Our Environmental Policy

As a company we recognise that some of our activities have an impact on the environment in terms of using raw materials, emissions to air and water, and waste generation. We seek to minimise this as far as reasonably practical.

 

It is our intention to:

  • Comply with all relevant environmental legislation
  • Source raw materials responsibly
  • Minimise waste by regularly evaluating activities and ensuring they are as efficient as practicably possible
  • Find alternative uses for waste materials
  • Promote recycling and use recycled materials whenever possible
  • Actively reduce use of plastic and source environmentally friendly alternatives to single use plastic
  • Work with artisan groups to help them recognise and reduce the environmental impact of their activities
  • Keep transport use to a minimum and regularly service vehicles to maintain their efficiency

 

What we have achieved:

  • Solar panels were installed at our UK office and warehouse in 2015 and have signficantly reduced our dependence on traditional forms of energy
  • Significantly reduced our use of plastic packaging by replacing it with paper offcuts from a local company that can be used as shred
  • Reduced the need for packaging materials by resizing and adapting outer carton boxes
  • Designed a range of small toys suitable for manufacture from offcuts to reduce wood wastage
  • Developed a range of fully painted 'rainbow' animals to use wood that is marked or blemished and subsequently unsuitable for natural wood finish products
  • Consolidated our shipping schedule in order to reduce the number of containers shipped from Sri Lanka to the UK each year
  • Supported local Sri Lankan farmers with donations of waste sawdust to grow produce

 

Our aims for the future:

  • To source a quality supply of water based paints to supplement or replace our current paint range
  • To proactively seek to further reduce consumption of single use plastic
  • To provide support and funding if required, for artisan groups to replace gasoline machinery with greener alternatives
  • To use FSC certified paper for all promotional materials and literature
  • To continue to educate our artisans about sustainability and work with them to further reduce the impact their actions have on the environment