Cornwall’s biggest distributor of tourism promotional material is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a major programme of initiatives to reduce its environmental impact and carbon footprint.

Redruth-based Seymac Distribution Ltd began in a small bedroom office and has grown to become the major distributor for more than a hundred tourism businesses.

“Given the nature of our business, we are acutely aware of the threat to the planet and our obligation to ensure that we do all in our power to counterbalance the effects of our operations,” says managing director Tina Seymour.

“In our 30 years of constant growth, we have a track record of never standing still – of regularly investing in new facilities and services – but nothing is more important than the paramount need to protect the environment.”

From its purpose-built 12,000 sq ft warehouse on the Treleigh Industrial Estate, the company sorts and sends out promotional material to around 4,000 outlets in Cornwall.

With print its highest carbon footprint scorer, Seymac has introduced a new scheme to offset the carbon emissions created by leaflet marketing.

Every Seymac client is having one tree planted to offset 1,000 kilograms of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent), equating to one tonne of literature.

Using the expertise of tree-planting partners, the company is running a programme that ensures planting of the trees in appropriate places.

These are predominantly in school grounds, reserves and managed woodland located in the South West and they will live their natural lifespan and meet their biodiversity targets.

The company is also planting ten trees to offset 10 kilograms of CO2e created by the printing of Seymac’s own “For One And All” Cornwall tourism guide.

For Seymac’s 2020 information packs, the company will be using paper envelopes approved by the Forest Stewardship Council instead of single-use plastic bags.

As well as planting trees to offset the carbon emissions produced during production, printing and distribution of the packs, the company will hold a beach cleaning day in collaboration with Cornish Seal Sanctuary and other partners.

The tree-planting scheme adopted by Seymac incorporates the “Tree Buddying” approach, which confers Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) status.

This ensures that the carbon offsetting is fully verified and meets internationally agreed standards and those of the British Standards Institution and the Carbon Footprint Standard.

It also ensures that each tree will continue to take additional CO2 out of the atmosphere during its lifetime.

Seymac Distribution Ltd currently employs 15 permanent members of staff and an additional five during the main season.