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ARTPLINTHS SUSTAINABILITY
Artplinths hire department
Artplinths Hire is an inherently green and sustainable response to the arts-based business we work in. We have more than 300 Artplinths available to hire – which means thousands of plinths a year not being thrown away after art exhibitions and events.
Our premises are within close proximity to London's creative hub in central London, which cuts our carbon footprint down too. We only use electric vehicles and actively encourage our hire clients to do the same. All packaging for our hire products is reused and nothing is thrown away.
Materials
MDF and panel products
Most of our painted plinths are made from MDF
MEDITE MDF is made from sustainable wood products. Our MDF consists of 40% wood chip and 60% by-product – some of the most environmentally efficient building material on the market, with a product-specific Type 3 Environmental Product Declaration to support it. This impartial third-party evaluation provides peace of mind for our clients. https://mdfosb.com/en/sustainability/our-sustainability-goals
Timber
We use responsibly sourced FSC-approved timber only. This means:
Zero deforestation
Trees are harvested responsibly so there is no net loss of forest over time. Forests with irreplaceable values, such as old-growth forests, are identified and maintained. Reversing deforestation and maintaining irreplaceable forests are crucial to fighting climate change.
Fair wage and work environment
All workers are provided with proper training, adequate safety protocols, and fair wages.
Paint
We use water-based paints and adhesives whenever possible in the workshop. These low-VOC products are much better for the environment and our staff than the solvent-based equivalents.
VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) are solvents which readily evaporate, contributing to the formation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. They increase a product’s environmental impact and are found in higher levels in solvent-based paints.
Packaging
All the packaging for our hire products is reused time and again; we do not use any temporary packaging on hires and none is thrown away. We wrap our sales products in paper-based packaging and corrugated cardboard. Corrugated paper roll is a single layer made from recycled kraft paper with a C-flute and is clean and lightweight. It offers excellent protection against scratching and marking. As it is made from 100% recycled material and is recyclable it is extremely environmentally friendly.
Transport
All our deliveries inside the London area are undertaken using 100% electric vehicles and high-capacity cargo bicycles through Zhero couriers.
National deliveries are made by the Pallet Track network of centralised shippers which operates on a hub-and-spoke model. Geographically specific shareholder members deliver palletised freight destined for all corners of the UK into centralised or regional hubs for onward collection and delivery into a different part of the UK by another member. This process is then reversed, ensuring a reduction in empty running – the costly and environmentally harmful process of vehicles having no payload on their return journey.
Workshop heating and waste
All of our wood waste is recycled into heating onsite, which means no landfill waste from our production side. We have reduced our refuse collection down to just one small bin per week of mostly recycling.
In 2018 we invested in Wood Waste Technology’s WT5 wood waste heater. We use no gas or electricity for heating onsite and our workshops are heated with recycled clean hot air while our heater works its way through the offcuts which would otherwise need to be taken away by the skip load, in diesel-powered vehicles. This highly efficient machine is not the same as a woodburning stove and is fully compliant with the Clean Air Act.
Since January 2018 we are proud to say that we have saved 60 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere, and prevented 55 tonnes of wood waste from going into landfill. Thermal recycling is also environmentally friendly. Some people say burning wood is bad for the environment, which may be true for virgin wood, but the same cannot be said for wood-waste offcuts. Burning wood gives off approximately the same carbon as the tree absorbs during its lifecycle.
Artplinths | London Art Workshop Ltd is a Living Wage Employer