At The Sash Window Workshop, we believe it is important to be as sustainable a business as possible, while still providing our customers with the high-quality product and service that they expect.
We have been independently assessing our carbon emissions since 2019 and last year we were the first* timber window company in the UK to achieve Carbon Neutral Plus status.
However, we believe that it is important to continue to reduce our emissions and to improve our sustainability. This year we have made several additional changes to help reduce our emissions further, including switching additional petrol and diesel vehicles to electric vehicles. We have also installed paper recycling bins in our office.
Going forward, we are continuing to assess the feasibility of switching to electric vans and installing solar panels to generate some of our electricity.
We also offer employees an incentive to suggest ways that we can reduce our carbon emissions going forward, with a suggestion box and rewards for suggestions we adopt.
Our Recent Independent Carbon Footprint Assessment
We recently received the results for our 2022 independently assessed carbon emissions. We assessed all our scope 1 and scope 2 emissions alongside several scope 3 emissions, including business travel by employee-owned cars, homeworking, and timber waste from our manufacturing.
Thanks to our continued efforts to reduce our emissions, we are proud to have reduced the tonnes of CO₂e per £ million turnover that we produce to 32.78 tonnes in 2022. This is a reduction of 2.3% compared to 2021 and 24.5% compared to our base year of 2019.
This would have reduced further once you allow for the fact that we only started assessing homeworking in 2021 and computing equipment in 2022.
In total, our 2022 carbon emissions came to 244.85 tonnes of carbon for the market-based emissions and 294.99 tonnes of carbon for the location-based emissions.
Like 2021, the majority of our emissions in 2022 were from our vans. These accounted for 59% of all our direct emissions.
While we work to try and reduce our carbon emissions, we will continue to offset the emissions that we produce to try to reduce our impact on the environment as much as possible.
Manufacturing High Quality, Environmentally Friendly Timber Windows and Doors
We understand that customers don’t want to sacrifice the quality of their windows and doors to benefit from an environmentally friendly product, and we don’t believe you should have to.
Every decision that we make when manufacturing your windows and doors is designed to ensure that we manufacture and install the highest quality of windows and doors, to attain the highest level of customer satisfaction. This is reflected in the fact that we have won Which? Trusted Trader of the Month award twice.
We believe that you can have timber windows and doors that are made and installed to a high quality while also being environmentally friendly and look to make environmentally friendly decisions as often as possible.
For example, in addition to reducing our carbon emissions, we are also proud to be FSC certified. We recommend using Accoya wood, which is sustainably sourced as well as being a high-quality timber, allowing us to manufacture windows and doors that are designed to last.
By choosing a product that is FSC certified, you can feel confident that the timber is sourced in a sustainable way to strict environmental, social, and economic standards.
Our glass suppliers also manufacture our double-glazed units in the UK, reducing emissions from transporting the glass to our workshops. By installing double-glazed windows and doors, you can also help reduce your own carbon emissions, as more heat is retained in your home (compared to single-glazed windows).
By choosing high quality timber windows and doors that are designed to last, you are helping to reduce the impact on the environment. This is especially true when analysing the benefits of timber vs plastic.
As most people are aware, plastic is not good for the environment. It is hard to dispose of in an environmentally friendly way and it also produces toxic chemicals during the manufacturing process. In contrast, sustainably sourced timber windows can benefit the environment as, while growing, the trees will help capture the carbon that is in the atmosphere.
If you are looking for high quality, environmentally friendly timber windows and doors for your home, contact our team today on 01344 868 668 to arrange a free, no obligation visit and quotation.
*As far as we are aware.
You may also be interested in:
Environment and Sustainability at The Sash Window Workshop
Achieving Carbon Neutral Plus in 2022
Reducing our carbon emissions in 2021
Independently assessing our carbon emissions for 2019
