Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance

Since 2004, Furniture Clinic has manufactured products that extend the life of items in the home and garden. Our products facilitate the reuse, repair, and upcycling of items, putting us at the heart of the circular economy.

In offering products that enable customers to participate in the upcycling process, we are encouraging individuals and households to become more environmentally conscious and participate positively to the planet’s well-being.

This is a core value of our company, and we do all that we can to ensure we operate in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.

A carbon neutral factory

In 2022, we moved into a new factory in Consett. During the refurbishment, we introduced a number of energy efficient features to help lower our energy use and carbon footprint, including energy efficient lights, PIR motion sensors, and a new heating system with thermostats to regulate the temperature throughout the building. The layout of the offices was designed with efficiency in mind, with the majority of office staff working from a single open-plan office, with plenty of natural lighting and warmth.

The grounds of the factory have a healthy population of around 1,350 trees which collectively sequester an estimated 13 tonnes of CO2 annually.  We added to our tree population with a team planting day in 2023 and plan to plant more trees each year going forward.

We’ve committed to offsetting any remaining greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing carbon credits and are proud to announce that the factory is now carbon neutral.

Travelling Greener

We also have a Travel & Emissions Policy that requires business travel to be taken by train, whenever possible, rather than car. This has reduced our travel related GHG emissions by 6% in 2023. With the move to the new factory, we also allow a hybrid working pattern which further reducing GHG emissions from commuting. 

Reducing waste

Looking after the environment is at the heart of everything we do. So in 2022 we switched from using regular plastic bottles to bottles that are made of 100% recycled plastic. In 2023 this saved over 30 tonnes of plastic from going to landfill.

All of our other packaging such as cardboard boxes, can be easily recycled or composted at home.

We make every effort to reduce our waste as much as possible and recycle whatever remains.

We have an ‘only print if necessary’ policy in the office to prevent the unnecessary printing of emails and other documents. When we implemented this we removed 10 printers from the building and now just have two.

Purchasing

As a business we source materials and components locally wherever we can and actively seek to develop long-term relationships with our suppliers. Any new suppliers are sent a questionnaire to assess their quality, environmental, and social performance, and we give preference to those whose values align with our own.

Our Purchasing Policy includes a single-use plastic clause which prohibits the buying of unnecessary single-use plastics. We’ve already replaced all single-use plastics in products with sustainable alternatives since the implementation of this policy in 2020.