Sustainability
Our pledge to you
Everything we do is deep-rooted in honouring nature. From our designs to the longevity of our craftsmanship. So, it’s no surprise that we feel a strong responsibility to preserve the planet that feeds our inspiration.
In 2020, we set out to ensure the same care and consideration we put into the design and making of our furniture, is taken during our sourcing journey too. We are proud to have achieved the following:
We’ve planted over
85,000 treesWe aim to plant more trees than we use, while working with accredited planting schemes and partners, such as Ecosia.
We’ve removed
97% of polystyrenefrom our product packaging.
This includes 100% of our cabinetry packaging with an aim to source a suitable alternative for our more fragile homewares.
Where we use engineered wood, it is sourced from responsibly sourced forests, with 100% of our Chinese factory suppliers certified.
We continue to offer our complimentary packaging removal service for all large item deliveries to ensure we follow a closed-loop system - this means all the cardboard we remove during delivery is recycled into new packaging.
We are proud to announce that we have now achieved our 'Zero Waste to Landfill' certification from Beyondly.
Our carbon emissions
Firstly, what are carbon emissions?
They are the release of carbon and other greenhouse gases (CO2e) by human activity that contribute to climate change.
How to reduce carbon emissions
To monitor our progress against our pledges, we continue to measure our annual CO2e emissions. These are our FY24 annual totals:
Our direct emissions
(e.g company vehicles, fuel combustion)
423 Tonnes (FY23)
323 Tonnes (FY22)
Increase due to bringing more of our deliveries in-house.
The indirect emissions produced by others that we consume (e.g purchased gas and electricity)
244 Tonnes ↘ (FY24)289 Tonnes (FY23)
271 Tonnes (FY22)
We are moving closer and on track to meet our renewable goal.
The emissions we are indirectly responsible for (we have included our shipping, deliveries, business travel and waste)
3923 Tonnes ↘ (FY24)4593 Tonnes (FY23)
5012 Tonnes (FY22)
Partly due to more deliveries moving in-house and also an increase in accuracy with better access to primary data from our suppliers.
With more primary data from our suppliers, these calculations combine our shipping, deliveries, business travel, waste and our UK staff's commuting emissions. We are proud of what we have achieved so far, but our sustainability journey is ongoing and we are committed to driving this change by continually improving our data sources.
We also make sure to only work with licensed foresters, sawmills and lumber merchants, so the risks of illegal timber getting into our supply chain are negligible.
Our signature Cotswold quality ensures all our furniture is thoughtfully designed and always built using superior craftsmanship. With a team dedicated to design improvements based on customer feedback and bringing more of our designs in-house, we remain passionate about designing and building furniture that will be with you for a lifetime.
We are proud to have planted 85,000 trees, but we also remain conscious that wood is the main raw material for our furniture; which is why we plan to preserve more of our resources and plant more trees than we use.
Our new goals
We are continuing to work towards our 2025 goals and move forward in all areas, including delivering sustainability training to all of our staff. Based on the footing of our annual CO2e emissions, we aim to:
We have now moved 20% of our electricity usage to renewable energy and are on track for the remaining contracts to change to renewable energy between now and Oct 2025. All new sites acquired are coming on board with renewable energy supply.
What does net zero mean?
The balancing of CO2e emission with its removal. Our priority is to go as far as we can to reduce our CO2e emissions and then offset those that are not removed
We are expanding the emissions we're reporting under Scope 3 adding our staff commuting data this year to move forward in understanding our complete environmental impact. Alongside this we are looking at ways to reduce the overall emissions, collaborating with third-party couriers to find alternatives to high emission fossil fuels.
Because wood is the main raw material for our products, planting trees remains a moral imperative for us as an organisation. We are therefore keeping our pledge to plant more trees than we use - and strive to achieve this every year. We do not use this to offset any of our carbon emissions, but we’re happy knowing these trees are busy sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Does planting trees reduce CO2 and why should we plant more trees?
Trees prevent global warming by capturing and storing harmful atmospheric carbon while releasing oxygen. Woodlands not only help to fight climate change but also support natural habitats, prevent flooding, and contribute to cleaner rivers and air.
We believe creating more awareness individually makes us stronger and more effective collectively. Which is why we're rolling out sustainability training for all our staff - from head office to our stores and warehouse teams. Partnering with Stickerbook, it's an interactive, accessible and self-managed learning programme with bite-sized videos and calls to action, featuring content from global leaders and experts.
We want to be a more inclusive, trusted and sustainable business and are working hard to achieve B Corp status. B Corp is a holistic framework that focuses on the entire business, operation and supply chain. Rewarding companies for the impact actually made by them, rather than set out by them through pledges or promises. This makes B Corp a highly credible and valued set of principles for consumers, employees, partners and media.
While we are focused on where we need to improve to achieve B Corp certification, this takes a lot of time and effort. Our target is to achieve certification in 2024.
What does BCorp Certified mean?
Certified B Corporations are at the forefront of a global change to only use inclusive, accountable and regenerative practices. To qualify we must show an honest measure of our entire social and environmental impact. This means achieving a high standard of charitable giving, supply chain standards and employee benefits. Learn more about the BCorp movement.
We are devoted to minimising our overall impact on the planet - that’s why all our sustainability pledges have emission reduction at their core. As we continue to evolve and reflect, we promise transparency every step of the way.
Our culture
A sustainable culture flows throughout The Cotswold Company, with our Green Friday monthly initiatives encouraging accountability both at work and at home. In March, to mark Earth Day's 2024 theme, Planet vs Plastics, and Greenpeace's 'The Big Plastic Count', we held a plastic bottle count across all of our sites. We provided each one with a collection bin and asked staff and visitors to dispose of any bottles - not only to understand the volume of waste we're disposing of, but increase awareness of what we're using. In total, we had 157 bottles - a much lower figure than we expected! Many of our stores and warehouse teams told us they don't buy plastic bottles, instead opting for reusable bottles. Per year, our staff suggestions have seen:
1,976 plastic 500ml & 5 litre bottles removed from our stores
24,000 plastic cups removed from our warehouse operations
200+ staff sent wildflower seeds to help important pollinators like bees and butterflies
Our Cotswold Company Green Ambassadors
A positive reflection of how seriously we take sustainability as a business, our Green Ambassadors are the eyes and ears of sustainability issues and improvements - helping every member of the business consider the environmental impact of their day-to-day tasks.
Our Green Ambassador Objectives
- Query actions that are not sustainably biased within their team or department
- Encourage and provide feedback from team members on where changes and improvements can be made to reduce our environmental impact
- Get involved and encourage engagement across their teams for monthly Green Friday initiatives
- Attend monthly Green Ambassador meetings
All the data listed on this page is correct as of 22/04/2024. As our sustainability journey continues, we will of course keep you updated, together with any new projects, plans or promises.
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