The £16m-turnover company had already been aware of the benefits of waste and resource management to both the business and the environment.

Managing director Martin Ruda said: "We were already satisfying a majority of the ISO 14001 requirements and felt that it made sense to pursue this important standard in order to give structure and validation to our work."

He added that the standard encourages businesses to continually assess their resource and waste efficiencies.

"Inevitably, this leads to process improvements and cost savings, the benefits of which can keep us competitive, and fund further investment in products, services and markets," said Ruda.

The 220-staffed business is also working towards FSC and PEFC certification, and it has also been re-certified to NICPAS, the Nigerian Cheque Printers Accreditation Scheme.

Ruda said: "We are looking at implementing ISO 14001 and ISO 27001 at our Petersfield-based ID Data Cards site.

"Our international activity has accelerated since exhibiting at Cebit in Hannover in March, and the impact of declining cheque volumes in the UK is being mitigated by electronic and card payments developments, many of which will be announced later this year."

Customers of the Tall Group of Companies include Barclays, RBS Group, HBOS, HSBC and Nationwide.