Westgate Joinery and the Environment.

 

The Company's Directors believe that they have a responsibility to take actions to ensure that their business operations cause as little detriment to the environment as possible and that they have a duty to future generations to use their best endeavors to use the earth's resources in a responsible way.

To forward the above ideals Westgate Joinery has:-

•  Taken steps to ensure that wherever possible that the timber used in their manufacturing processes has been sourced from well managed forests and woodlands and that this is as far as practical backed up by recognised and well documented chain up custody certification.

•  Promoted and supported projects using local timber particularly the use of locally grown coppiced Sweet Chestnut within joinery manufacture.

•  Promoted where possible the use of timber as a substitute to other building materials. Throughout the world our core material, Timber is recognised and accepted as being the most environmentally friendly and renewable building material. Growing trees absorb carbon dioxide, helping the fight against climate change, and when sustainably managed provide an endless renewable resource needing just light and water to grow. Wood has a key role to play in delivering environmental benefits to the buildings we live and work within. For example, every cubic metre of wood used as a substitute for other building materials reduces CO 2 emissions by an average of 1.1 tonnes. When added to the 0.9 tonnes of CO 2 stored due to the carbon sink effect, every cubic metre of wood used in preference to other building materials gives a net saving of 2 tonnes of CO 2 . Work currently being undertaken by Waterwise would also seem to suggest that wood also uses less water in the production process than other building materials.

•  Installed a Bio-mass heating system to convert the sawdust and chippings produced as a bi-product of our manufacturing process into energy to heat our factory thus removing the need to rely on Gas, Oil or Electricity for this purpose; all offcuts are sent to a local community who use a similar Bio-Mass system to produce energy to heat their homes from wood waste.