Happy Earthday!

I’ve just bought a Radio Times, although about the only thing I watch on TV is when Liverpool are playing a football match… I’ve bought because there is a picture of Chris Packham on the cover, covered in and surrounded by wild animals and birds. Not because of Chris Packham I might add, but because of the wild animals and birds. He is the guest editor this week, and there are a lot of wildlife/environmental features in it because this week (today in fact) it’s Earth Day. I found myself reading it while I was standing in the Co-op, so I thought I might as well buy a copy. Some of you might know that I’m a big wildlife lover, and if I’m not working, eating, relaxing with my wife or writing, there’s a good chance that I’m either out birdwatching or sorting out photos that I’ve taken while I’ve been out birdwatching.

So why this? I thought today is a good opportunity to flag up our environmental credentials, of which I would say we have three in particular.

1. All our reading rulers and overlays are made of recyclable PET. A lot of non-specialists have jumped onto the visual stress bandwagon now because we have opened up that market over the last 20 years, but they are manufacturing in PVC because it’s cheaper and doesn’t require such high print volumes. Not only is PVC poisonous and stays in the environment for millions of years, but it’s not as clear as PET. So when you buy our coloured overlay products not only are you being kinder to the environment, but you are being kinder to your eyes.

2. All our tinted exercise books (only available in the UK at the moment), as well as all the paper we use in the office and print our own books on (such as Beccie Hawes’s Getting it Right for Dyslexic Learners, in case you didn’t know we published books as well as helped people to read them) are printed on carbon capture paper certified by the Woodland Trust. I’ve even been out planting trees with our paper suppliers.

3. All our exercise books are printed locally, so they have a minimal carbon footprint. By locally I mean about 15 miles away.

So there you go. If you are thinking of topping up – or starting out – on our visual stress products, what better day to do it than Earth Day? Here’s the link: https://www.crossboweducation.com/all-visual-stress

Happy Earthday!