Sustainability

The EPIC Gift Shop is on a journey to become more sustainable and minimise our impact on the planet.

· The products in our shop are sourced from local and international retailers that share our vision for sustainability and a better, greener future. 

· 90% of our suppliers are Irish businesses. We are lucky that Ireland has many creative local artists and makers, whom we are delighted to stock in our shop. Many of these suppliers manufacture their products in Ireland with plastic-free packaging. While nurturing local talent, this also reduces the need for transport and our carbon footprint.

· Within the shop, we reuse any packaging that comes from our suppliers to minimise our overall waste levels. EPIC visitor passports (a guide of the museum given to every visitor) are printed with non-toxic, vegetable ink on Carbon Balanced paper through the printer EBB Paper and World Land Trust's Carbon Balanced Project. If a visitor does not want to keep their passport as a souvenir, we collect it, shred it, and reuse it as packaging and display purposes in the retail store.

· All orders sent out from our online shop are packaged with recycled packaging.

· We offer our customers the option to print their receipt or not. This decreases our non-recyclable waste.

· We do not stock any single-use plastic within our store. Single-use plastic bottles sold in the gift shop have been replaced with glass, cans, and tetra-pak cartons. 

· We use digital screens in the store to promote our products and deals. This reduces the need to print advertising materials.

· We are following the Sustainable Irish Retail Action Guide, an initiative from Retail Excellence, to guide our retail sustainability journey.

· When creating our own clothing range, we have partnered with a young Irish designer to illustrate our t-shirts and tote bags.

· For every item sold from our Mary Robinson collection, we donate a portion of the proceeds to The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, which works to secure global justice for the people most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.

· Our partnership with sustainable, Irish manufacturer Hairy Baby means that our own clothing ranges, mentioned above, are printed in Cork, Ireland, with materials certified under Oeko-Tex Confidence in Textiles Standard 100, Organic Content Standard (OCS) & Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). The ink used is water-based, non-hazardous, non-toxic, and eco-friendly NeoPigment™ inks that produce no waste, toxic fumes, or harmful effluent.

We will continue to adapt our ways of working to prioritise sustainable practices and share our progress as we go.

We Plan To…

· Adapt our main entrance and exit doors to automatically open and close, which will retain heat and reduce our energy use while still being accessible to all visitors.

· Continue to focus on sourcing sustainably and move away from single-use plastics across all product areas to reduce our ecological impact.

· Communicate to our visitors what actions we are taking and highlight the sustainable products we have in store.

Our full business sustainability policy is available to view here -

EPIC Sustainability Action Plan Update Aug 24.pdf