Sustainability,
Healthy Materials &
The Environment
It’s a primary concern of ours that we preserve and nurture the environment and our planet. As a global company, our impact on the environment is significant. We seek to consistently support and strengthen the global community, help create a unique, unforgettable workspace experience and to inspire wellbeing. Like our supply chain partners, we take our environmental responsibilities seriously; progressively studying and addressing factors such as waste management, the provenance of our timber and reducing the overall carbon footprint of our business. Minimising our environmental impact is a key consideration at every step of the way.
Net Zero by 2040
We are pleased to share the most recent step in our sustainability journey, which in an industry-first, sees us committing to reach Net Zero by 2040 – 10 years ahead of global goals. We’ve taken the time to thoroughly research our impact on the environment and consequently publish a timeline of science-based targets.
  • 2030 – reduce our carbon intensity from across our operations (Scope 1, 2 and 3) by 15%. Transition to 100% renewable energy.
  • 2035 – reduce absolute emissions from our operations (Scope 1 and 2) by 50%. Transition to zero carbon supply and distribution
  • 2040 – achieve Net Zero emissions.
Indeed, the future will be challenging, but also uniquely rewarding to know that the small actions we make now, are contributing to a larger aim – to prevent the transition of the climate crisis into the climate catastrophe. Combatting global warming and reducing greenhouse gases can only be done by working together, as an industry and as a community, energetically driving reduction in emissions and the recovery of our planet. View our animated infographic here!
Environmental Credentials
As part of our commitment to the environment and sustainable design, we're very pleased to announce another important step in our journey. Ten of our key products, Aeonica, Verandas, Palisades Grid, Portals, Railway Carriage, Residence Connect, Residence Max, Residence Work, Residence Meet and Forte, now have Declare labels! You can download each Declare label below to find out more.
Our environmental policies are officially recognized by external industry regulating bodies, and you can download the certificates below. We also strive to support our clients in obtaining the best possible rating in other key assessments such as WELL, BREEAM, SKA and LEED. Please get in touch if you have any particular requirements.
Environmental Impact
A huge percentage of our environmental impact is determined by the materials we use in our products, our manufacturing process, and the way in which we deal with waste. With lean management, we are constantly monitoring and assessing the following:
  • Resource efficiency - using significantly fewer virgin materials
  • Landfill - reducing our landfill waste by using waste to generate needed energy demands on-site
  • Changing and improving our methods to end inefficient processes
  • Our overall environmental impact - constantly working to minimise impact
Environmental product summaries are available per product showing material content and what % of this is recycled and recyclable.
Sustainable by Design
We pride ourselves on our innovative designs which are inherently reconfigurable and reusable and therefore sustainable by nature. For example, one our latest product launches Verandas, is an engineered architectural room system, that is designed to be infinitely flexible and reconfigured over and over, using exactly the same parts. Its kit of parts nature means it is sustainable by design. Our Railway Carriage makes a dramatic space saving when compared with the efficiency of a meeting space, and other products like Lockers and Storagewall can simply be taken down and reconstructed at a new location, avoiding cost and waste produced by discarding existing products to build new ones elsewhere.
Spacestor products are at least 85% recyclable, so if there’s ever a need to discard our furniture, impact on the environment is minimal.
Energy Use & Waste
We are continuously looking at ways in which we can reduce the amount of waste we create. All inevitable wood waste - unusable offcuts and wood dust produced as a result of the cutting, edging and drilling process - is chipped and fed into our 350kW biomass boilers. Which, in turn, provides enough energy to heat our main manufacturing plant and provide hot water for all on-site facilities, eliminating tonnes of CO2 emissions from fossil energy sources, as compared to energy generation using natural gas. Since expanding the capacity of our biomass power plant in 2016, we can proudly say we have not had to purchase gas from the UK network, thus dramatically reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere through the use of a carbon-neutral energy source, and conserving a finite, non-renewable natural resource.
Primary Materials
MFC and Laminate Parts
The vast majority of our board is sourced from suppliers who are fully PEFC certified. Our suppliers only process wood from certified forests and with strict control processes, all wood purchases are monitored within the scope of the European Timber Regulation (EUTR) and other forest certification systems.
Formaldehyde and VOCs
The majority of our board components meet the emissions limit values of the European formaldehyde class E1 under ECHA (European Chemicals Agency), which means board materials contain a maximum of 0.007% formaldehyde. All products in the USA are compliant with the requirements of TSCA Title VI (Toxic Substance Control Act).
Upholstery
The majority of upholstery fabrics are EU Ecolabel certified, which is a third party certified Type I ISO 14024 certification, which identifies products with reduced environmental impact. A large number of textiles can also contribute to LEED credits, having the GREENGUARD® certification which follows the standard: California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Standard Method V1.2-2017, and is accepted by LEED and the majority of other green building standards.
What we’re working on...
Our long-term goal is for all of our products to be Red List Free. We are taking a number of steps to eliminate the use of VOCs, harmful plastics and chemicals.