Sustainability

Environmental and social sustainability are part of Weldon’s DNA and form part of our wider commitment to responsible business practices.

Weldon has an action plan to achieve sustainable benefits from our activities; we monitor our suppliers carefully and use clear measurement tools to ensure that objectives are achieved. We work continuously towards reducing our impact on the environment, setting ourselves annual targets to create less waste and recycle more than in previous years. In 2015/16 the company was sending 30% by volume of its waste to landfill – an expensive and environmentally-unfriendly process. Research was undertaken to find new waste treatment partners and through a variety of small but significant changes to our operations and waste management, we were able to reduce the proportion to 23% in 2016/17 and further to 19.7% in 2017/18.

Embedding sustainable procurement practices has helped us to reduce waste, protect biodiversity and support sustainable economic growth throughout the value chain, while ensuring long term cost effectiveness and delivering enhanced value for money to our clients.

Sustainability at Weldon is neither an afterthought nor a token gesture. It is the personal responsibility of the Managing Director and at the heart of everything we do.

Wood is a naturally green and renewable natural resource that, handled properly, is more sustainable than other flooring options. By overseeing the entire manufacturing process from forest to floor, Weldon is in the rare position of being able to guarantee the sustainability of its operations.

We demand the highest environmental credentials of our timber suppliers and obtain new timber from sustained yields in forests that we know have excellent reputations for management, as well as salvaging and reusing old timber where possible.

Our environmental commitment is matched in our own backyard, where Weldon has planted over 3,000 trees in the past decade, mostly in an ancient woodland within the borders of historic Sherwood Forest, near our workshops.

We are also involved in returning a Spruce plantation in Somerset to native hardwoods, using species found in the surrounding semi-ancient woodland. It is Weldon’s aim to plant and grow more wood than we use.

Weldon is proud to be a founding partner of PRIME.

At Weldon, we believe that sustainable business is about more than just doing our thing for the environment and sponsoring charitable events. To make a genuine difference at such an important time for our planet and our community, we have pledged to support and adhere to the PRIME Principles for sustainable business.

It is our intention that six simple Principles will come, in time, to serve as the backbone upon which our business is built, empowering our colleagues and ensuring that our families and children will be able to enjoy the fruits of our labours in generations to come.

Those Principles are:

1) Being Environmentally Better;
2) Embracing Sustainable Innovation;
3) Spreading the Word;
4) Delivering Impact;
5) Making a Difference; and
6) Being Accountable.

We have started to look at ways that we can act upon these intentions, and we obtained our first Official PRIME Score in September 2020, in order to publish our own progress against these aspirations, improving slightly for 2021.

The PRIME Principles do not offer a ‘set and forget’, or ‘checkbox’ opportunity for us to show off our sustainability credentials. By their nature, they are tough, and achieving a high score is not going to be easy. We absolutely aspire, however, for each of these six Principles to become pervasive within our culture as a business, so we’re going to try and make that so.

Find out more about the PRIME Principles and how they can help you to achieve sustainable business beyond the balance sheet at https://weareprime.org

FSC® and Breeam

The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) is an international non-profit making organisation founded to support the world’s forests. Weldon holds the FSC® chain of custody certification to use the FSC trademarks on wood flooring and sub-flooring as FSC® 100%, FSC® Mix or FSC® Recycled. Certification shows that Weldon complies with the highest social and environmental timber and timber product standards on the market.

FSC® is recognised by BREEAM, the world’s leading design and assessment method for sustainable buildings, with the increasing importance of responsible sourcing of materials in construction. The mission of BRE Global (incorporating BREEAM) is to “Protect People, Property and the Planet”.

We offer both FSC® certified and non FSC® certified timber to suit your individual project requirements.

For more information on our FSC® certification or BREEAM follow the links below: