As a business we understand that the environment is changing. Global warming is increasing at an alarming rate and this rise in temperature has already had a catastrophic impact to ecosystem biodiversity loss and frequent weather extremes. We take these risks very seriously and we understand that our customers do too.
What are we doing to minimise our carbon footprint?
We understand the environmental impact of our actions and we are constantly working to reduce our waste, increase the amount we recycle and minimise the on-going impacts of our hampers and gifts.
These are some steps we have taken to meet our corporate responsibility:
Recycling
We follow the waste hierarchy, considering prevention of waste, reusing then sorting and recycling as much as possible before disposal. This is done across the business in all areas, on all sites, including both offices and warehouses. We only work with licenced recycling businesses with environmental permits.
Waste recycled where possible on our sites includes but is not limited to:
- Cardboard
- Office Paper
- Electronic Equipment
- Plastic
- Glass Jars and Bottles
- Batteries
- Food Waste (out of date)
- Tins
We receive a lot of food from our suppliers packed in cardboard boxes. Our industrial crushers bale cardboard and plastic which then goes on for recycling.
We have a dedicated recycling room in our office and recycling bins across the industrial site making it easy for our employees to responsibly recycle their plastic bottles and pots, cans, glass and cardboard.
We dispose of outdated IT and telecommunications equipment through the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE). Discarded equipment is disposed in a proper manner at the right collection site to be either reused, depolluted, recycled or recovered.
We have a waste carriers licence so we can move our food waste in bulk to a local biodigester. The biodigester converts our food wate using Anaerobic Digestion (AD) technology into low carbon fertilisers and soil conditioners, and also makes renewable energy.
Reducing Waste
We encourage staff only to print when essential and to print duplex wherever possible.
Importing Transportation
We nest baskets inside each other as efficiently as possible to minimise environmental damage from importing.
Renewable Electricity
For over 10 years we’ve been using a renewable electricity supply.
LED Lighting
An LED lighting project was completed in 2020, where all old fittings were replaced by LED lighting which reduces our electricity consumption. The lights are only illuminated when they sense activity in any location.
Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Points
Since 2015 we have had two car charging points available for staff and visitors, we added a third earlier in 2021 and we plan to add an additional six later this year.
Solar Panels
As we are continually looking to minimise our carbon footprint, we are currently planning to add photo voltaic (PV) solar panels on two different sites. This means we anticipate we will produce excess electricity which will be fed back into the national grid or stored in batteries
Packed Hampers
We pack an ecological mission statement into each of our hampers to communicate information regarding how to recycle the packaging to all hamper and gift recipients.
- All of our outer boxes are made from recyclable board and, where possible, recycled inks
- Our internal packaging is biodegradable and can be recycled by composting
- Our willow, seagrass and bamboo baskets are all sourced from entirely renewable resources and are all renewable.
- Although their import transportation is damaging to the environment we nest as efficiently as possible to minimise this effect.
Millennium Wood
During the Millennium year we planted 3,300 native British trees on our Blynfield site here in Dorset with the objective of transforming some of our unused land into a wooded area that would be full of native British
trees and home to wildlife as well as being a contribution to our shared environmental responsibility. We have since planted a further 9,000 trees.
