2017 About us …
Eco?
In our industry we need a lot of heat whether this is from gas for our enamellers’ and silversmiths’ torches or electricity, for their furnaces. Heating is energy intensive and if we can find a way of storing enough energy efficiently and effectively for our daily needs, we will.
The easy choices that we have made to date are as follows:
- In 2017 we chose to purchase all our electricity from a 100% renewable source.
- In 2019 we replaced our oil-fired heating boilers with gas. (alas we couldn’t find an alternative to gas.
- We have replaced most of our incandescent and fluorescent lights with LEDs which has brought a significant reduction in our energy consumption. However it is not easy for us to determine whether this offers a nett benefit to the environment – as the material complexity of LEDs compared to incandescent bulbs, requiring more energy to manufacture and appearing to be more difficult to recycle. One particular advantage of LED strip lights however, is that they come on instantly, making them ideal for use with movement sensors in areas that are rarely accessed.
- We aim to manufacture all our items in our UK factories, and where possible source parts and materials locally.
- We have been electrifying our company vehicles since 2016. As of 2023 over 100 % of our company vehicles are fully electric (only one being a PHEV) including our company van. We are finding the running and maintenance costs of these are significantly lower than our fossil fuel equivalents. (A no brainer, once you do the sums). A joy to drive too.
- We are aiming to ensure a that all the plastics that we use in our moulding process are bio-degradable. We still have issues with the additives that they introduce to plastics in order to offer UV stability, colour and material flow. These chemicals do not seem to be factored in the environmental discussion. For example pigment in white bio-degradable plastic contains Titanium dioxide which is then introduced into the environment as nanoparticles via wastewater; Titanium dioxide has also antibacterial and anti-microbial qualities and is known to have harmful impacts on marine life, especially fish… Adding a bio-degradable agent into a polymer may therefore do more harm than good and therefore is only part of the story..
- As of 2022 We offer a name badge recycling service. Where possible we re-grind and re-use any plastic in the manufacture of new badges. Where this isn’t possible we will separate the materials and return to our raw material suppliers for reprocessing and recycling.
- We are accredited to ISO14001 Environmental standard, which hopefully keeps us thinking..
Eco? We are always open to any ideas.
Updated 23-Sept-2023