Environmental Statement

With society’s ever-increasing awareness of climate change, and the negative impact that businesses can have on the environment, a primary aim of Birch Distribution has been, and will continue to be, to minimise the adverse impact of our ‘doing business', on the natural and social environments in which we operate.

The Good Stuff

Birch Distribution has long recognised both its inherent environmental responsibilities and the significance of the environmental impacts associated with flooring products more generally. In response to the growing sustainability challenges faced both within our industry and more widely, we are committed to understanding and reducing the impacts we have on the environment.

We are determined that, more so than ever, our performance in this key area should be progressive and properly targeted. To this end, this is what we are proud to have achieved so far:

  • We have maintained an ISO 14001 certification for 17 years
  • Zero waste is sent to Landfill from any of our three sites
  • All company cars are either EV or Hybrid
  • All company HGVs and LGVs are Euro 6 compliant
  • Our Head Office has 4 EV/Hybrid charging stations
  • We segregate waste streams to facilitate recycling
  • We have won multiple awards from Recofloor for the part we play in recycling Vinyl Flooring
  • We are a long-standing member of Carpet Recycling UK
  • We have installed LED lighting throughout all of our sites

Our stated sustainability commitments apply to all Birch operating sites and cover all company activities over which we exercise direct control. Environmental responsibility is fully integrated at board level with individual responsibilities propagating through all levels within the company.

Electric Vehicle

The To-Do List

As we move towards our Centennial, we aim to continue along our path of development and sustainable growth, without losing sight of the importance of service and relationships. We intend to achieve this by implementing the following changes:

  • All company cars to be fully EV by 2025
  • All company HGVs and LGVs to be Euro 7 compliant by 2027
  • To switch to renewable energy supply across all three sites by 2025
  • To implement our own solar renewable electricity project under the Smart Export Guarantee by 2025
  • To ensure that all remaining plastic packaging and waste is baled for recycling by 2024
  • To utilise telematics and smart-route planning technology to reduce vehicle fuel consumption by 20%, by 2025
  • To fit Concussive Taps to cloakrooms and mess facilities, in order to save water, by 2024
Solar Power

Must Try Harder

It is in the nature of highly engineered flooring products that they're hard to disassemble, and therefore hard to recycle. We need to work harder to seek out or develop more successful ways of ensuring that the products that we sell do not become part of the waste stream. To this end, we need to prioritise the following actions:

  • To ensure that all products that we sell are derived from renewable resources
  • To reduce and then remove PVC from the products that we sell by exploring and then sourcing PVC-free alternatives
  • Wherever possible, to sell products which are manufactured from recycled raw material, and are in turn, fully recyclable
  • To improve our understanding of the full impact of the carbon footprint of our business, and to strive to improve that impact as the key business aim
  • To reduce, reuse, repurpose or recycle at every available opportunity