Home Sustainability Operations and Logistics

Operations and Logistics

Operations

Although we are a relatively small team, our commitment to reducing our environmental impact starts with our own offices and workshops. Alongside our efforts to improve our manufacturing processes, we focus on energy use, waste management and office supplies across all our sites.

We are reviewing electricity tariffs at all Soane’s own sites to reach our goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2025.

Starting with our own workshops, we are working to increase recycling and reuse across all manufacturing sites, to avoid samples and returnable items going to landfill.  We will encourage third-party workshops to do the same.  We are also investigating alternative suppliers of office consumables to reduce single use or disposable items and increase the recycled content and recyclability of office supplies.

Our internal environment taskforce is investigating a range of other actions, including on-site charging points for electric cars, rewilding projects, eco-friendly labels, solar panel installation, and switching to LED lighting.

Packaging

All of Soane’s in-house packaging is 100% recyclable or biodegradable, with the exception of tape, which we are actively sourcing an environmentally friendly alternative. Larger pieces delivered in the UK are transported unpacked, protected with reusable blankets.

Finding a balance between secure packaging and over-packaging is essential to ensure our pieces reach their new owners in prime condition for minimal impact, and this is something we are working on.

Logistics

Our materials and products travel by road, air and sea.  We are working to understand and reduce the carbon footprint of our transport, starting with an analysis of the product miles travelled by each of our designs as they move through our workshops and on to our customers.  In partnership with a group of computer scientists at Radley College in Oxfordshire, we are creating a computer model to help optimise product routing, reducing mileage and climate impact.

We partner with our couriers and exporters to reduce their impact.  One of our UK couriers is looking at options for an electric fleet, while our biggest export logistics partner has a strong commitment to reducing its carbon emissions through more efficient transport, offsetting carbon emissions, and reducing the impact of packaging.