Winebox is committed to ensuring that we have the least possible impact on the environment. Over the last few years we have constantly improved sourcing and raw materials to try and meet these goals. However, packaging does need to meet minimum functional standards and there are minimum strength and quality thresholds that need to be met. Where the use of a recycled material would compromise this and no alternative solution is available we would use a non-recycled material.

We are currently reviewing all aspects of our business and the way we operate to see where further improvements can be made.

Winebox Tree Planting Project

Global warming is the topic of the moment and whether or not you believe the current reports, we feel that, as a large user of wood and pulp based products, we should be doing as much as we can to ensure that we are acting responsibly.

We do not have the time, knowledge or resources to accurately estimate our “Carbon Footprint” so twelve months ago we decided that we should take more immediate and direct action to reduce any effect we may be having on the environment.

The decision was taken in late 2006 to buy our own land in the Bordeaux region of South West France. In January 2007 we completed the process of buying 5 separate plots of land totaling 66 acres. We chose this area as it was close to one of our wood production facilities with the hope that in years to come, we may end up growing the trees used in the production of some of our boxes.

Winebox is directly managing the whole project with the help of local experts and one of our directors, Andrew Wilson, regularly visits the site to check its progress. We have as a company found this an extremely rewarding exercise as the ‘hands on’ approach we’ve adopted allows us to actually see the positive impact as it happens, rather than buying into carbon offsetting initiative and letting someone else do it for us.

Not all of the land required planting as nine acres was an ancient mature mixed forest of mainly oak trees that are in a protected area surrounding a medieval chapel on the old pilgrim’s route to Santiago de Compostella. We will be managing this woodland to ensure that it continues to flourish but will not be planting any new trees on it.

We are pleased to announce that all 29,000 trees were planted successfully in January this year. The vast majority of the land was planted with Maritime Pines which are suited to the dry sandy soil found in this area. On the lower lying, wetter areas, we planted the quick growing Red Oak and Alder varieties.

Please contact info@winebox.co.uk if you wish to discuss the project in more detail.

Sourcing Responsibly

Winebox is committed to responsible sourcing. We believe that suppliers are working with us and not for us. We always take a long term view to working with suppliers and aim to develop a mutually beneficial partnership.

We have a basic code of practice which suppliers have to comply with. We do not consider European suppliers to be a high risk but every supplier we use has either been visited by us or had recent inspections by accredited organisations. Our main area of potential risk is the Far East and whilst it is easy to hand suppliers our code of practice, it is more difficult to ensure that they comply with them 100%. We do take compliance very seriously and in September 2006, we opened our own office in Hong Kong to handle all our sourcing and supplier inspections.

Whilst compliance is not yet 100%, we can guarantee that none of our suppliers use forced or child labour and that work conditions comply with international standards. In all cases, accident and social welfare insurance is paid by our suppliers to the government to cover their workers.

Product Specific Policies

Wood

Winebox is committed to ensuring that all the timber used in the course of its business has been sourced with the least possible damage to the natural environment. Importantly, no tropical hardwoods are used in any of our products. Wooden products from European suppliers use timber from verifiable sources that meet the minimum standards of good forest management. Wooden products from China are made from raw materials sourced locally or from Russia. We have worked very closely with two factories in China for a number of years and have seen real improvements. The majority of wood suppliers that we use conform to international standards and supply us FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certificates to verify forest management and chain of custody.

The Forest Stewardship Council is an independent, not for profit, non governmental organisation providing standards, trademark assurance and accreditation services for responsible forestry. Its mission is to promote the environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests. For more information, visit www.fsc-uk.org

Card

Wherever possible, Winebox uses recycled material or material with a high recycled content. However there are minimum quality standards that we expect of our products and where recycled material would compromise this, we would use virgin board. Virgin board contains no recycled material it is, however, 100% recyclable.

Polystyrene

Our polystyrene/polythene products do not contain any CFC’s and the production process has no more of an effect on the environment than a printed cardboard product. Polystyrene can be reused, recycled or incinerated very efficiently. Whilst these products do not biodegrade, modern landfill sites are not designed to “biodegrade” as this process could release harmful gases or liquids into the environment. We are evaluating whether we can use more recycled content in the production of our polystyrene products and will introduce the maximum we can over the short term.

Sizzlepak

Sizzlepak is produced in Europe and is 100% recyclable. In addition, the following colours are made from 100% recycled raw materials – Natural, Cobalt, Cognac and Black. All the other colours are made from virgin material but wherever possible, colours will be moved on to re cycled raw material if and when it becomes available.

Wicker

All of our wicker products come from China and are made from steamed willow. Willow is a sustainable plant that is grown and cropped bi-annually. The cultivation of willow and the basic production of wicker products is organised by villages located within the willow growing areas. The production of willow related products is the villagers main source of income. The villages all work in co-operation with a larger central finishing factory which they supply with their part finished wicker products. The factory is responsible for taking orders, organising production in the villages and then assembling/finishing the goods before packing into containers. Traditionally, our darker willow products have been finished using a stain/varnish to achieve the colour. Whilst the stain/varnish is perfectly safe, we feel the product has a very natural feel and we have found a way of achieving the dark colour by boiling the willow for five hours and then sealing with a water based sealant. All dark wicker products will move over to this method of production as stocks diminish. By 2008 no artificial stains will be used.

Jute

Jute products are derived from a sustainable plant which is farmed extensively in India and Bangladesh. Like Wicker, Jute products tend to be made by villagers within the area where cultivation takes place. Part finished and finished orders are then sent to a distributor who will finish and pack the goods for export. 100% Jute bags are both reusable and compostable. However, Jute bags with plastic windows are more problematic. Whilst they can obviously be reused, the recycling aspect is more complicated and we are currently looking at whether there is a more environmentally friendly alternative to the clear plastic window.

General

Travel

We do not supply company cars unless they are an essential requirement to do the job. The majority of employees walk, cycle or use public transport to get to and from work.

Business air travel is minimal and only used when essential.

Recycling

We have a large recycling skip at our warehouse which is emptied once a week. All card waste that is not reused is recycled. A certain percentage of card waste is also shredded to use as packing material. All paper waste from the offices is recycled.

Office Policies

We are reviewing all internal office policies and evaluating their environmental impact. Most of our business is conducted using email and we operate a “think before you print” policy on emails.

In our view a “paperless office” is an impossible goal, but our new system software has significantly reduced the amount of paper we use. We are also hoping that all our computer printers will only duplex print at some point later this year (i.e. that we print on both sides of every sheet of paper).

All lighting in our offices and warehouses is switched off every night and all computer workstations are shut down.

Shipping

With a large volume of products being manufactured in the Far East we always aim to minimise the impact that shipping our products has on the environment. We always optimise the loading of our containers and only use airfreight in exceptional circumstances.