Our sustainability accreditation’s
Davison Highley an impressive array of sustainability credentials: amongst the strongest for a British furniture manufacturer.
But what do these certification marks actually mean for Davison Highley and our clients?
Why we have them?
Even before attaining any sustainability certification marks, Davison Highley had always designed and manufactured in a responsible way. From producing furniture which is long lasting and utilising materials in an efficient way to reduce waste, through to working with local suppliers to reduce our carbon footprint, the business has been built from its beginnings on good practices.
It was an important step to seek external verification of our internal efforts and consequently, we decided to pursue formal accreditation. Most significantly, each standard is independently audited, entailing a comprehensive review of our systems against a variety of sustainability criteria, thereby giving our clients the confidence that they are getting furniture which isn’t only manufactured to the highest quality but is also environmentally accountable.
What are they?
Each of the 3 accreditations are concerned with a different aspect of sustainability and in order to achieve these marks we have integrated a number of systems into the business which are reviewed and improved upon at regular intervals to assure compliance.
The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting responsible forestry and the supply of sustainable timber products.
All the timber we use is covered by the FSC® certification; sourced from trees harvested from FSC® certified sites, which can be traced back through the supply chain and verified at each stage, producing an unbroken chain of custody from forest to final product.
Alarmingly, an estimated 18.7 million acres of forests are lost annually, equivalent to 27 soccer fields every minute (WWF,) resulting in the loss of biodiversity and a key factor in contributing to climate change.
Choosing to operate to the FSC® standards means both ourselves as manufacturers, and our clients are contributing to the wellbeing of the world’s forests for future generations.
Read more about FSC® and Davison Highley here
ISO 14001 is an internationally recognised standard for environmental management.
Following an extensive annual certification process, Davion Highley continues to maintain our certification to ISO 14001, underpinning our commitment to sustainable development. This entails identifying, managing and mitigating the environmental impacts of our operations, whilst striving for continuous sustainability improvement upholding the values of both our business and key stakeholders, including our employees, suppliers and customers.
As a responsible manufacturer it’s important to us that we have as little impact on the environment as possible, from operating a number of manufacture process to make sure our production waste is kept to a minimum and what is leftover is correctly recycled, through to designing products which utilise materials in an efficient manner or in the case of our Bertie stool using a high percentage of recycled materials in its construction.
Our ISO 14001 certified Environmental Management System (EMS) is integrated throughout the entire business and rigorously audited by our independent, UKAS accredited certification body on an annual basis. Clients can therefore be assured that the furniture bought from us has been manufactured to reduce waste and have minimum impact on the environment.
Process sustainability
The Furniture Industry Sustainability Programme (FISP) is an independent certification tailored for the furniture industry which looks to promote and drive social, economic and environmental change.
As with the ISO 14001 accreditation, FISP is a business wide sustainability programme. However, importantly, FISP’s scope also encompasses corporate social responsibility criteria and appraises our systems against a variety of environmental, social and economic criteria; ranging from legislative compliance, waste and energy management, end of product life and packaging, through to community relations and charity work.
For instance did you know our plastic packaging is made from re-engineered waste plastic? That we use waste materials to produce cat beds for the local animal rescue, and that we often donate ex-showroom furniture to a local scheme which re-homes it to local causes.
Adding FISP to our list of sustainability credentials reaffirms our strong and positive commitment to sustainable development and clients can be reassured that Davison Highley takes environmental and corporate social responsibilities seriously.
Read more about how sustainability is integrated into the business here
As the environmental impact of projects become more and more important, it’s our responsibility to give our
clients the resources, information and furniture they need. Speak to us about how our sustainability credentials can help you.