Sustainability

As a joinery company, we create a lot of excess wood chips and wood shavings, so we decided to install a biomass burner. The excess wood waste from our joinery benches and mill now heat our workshop floor, meaning that our gas consumption has significantly reduced. Not only have we reduced our carbon footprint, we have also reduced the amount of waste going to landfill.

We have a responsibility to ensure that none of the wood we use comes from illegal logging or poorly managed forests. We use FSC® (FSC® C160637) & PEFC (PEFC/16-37-2260) certified wood wherever possible and will only use timber from sustainably managed forests.

From motion-sensing lights in our toilets and offices to eco-gates that shut off machines when they’re idle, Whittle tries to save energy wherever possible. We’ve even installed an inverter which reduces our extraction fan speeds when our machines aren’t running at capacity.

Whittle support any team members who use electric vehicles with onsite EV charging points.

Instead of making multiple deliveries to projects, we carefully project manage and plan so we can maximise individual loads.

We have implemented waste segregation throughout our site ensuring that we recycle and reuse as much as possible.

Whittle has committed to minimising manufacturing waste wherever possible. We expect our supply chain members to maintain the same ethos towards the environment. We also ensure that we recycle 90% of the waste created by our manufacturing processes.

Whittle believes in firmly focussing on the future. Aside from creating quality installations that are designed and built to last, keeping our waste to a minimum and maintaining a responsible supply chain, we are always looking to reduce our environmental impact. We also believe in sustainably maintaining our industry, ensuring that joinery skills are passed down to future generations. As a result, we run an apprenticeship scheme working alongside local colleges, providing the next generation of joiners with the opportunity to work with master craftsmen with decades of experience.

In recognition of the carbon impact of our facility we are proud to be investing in woodland creation in the UK. Please read our > news blog < for further details.

Mental Health and personal wellbeing are at Whittle’s core. As a team, we listen to each other and we always maintain an open-door policy. We also actively encourage physical health through annual charity sports challenges.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and implement effective controls and procedures to ensure that it doesn’t take place anywhere within our company or supply chains. We also expect the same approach from our contractors, suppliers, and other business partners, and expect them to hold their suppliers to the same standards.

Whittle believes in the circular economy – we are proud to upcycle many of our leftover materials (saving them from landfill) through donations to Dorset Scrapstore.

As a company, we take part in a variety of charitable events to help serve a number of very worthy causes. We also regularly sponsor our employees, clients, suppliers, and partners as they take part in local and national fundraising activities.