The process began 12 months ago when the 28-staff, £16m-turnover company published its environmental policy, which committed it to identifying aspects of the business that had a negative impact on the environment.

As a result of cutbacks, year-on-year electricity consumption has been reduced by 28% and waste to landfill has been reduced by 41%, which has resulted in "significant cost savings", according to operations director David Whitaker.

"We operate in an environmentally sensitive sector so it's important we underline not only the credentials of our product but those of the business itself," he said. "Meeting the requirements of ISO 14001 is a very public way of doing that."

He said that while the certification wasn't a prerequisite, it was one element in the customer-supplier relationship.

"We feel that environmental stewardship is an issue that isn't going to go away, so doing nothing was never an option for us," he added.

Warren Board is an independent cartonboard stockist that offers a wide range of packaging, graphical and point-of-sale boards from sheet stock and reel stock.