Sustainable suppliers
GECCO Real Nappies
GECCO, the Green Early Years Choices Champion Organisation, is a registered charity, started as a way to share best practice in caring for children in a sustainable way.
GECCO Real Nappies is a lending scheme in which parents can borrow a re-usable nappy hamper until their child is toilet trained. The hampers include a number of eco-goodies for parents to keep, including an eco egg, and is available across the South Coast via Tops Day Nurseries.
The GECCO website shares sustainable updates and best-practice ideas.
Visit the GECCO websiteBaba+Boo
Tops Day Nurseries use Baba+Boo to supply our lovely Marty Mouse wetbags.
A wetbag is a reusable, waterproof and leak resistant bag that zips shut to help keep odours (and liquids) from escaping. Wet bags are typically designed to transport soiled nappies, but because of the waterproof fabric lining you can also use wet bags to transport wet clothes, swim suits, and more.
These bags are available for parents to purchase, please contact your local Tops Day Nursery for more information.
Visit their websiteBespoke Utilities
Specialist energy consultancy
Bespoke Utilities were appointed after a rigorous tendering process by Hadland Care group who wanted to find a specialist energy consultancy that offered them 100% renewable energy at a competitive price as well as having a fully managed solution for their energy requirements. Bespoke Utilities have got a successful track record in not only sourcing renewable gas and power, but also assisting clients in the reduction of consumption through various methods.
Following a thorough tendering process to appoint a new consultant, we chose Bespoke Utilities because they were transparent with their pricing and they showed an appetite and desire to deliver to us all of our requirements. They developed a procurement strategy that suited us and went to the whole energy market and gave us renewable quotes at very competitive prices. Their quotes included the installation of AMR meters in all of our properties as well as assisting us with invoice validation and budgeting. They have also helped us a great deal with our ESOS requirements.
We have a large portfolio of gas and power contracts and couldn’t be happier with the service they provide. We would recommend Bespoke Utilities to any business looking to work with a transparent and trustworthy consultancy who focus on delivering their clients exactly what they want. http://www.bespokeutilities.co.uk/sustainable-energy
LEAP
Local Energy Advice Programme
Providing support and advice to local households, LEAP is a free home energy efficiency programme that can assist you with saving money and keeping your home warm all year long.
The service extends into providing advice on maximising your household income by helping you apply for additional benefits and grants and through better budgeting and bill savings.
A highly-trained LEAP trainer will arrange a home energy visit with you and immediately put in energy-saving measures for free. Examples include; installing LED light bulbs, draught proofing any exits and windows, providing training on the use of heating controllers and looking into potential savings from switching energy suppliers. LEAP can also assist you with the application process if required! https://www.projectleap.org.uk/
Espokes Bikes
One area we really wanted to improve upon from other services being provided is to encourage cycling in general. Rather than just allowing the use of the e-bikes for working hours for business use, but additional commuting and pleasure riding outside of working hours. These bikes will be a perfect opportunity for our colleagues to not only get some exercise in for the day, but we hope to see them travelling to their local business meetings on the Espokes bikes to save on fuel as well as time wasted on parking! https://www.espokes.co.uk/
Westover Nissan
Tops Day Nurseries have recently invested in electric vehicles for staff to use in order to produce zero emissions when needing travel at work, from Westover Nissan. These cars are fully electric and have many different benefits when it comes to helping the environment and being sustainable. The biggest benefit of which being that the cars do not emit toxic gases or smoke as they run on a clean energy source.
With an electric car, there are fewer moving parts than traditional vehicles. Due to this, Tops’ new Nissan Leaf’s will need less servicing attention, which will ultimately result in less money being spent on repairs and allowing more money to spend on the staff and resources.
Green Wing Magnet
Green wing UK is a company helping both residential and commercial properties to reduce their energy costs by installing magnetic conditioning devices to reduce consumption and limescale on boilers.
The magnets work by ionising the fuel particles to increase efficiency. For a far more detailed and in-depth description, please see the Green wing website which also covers technical information as well as case studies.
By increasing efficiency to the boilers across all areas of the business, Green Wing are highly recommended for both business and home use. Helping to increase environmental efficiency without hurting the bank.
Paint 360
Established in 2013, Paint360 are leading the way for commercial paint recycling to the trade.
Paint 360 re-engineer waste water based paint back into high quality emulsions for traders to use.
Find out more here.
Eco Ezee
Eco Ezee is a family-owned B-corp company that specialises in the design and manufacture of innovative products made from waste material, by-products from other manufacturing processes or ecologically sustainable sources. They not only reduce waste to landfill but also the impact we are all having on our planet.
Eco Ezee strives to replace, where feasible, consumer products that continue to deplete the world’s natural resources, such as those made from plastic, metal and wood; in doing so we endeavour to make all goods compostable, biodegradable, reusable and recyclable.
Eco Ezee provides Tops Day Nurseries with our bamboo toothbrushes, decorating equipment and sporks.
Loving by Nature
Making the switch to real nappies can seem daunting, and confusing, but with the right advice it really is easy. It is not all-or-nothing – if you want to give it a go just start with a few nappies and go from there – you will soon see that they are well worth the effort. The idea of extra laundry puts off many people – but it need only be a couple of extra loads a week – hardly a massive difference with a baby in the house!
If you are interested in reducing your landfill waste by taking up real nappies, get in touch with Charlotte at Loving by Nature to find out more. If you mention Tops Nurseries, you will receive a 10% discount!
Instagram – @lbndorset
Fluid Branding Ltd
All colleagues are presented with an eco lunch bag, purchased from Fluid Branding Ltd. These bags are non-woven polypropylene (NWPP) and are made using 20% post-industrial recycled material.
The bags are REACH compliant, meaning they are free of harmful chemicals.
Before we receive the bags at our Head Office, they are stored and printed in Fluid Branding’s eco carbon-neutral warehouse.
The Stitchery Dorset
The Stitchery Dorset is a home-based sewing company which make handmade products with fantastic quality which are also beautiful.
the Stitchery create eco-friendly products such as washing up sponges, bamboo reusable makeup remover pads, dog treat bags, laundry bags, organic fabrics and much more!
Tops parents can receive 10% off orders via The Stitchery’s Etsy shop. Follow the link below to find out more.
Visit the Etsy shopDiscount Sticker Printing
Discount Sticker Printing supply any event or activity stickers that we need. All promotional and activity stickers are purchased from Discount Sticker Printing, including our ‘Marty says switch it off!’ light switch stickers.
We use Discount Sticker Printing as they take several steps throughout their production processes to minimise their environmental impact. The company use Xeikon toners that are eco-friendly and even food-safe, so there are no chemicals involved in the printing process that could harm the environment. The company also use HERMA materials, including paper and polypropylene which are both recyclable. This contrasts with PVC vinyl that many manufacturers use. PVC vinyl isn’t recyclable and is toxic to the environment.
Where possible Discount Sticker Printing use recyclable materials during the packaging process. This includes fully recyclable plain cardboard and pillow wrap which is 99% air and made from 100% recyclable material.
If you need any eco-friendly custom stickers, visit Discount Sticker Printing.
Fafunia
All of their products are made from natural materials – wool, felt, silk and cotton – and manufactured in Nepal by skilled local women and men working under ethical conditions.
Palm Print
The majority of our printed collateral including leaflets, business cards and posters are printed from Bournemouth based Palm Print Ltd.
We use recycled paper for leaflets and have moved away from any spot laminate features on folders.
Palm Print is part of the Carbon Capture Programme so they are working towards improving any environmental impact of their work. A premium is added to their paper which is then used by The Woodland Trust to plant trees, creating native woodland areas all around the UK.
Electrox Sterilising Water
Electrox is made by passing an electric current through a solution of water and sodium chloride (salt) using a unique, 4 chamber technology. This advanced, patented technology with its innovative production process creates Electrox – an incredibly effective disinfectant that contains hypochlorous acid and completely eliminates 99.99% of viruses, bacteria, spores and fungi. It can be used for numerous tasks across multiple industries.
Tops Day Nurseries have teamed up with Electrox Water, who now supply the solution for our fogging machines. Read more about our fogging machines here. Visit the Electrox website here.
Compact Drying Cabinets
Tops Day Nurseries use TS34 drying cabinets from Podab UK, to dry our washable nappies and other items of clothing.
Drying cabinets are great complements to tumble dryers since they dry without any mechanical action, the air stream transports residual moisture and it’s almost like drying outdoors. They get up to around 70 degrees inside so will kill virus and bacteria (allowing a cooler wash in the washing machine) and we are expecting our washable nappies to last much longer for drying in these compared to a tumble drier – although drying outside is still the best option, it is weather and space dependant.
Find out more here.
Bio-D
At Tops we work with Bio-D, they are an ethically motivated company that produces natural cleaning products here in the UK, it’s because of their sustainable and ethical efforts that they recently achieved their B Corp status.
Some of the products they offer include a full household cleaning range, consisting of, laundry, dishwashing and hand soaps.
Click here to view Bio-D’s sustainability report.
Gompels
Gompels are a Wiltshire based, family run Care and Nursery supply specialist. They stock over 3000 products, including disposable gloves, antibacterial sprays, first aid supplies and much more. Find out more about Gompels here.