Business View Oceania | Volume 3, Issue 6

33 34 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 3, ISSUE 6 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 3, ISSUE 6 DI SPLAYWORKS about it, 15 years ago health and safety would not have even been mentioned and now it’s at the forefront of the industry, and sustainability is the next health and safety. In 10 years, imagine where people’s thinking and practices are going to be on the sustainability front.” However, beyond the merits of their focus on becoming environmentally responsible and using environmentally sustainable products, working on environmentally friendly designs can also be a lot of fun. Eathorne shares, “One customer came to us to see if we could make a sign out of some recycled beer bottles. We have prototyped it and soon it is going to be installed in a shopping mall. It’s an illuminated sign with 1000 empty beer bottles on it.” The joy of creating interesting designs has not stopped there – another unique design they built featured two “K” shaped illuminated pylon signs. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenging specific attributes. Eathorne notes, “There is a large push towards sustainable products, particularly from our corporate clients. Nasty plastics such as PVCs are out of favour and products such as plywood, cardboard and PVC-free vinyls are becoming more and more desirable. We are trying to apply innovative thinking where possible, with the aim to replace products we would have traditionally printed on a roll-to-roll printer on PVC media with products printed on our direct-to-surface flatbed printer. In conjunction with Cebelio Plastics we are also currently working on a system that will enable us to recycle acrylics. We are working with Canterbury University on the project, as they have the engineering space to help us develop this.” The move towards being environmentally sustainable has marked a dramatic change in the way that the signage business is being conducted. As Eathorne points out, “If you think support of their many customers who have an environmentally-friendly mindset as part of their business model, they have placed a strong focus on helping those clients reduce their impact on the environment. “Many of our customers are trying to achieve the Green Star initiative,” says Eathorne. “For example, a supermarket that we are working with is trying to achieve 4 stars and a small part of that means they need signage made from recyclable products.” The Green Star initiative aims to transparently assess which businesses are environmentally stable and can display the Green Star Certification Trademark. Green Star evaluates how sustainable a project is by allocating specific categories. These are called ‘credits’ which outline a specific outcome that a project must meet. When it is found that the outcome has been met, the project is then given the relevant points which show that the company or business has achieved a specific level of sustainability through the demonstration of Proud to be long term business advisors to Displayworks. New Zealand’s leading independent insurance and risk advisory. We make the difference for Displayworks We are experienced distributors, processors, and innovative manufacturers to the signage industry in New Zealand. Our talented staff carefully craft anything from ACM to 3D lettering and everything in between! Contact us today to see what we can do foryou. www.cebelio.co.nz +64 3 338 7050 | sales@cebelio.co.nz