It is no secret that the environment needs our help. How do we rationalise that as an organisation using wood as our primary medium? Firstly, we try to get as much of our wood as possible from within the UK, cutting down on carbon mileage. We also try to use wood that is produced from sustainable forests. Combined, this reduces our carbon footprint and impact on the environment from our raw materials. We do not routinely stock exotic woods, and there is a reason for this. We believe that it is not sustainable to import rare woods of questionable ethical sourcing to use for our production.
While we do this with our new woods, we also have another string to the bow, and that is recycling wood. Here in Norfolk there is evidence of old shipping industry all around. The idea to recycle woods came from the notion that “it would be really cool to have a dice vault made of a battleship.” If we can trace the history of wood for a specialised piece, we will let you know about it! But it also means that wood that might otherwise be scrapped gets new life. Even if the wood doesn’t have an epic story it doesn’t mean that we won’t turn it into something great. Old pool tables, landscaper’s extras, if we can get quality wood from it we’ll create something cool out of it. And also, the waste becomes kindling for the wood burner for heating!
What about the other materials we use? Our packaging is made from recycled materials and our leather is sourced from a sustainable leather supplier. We didn’t go with felt because there are no natural wool felt suppliers in the UK at scale, and “vegan leather” is generally made from plastics, which we believe is more harmful in the long run. Our plywood bases unfortunately do come from imported sources, but, as with all our suppliers, we’ll review and consistently try to improve where we source from. We do use neodymium magnets, but at least these are durable and should not need replacing for the life of the product, which we hope lasts you a really long time!
And that is the final part to it – what we make for you is designed to last for years. You buy it once and you shouldn’t need to replace it. The wood and leather will age, mature, and grow their own character. We know that these are luxury products and you should receive a product that lasts a long time. That is how we achieve sustainability.