to save us or just pocketing more money into the bank? Sustainable Packaging has to be on the number 1 priority moving forward to help us save the environment, lives and dollars.

George Boutros, Marketing and Business Development at Hoxton Industries. Caring about what tomorrow will bring us with sustainable packaging.

How Cut2Shreds can assist you to conquer archive file clutter?

Does your archive room look like this?

Well, you’re not alone. Archive rooms like this exist across all business types and sizes. They take up valuable space and resources not to mention the dreaded thought of ever having to retrieve any information from one of those boxes! What if we told you we can solve all these headaches in 3 easy steps?

Keep the important stuff

Shredding is the easiest and most responsible way to deal with business records, but before we get to that you need to ascertain what has to be kept. All businesses vary depending on type and size of the business, the industry you are in and contract obligations. To ascertain exactly what you must keep and for how long visit business.gov.au and Australian Privacy Principles . However the following obligations generally apply;

• All business records – 7 years
• All financial records – 7 years
• Employee records – 7 years or indefinitely
• Safety records - indefinitely

Store it offsite

Once you have ascertained what can be sent for shredding and what has to be kept, you are still going to have a fair amount of records to file and keep. Another great rule of thumb is to only keep 2 years of records handy and archive everything else.

So you now have your “indefinite” records and everything older than 2 years sorted and ready to be stored. Instead of taking up your business's valuable floor space you can also consider storing this offsite. Did you know that Sydney commercial rent can be upwards of $100 per m2? How many metres of floor space are your archives taking up and is that space that could be better utilised to generate income for your business? Well at Cut 2 Shreds we also over an archive storage service, which is fully secured and monitored. Contact us here to find out more.

Shred the rest

And then comes the easy part – shred the rest! At Cut2Shreds our shredding service can make short work of your archive documents no matter the volume. We will shred everything from 1 archive box all the way through to 1000’s of archive boxes. We have experience undertaking shredding services to a number of local businesses including doctors, schools, accountants and tradesman. To view the full range of our shredding services visit our website.

So there it is, as easy as 1, 2, 3 – sort it, store it, shred it. No more archive room nightmares!

To discuss your shredding needs contact us on 02 9607 6159 or visit our website for more information www.hoxtonindustries.com.au

Nicole Bruce is the General Manager of Hoxton Industries. She has over 7 years’ experience in secure document shredding.