There are ways we can make a more substantial impact. Powerful decisions by powerful people and businesses can move us forward to a nourishing future, we just need to work together, understand the facts and use our voice. Commercial Interiors UK and Design Insider are here to amplify that voice and support the discussion towards a more sustainable future.
One way in which Design Insider is actively contributing to how commercial interiors sector is leading in addressing sustainability is through their Sustainability Leaders interview based editorial series. This series shares the varied ways in which the UK’s leading manufacturers of commercial interior products are tackling the environmental impact of their production and products.
Sian Berkeley, Group Sustainability & Environmental Manager at Ocee International
For the past few years, a lot of my focus has been on the internal aspects of the company to ensure we are not greenwashing. Whilst we had an EU Ecolabel certified product, this didn’t necessarily certify us as an overall sustainable company and we needed to have company actions to illustrate our holistic approach to sustainability.
Some of the actions launched are:
Training of Mental Health First Aiders in work
Launch of a UK Take Back Scheme which rehomes furniture reaching its ‘end-of-life’ with customers to avoid it going to landfill
Carbon Neutrality to Scope 2 through various offsetting schemes – 472 trees were planted in the UK to offset our 2019 group emissions; 300 tonnes of carbon were offset with Verified Carbon Credits focusing on a carbon avoidance project in a section of the Amazon, Labrea, Brazil
Rachel Bartlett, Sustainability Expert at Astro Lighting
We have also invested in a Product Life Cycle Assessment tool (LCA) which our product development team are using to monitor the complete lifecycle of our products (design, in use, transportation and end of life) and what impact each stage has on carbon emissions, energy consumption, water eutrophication and air acidification. With this information, we will be able to set ourselves targets to improve our environmental performance. Another key project we have undertaken this year was to calculate the carbon footprint of our headquarters in Harlow, Essex. To start reducing the emissions we are creating, we have installed over 460 solar panels across the roof of the building which generate the same amount of energy that we consume.
Design Insider’s Sustainability Leaders series can be found here.
The Method Touch: Identifying Commercial Interiors UK members actively striving to lead the sector in addressing their environmental impact.
Personal Highlight: Providing a platform for knowledge sharing through which the whole commercial interiors community will benefit.