We all need to do more to play our part in helping meet the UK’s strict carbon emissions targets. Hannah started on this journey over 3 years ago with carbon calculation and looking at all aspects of the business through a sustainability lens, but since then things have become much more urgent and also there is more help available with various tools to measure and also to communicate where you are on the journey to Net Zero.

Hannah signed a pledge with the SME Climate Hub to be half way to net zero by 2030, and hit net zero by 2040, but she is trying to do everything she can as soon as possible, as these targets are nowhere near enough. She has also become one of 34K members of Ecologi, each month the business plants trees and offsets the carbon generated by the business in the UK. This is calculated by Ecologi.

Below are her notes on this journey so far, a basic one-pager to give an overview of the steps that have been taken, are in progress, and also those completed!

My first task is to write an environmental one-pager, so here goes!

Categories to work on:

On some sites these are listed as scope 1, 2 and 3

- Scope 1 – Vehicles and gas
- Scope 2 - Consumed energy and electricity
- Scope 3 - Everything else, basically all procurement.

This can also be divided into these more helpful groups

• Energy
• Transport
• Buildings
• Procurement
• Waste

So I did a quick list of things in each category, then actions next to each one...

DONE

• We work in the village where we live, so we try to walk to work as much as we can.
• Car (we have a hybrid but are looking into switching to an EV)
• Van, we have a leased vehicle with low emissions, but it’s diesel not electric. We will look into an electric van when the lease expires.

TO DO

• Switch to Electric Vehicle
• Fit charging point for EV at work
• Look into Government funded Cycle purchase scheme for staff transport (choose most green option, cycle/bus)
• Fit solar panels to our building to generate electric for heaters, kiln etc. I am looking into possible funding for this. We don’t own the building and our lease doesn’t offer us right to renew, so I am reluctant to fit a solar array under these circumstances.
• Transport in terms of freight and distribution (pick EV based transport for deliveries, assess all distribution and ask for change, offset what we can’t change)

DONE

• Contacted our fulfilment warehouse to get information on all delivery companies used, and other energy use. They are doing what they can to pick the greenest options, but this is very hard to track
• Contacted our main manufacturer in Sri Lanka about energy use, purchasing, distribution, shipping etc. We now have detailed data on their energy use and sustainability. This is a work in progress, new kilns are being purchased, but their government doesn’t have climate change at the top of their agenda. Solar would be perfect here due to their climate, but most of their kilns are gas. Biogas is an option, but needs to be on an industrial scales assisted by the government, so not happening at present.

Here is what they have done so far...

We have reduced our monthly LP Gas usage from 22,000 Kgs to 15,000 Kgs over the past 10 years using the following methods...

• Replacing old, less efficient kilns with new ones.
• Controlling the reject percentages in production. We have bought the average monthly % down from 25% to 15%. This reduces the amount of rework and extra pcs we need to produce.
• Converting our product lines from high volume, low priced ceramics to low volume more difficult to make, high end ceramics.

Ceramics is an energy intensive industry and the manufacturing of our products is problematic for this reason.

Our textiles supplier is UK based and prints on organic cotton using eco friendly inks, so we feel this is the best option for the textiles at present. We don’t use any plastic packaging.

I have been gradually researching and gathering information on other products we could add to what we create and sell that could be part of a circular economy and have low carbon production methods. So far printmaking, using wooden production of alternate products and potentially jewellery are top of my list. These all take time to develop new products, but sketches are being done!

TO DO

• Contact the textiles company about how they ship their goods
• Research an alternative shipping company from Sri Lanka that is doing what it can to reduce its carbon
• Find a delivery company that delivers from the port to our warehouse using the best methods.

Hannah hasn't visited Sri Lanka for 4 years now, and the business has signed-up to Ecologi tree planting to offset some of the carbon emissions generated, in addition to researching other sustainable products to add to the range on offer, and continuing to check and assess all areas in the supply chain. This is critical to the direction the business will go in in the next few years, as we care deeply about our planet.

We hope that you appreciate that everything we produce is intended to be a collectable and cherished purchase, and we are not buying into throw-away consumerism, but trying to create designs of quality on a small scale. The attention to detail that goes into every aspect of what we create is part of why we are not the cheapest on the market, we don’t want to be cheap bulk buys, but offer British design created to last and pass on through the generations.