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Care for the environment?
Customers increasingly ask us
questions about how our business and products affects the environment,
carbon-footprints, recycling etc. Whether you believe in climate
change, or are sceptical, we think that pollution (the wrong stuff in
the wrong place) is a bad thing. We would rather always re-use, than
recycle. If we can't reuse it, we will try to recycle it.
Suppliers of our Mount
Boards Colourmount
boards: PEFC Chain of Custody certificate is in place for the
Colourmount range of mountboards. The certificate number SGS-PEFC/COC-1022
covers the whole of the Colourmount range of products, except for the
400 Series (Black Core) The certification provides independent assurance
to framers and their customers that Colourmount is manufactured to the
highest social and environmental standards. The certificate is dated
28th October 2009, and is valid for five years.
Arqadia boards:
PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest
Certification schemes) and FSC (Forest Stewardship
Council) Chain of Custody accreditations from BM
TRADA Certification Ltd. These schemes provide
assurance mechanisms to purchasers of wood and paper
products that they are purchasing wood produced in a
sustainable way.
Products carrying
the FSC or PEFC labels are independently certified
to assure consumers that they come from forests that
are managed to meet the social, economic and
ecological needs of present and future generations.
(Porthcurno
by John Stedman - Cornish photographer)
This is Porthcurno
beach, just down the road from our business.
Historically important for its transatlantic
telegraph and phone cables, the new "big pipes"
carrying trans-Atlantic internet enter the UK here.
Cornwall's forward looking approach to new
technology enabled us to be one of the very first
businesses offering reliable online mount and frame
sales to customers all over the UK.
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Some of the things we do
to help the environment: Our
glass off-cuts and waste are collected for recycling. All clean card and
board product off-cuts are now collected for recycling. Almost all
our plastic off-cuts are collected for recycling.
Packing Materials
In addition to these recycling
measures, the grey mailer bags we ship orders in are biodegradable, and
the bubble wrap used is recyclable, Our FedEx consignment bags are also
recyclable. Whenever possible we will always re-use clean packaging
materials, and have gone a step further by partnering up with some local
businesses by taking their suitable clean boxes for shipping orders.
This is even better than recycling the cardboard, it is re-using it!
Every box we re-use means that the energy and materials for making
another one are saved
Waste Management
A lot of the cut-outs from our mounts
(where the mount windows are cut out) are used by people in arts and
crafts, schools, and artists -and we donate surplus board not used on
orders to good causes or through Freegle (formerly known as the
Freecycle network). What remains is collected and sent for recycling.
General waste (which is not suitable for recycling) is now the minority
of our waste.
Carbon Miles
We try to obtain all our deliveries in one
or sometimes two consignments per week. We find this also makes ordering
and organising easier, as well as reducing the number of deliveries and
vehicles. FedEx call once per day as the van is in the area daily,
so all of out outward shipping goes on one van, whilst smaller items are
sent from the local post office. Other significant factors are that all
our full time staff live within walking distance of the business, this
is a coincidence, but happily means that our staff produce no vehicle
related congestion or pollution on their way to and from work! We even
have some of our frame mouldings specially machined locally.
Our
own special environment We are
fortunate to be living and working in West Cornwall with its unique
environment, climate and landscape. But it hasn't always been like this,
Cornwall was once a highly industrialised place. Nowadays we are
becoming the "Silicon Valley" of the UK, with the highest speed
broadband and the home to a lot of high-tech business that do not have
an adverse impact on the area or south west region. We hope we are
doing everything reasonable to help keep it that way for our visitors
and local customers and future generations, and we applaud the work of
organisations such as Surfers Against Sewage which have evolved into an
active and influential environmental group.
More than just surfers, more than just sewage
When you buy from us
you are buying from an environmentally responsible business with
environmentally responsible suppliers.
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