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Sustainability

At Howdens, sustainability is central to our growing business to ensure we continue to be worthwhile for our staff, our customers, our suppliers, the environment, and the communities we serve. That is why sustainable behaviours are adopted right across the business from our material sourcing to manufacturing, right through to depot waste management and our distribution fleet. With low-cost production in dedicated factories in the UK, we are able to minimise waste, energy, and raw materials with a goal to reach carbon-neutral manufacturing by 2022. We also continue to develop and re-engineer our products to ensure we meet our mission statement of “no-call-back on quality”, so we produce and source products, which are durable, safe, and continue to benefit the environment.

What we have achieved so far

100% of the timber products made by us are FSC and PEFC certified

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Certified sourcing

In 2020, we used 220,000 cubic metres of chipboard and 49,000 cubic metres of MDF in our factories, which is enough to fill the Albert Hall three times. 100 per cent of that chipboard and MDF used in our manufacturing processes was from FSC® and PEFC™ certified sources. Meanwhile, 80 per cent of our externally sourced timber products are FSC or PEFC certified.

FSC and PEFC certification mean that the wood used has come from responsibly managed forests with independent documented evidence of an unbroken chain of ownership all the way from the forest to us.

We are also members of the Timber Trade Federation and are recognised by them as a ‘Responsible Purchaser’, which means that we have third-party assurance on our timber purchasing.
More than 90% of the materials used in our cabinets are recyclable
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Product development

Product development is central to what we do at Howdens to ensure we meet demand from our trade customers and homeowners alike. Sustainability is a key factor in the development process, with many new product innovations being developed so they are more energy-efficient or use recycled materials in their construction. For example:

More than 90 per cent of the material used to make our cabinets is recyclable

Our cabinet legs are made from recycled plastic and are recyclable at end of life

35 per cent of the wood content in the chipboard used to make our cabinets is recycled too

50 per cent of the material used to make our flexible vinyl flooring comes from recycled sources

Our laminate worktops are made using chipboard with a recycled content of more than 90 per cent

The engineered stone flooring in our collection uses a pre-attached underlay made from 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles

Some of our Lamona washing machines have a drum made from recycled plastic too

Our cardboard packaging is 100% recyclable

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Reducing packaging

100 per cent of cardboard packaging used for our frontals is recyclable and because of the scale that we operate at, small changes have big effects.

Reducing plastic packaging
We recognise that we use a lot of packaging to protect our products, which is why we are undergoing a review of what materials we are using. For example, we have reviewed how we wrap our larger products, switching plastic wrap for corrugated cardboard. This has meant we were able to reduce plastic waste that would fill a small house every year.

Lowering excess materials
In 2020, we reduced the supply of spare plastic installation clips with some of our cabinets, following feedback from our customers that they were going unused. Instead, we made the clips stronger and supplied fewer with each unit. This change will avoid using around 10 tonnes of plastic per year. Following this project, we did a similar thing with hinge packs, which will avoid using around nine tonnes of steel per year too.
100% of waste from operations avoids landfill

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Reducing landfill waste

In 2020, we reached a terrific milestone within our manufacturing and logistics operations reaching zero to landfill after several years of hard work.

In the same year, we also developed a ‘backhaul’ waste recovery system, using our own distribution fleet, to reduce UK depot landfill waste by 30 per cent. With more than 8,000 waste collections conducted in the first year, we were able to reuse, recycle, or recover up to 2,000 tonnes of waste materials.

How does it work?

When we deliver stock to depots, we collect waste from them too. Depending on the type of waste material, we either return it to our factory or warehouse sites where we have a sophisticated reprocessing facility, or we take it directly to wood processing facilities across the country. This means that a large volume of this waste is recycled into chipboard, which in turn can be used in our new cabinet production.

Next steps

Our goal is to reduce our UK depot network landfill waste to zero. Taking learnings from our manufacturing and logistics operations, we have used the principles of waste hierarchy to eliminate depot waste that currently goes to landfill in a responsible way. 90 per cent of depot waste avoids landfill, so we are very close to achieving our goal.

Communities and partnerships

Howdens becomes The Queen's Green Canopy platinum supporter

We have become a platinum supporter of The Queen's Green Canopy initiative, which will see trees planted to celebrate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

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Howdens becomes The Queen's Green Canopy platinum supporter

We have become a platinum supporter of The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC), a unique tree planting initiative created to celebrate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022 by inviting people from across the United Kingdom to “Plant a Tree for the Jubilee”.

The QGC was launched in May 2021 and will be holding its first event at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show when it unveils The RHS Queen’s Green Canopy Garden on Monday 20th September. The QGC is encouraging people to plant trees from October 2021 when the tree planting season begins, through to the end of the Jubilee year in 2022. The Garden will highlight the importance of tree planting for the environment, and marks a countdown to the start of the tree planting season on 1st October.

Andrew Livingston, CEO of Howdens said: “A founding principle of Howdens is that the business must be worthwhile for all, including our customers, homeowners, staff, and the communities that we work in, which is why we are incredibly proud to be partnering with The Queen’s Green Canopy and are looking forward to working on initiatives across the UK throughout Her Majesty’s historic jubilee year.”

As well as inviting the planting of new trees, the QGC will create a network of 70 Ancient Woodlands across the UK and identify 70 Ancient Trees to celebrate Her Majesty’s 70 years of service. The QGC has gathered a team of forestry experts from across the UK to select which woodlands and trees will become part of the QGC.

Rob Black, Director of ESG at Howdens, says: “Partnering with the QGC is an important step in contributing to our environmental, social, and governance work. The QGC’s ambitions of planting trees to create a better environment align with Howdens’ future commitment to becoming a carbon-neutral manufacturer and developing solutions to other problems, such as plastic waste and polystyrene usage.”

The Queens Green Canopy Ambassador, Dame Judi Dench, will officially open The RHS QGC Garden on the 20th of September and encourage everyone to play their part and begin planting trees from October.

By inviting everyone to plant considerable numbers of new trees throughout the country, The Queen’s Green Canopy seeks to highlight the significant value of trees and woodlands as nature’s simple but highly-effective way to clean the air we breathe, slow the impact of climate change, create important wildlife habitats, and improve our general health and wellbeing.
Howdens joins the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

We have joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Network, as we strengthen our commitment to the circular economy, sustainability, and the environment.

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Howdens joins the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Howdens has become a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Network, as it looks to further strengthen its commitment to the circular economy, sustainability, and the environment.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s principles are to develop and promote a circular economy — one that addresses global challenges such as climate change, waste and pollution, and biodiversity loss, and delivers better outcomes for people and the environment. The circular economy is based on three principles, all driven by design — eliminate waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use, and regenerate natural systems.

Rob Black, Director of ESG at Howdens, says: “Joining the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an important milestone in our ongoing work on sustainability. The Foundation is the leading organisation when it comes to championing a circular economy and a global thought leader on best practice in this area.

“Howdens will benefit greatly from the new membership as we look to bring circular economy principles and practices into our own work, along with potential collaborations with other members on raising issues and developing solutions to problems, such as plastic waste and the use of materials that cannot be reused or recycled.

“Our ESG 2020 vision commitments include maintaining zero waste to landfill in manufacturing and distribution and achieving carbon neutral manufacturing by the end of 2021. The philosophy of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation should help us to achieve and go beyond our current vision.”

Celebrating a 10-year partnership with Humberside Fire and Rescue

We are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of our on-call support for the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service.

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Celebrating 10-year partnership with Humberside Fire and Rescue

We are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of our on-call support of the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service by presenting an award to long-standing employee and on-call firefighter, Tony Clark.

A decade ago Tony Clark, who is now Fire Safety and SHE Advisor at Howdens, presented an idea to the leadership team to create an on-call fire service based from our manufacturing site in Howden, East Yorkshire.

10 years later the company supports 14 on-call fire fighters who are able to respond to fire calls, and two medical first-responders across their sites in Howden, Raunds in Northamptonshire, and their site in Cheshire.

With a fleet of emergency vehicles, including a permanent fire engine housed in Howden, and two medical first response vehicles, the on-call team at Howdens has attended more than 1,700 emergency fire calls and upwards of 1,000 medical first-response calls since 2011.

Julian Lee, Howdens Operations Director, said: “The initiative that was presented to us by Tony, who had previously worked for the fire service, was one that the business was proud to support, and continues to do so as we mark this anniversary.

“At Howdens, one of the founding principles in the Business is ‘Worthwhile for All’, and this fantastic initiative ensures we live into this and support our local communities."

In a recent study by Howdens it was discovered that 82 per cent of British adults think that businesses have a responsibility to support their local emergency services, whether that be fire and rescue, policing, or medical.

Phil Shillito, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Humberside Fire and Rescue, adds: “The support that we have received from Tony and the team at Howdens has been appreciated across our region and beyond. It is a great example of how businesses can help to support their local emergency services.

“We would encourage any organisation that is looking to give back, to reach out to their local emergency services to find out how they can help.”

Since March 2020, a dedicated area at our site in Howden has been converted to voluntarily store personal protective equipment, such as face masks, sanitiser, aprons, and lateral flow tests provided by the government. This is so the team at Howdens, in partnership with the Local Resillience Forum and headed by Humberside Fire & Rescue service, then distribute to schools, hospitals, and other organisations in the region as and when they need replenishments. The company has so far distributed more than 4 million pieces of equipment across the region.
Charities

Every year, our staff go above and beyond to support local causes, clubs and charities. Just as the kitchen is the centre of the home, we position ourselves at the centre of communities in order to help those most in need.

Charities

A sustainable strategy

Made in the UK

We have invested in our UK manufacturing, so we can make more products on home soil. This supports local communities where our factories are based and also brings the environmental benefits of shorter supply chains.

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Made in the UK

We have invested in our own UK manufacturing, so that we can make more of our products on home soil. This supports local communities and staff where our factories are based and brings the environmental benefits of shorter supply chains. The additional product we made in-house in 2020, meant that we saved nearly 100 container loads being transported into the UK.

By taking control of our bought-in products from the EU, we can consolidate loads and move them from road to rail. In 2020, around 90 per cent of our freight from the EU was dealt with in this way, saving around 2,000 tonnes of CO2.
Carbon-neutral manufacturing

In 2020, 11,000 tonnes of sawdust from our manufacturing process was converted into energy using biomass boilers at our factories in Runcorn and Howden. This is a big step towards carbon-neutral manufacturing.

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Carbon-neutral manufacturing

In 2020, 11,000 tonnes of sawdust from our manufacturing process was converted into energy using biomass boilers at our factories in Runcorn and Howden. That is enough sawdust to fill more than a dozen Olympic swimming pools, which would have been transported for use elsewhere.

By converting sawdust to heat, we generated more than 40,000 MWh of energy, which could power upwards of 10,000 houses with electricity. This is an excellent step towards carbon neutral manufacturing, which we plan to achieve by 2022 by ensuring 100 percent of production and warehouse waste is reused, recovered or recycled.

Responsible purchasing

Our staff across key operations at Howdens complete regular training to promote responsible and ethical purchasing to ensure we build sustainable partnerships with our suppliers.

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Responsible purchasing

Our buyers and compliance team have all passed the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply’s “Ethical Procurement & Supply” training. We also have a rolling programme of refresher training on Modern Slavery and Anti-Bribery. These courses are designed to promote responsible and ethical purchasing across key operations at Howdens and help build sustainable partnerships with our suppliers.

Looking ahead, we plan to introduce a code of practice for all our timber suppliers. This is to enhance our existing trading terms and be clear on our commitment and expectations for ESG standards throughout the supply chain.
Lowering emissions

Our transport fleet drove more than 15 million miles in 2020, so ensuring our distribution is both safe and efficient is important to us. We aim to reduce our CO2 emissions of our distribution fleet by 7 per cent before 2023.

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Lowering emissions

Our transport fleet drove more than 15 million miles in 2020, and ensuring our distribution is both safe and efficient is important to us.
All our trucks meet the latest emissions standards and have been fitted with in-cab telemetry systems to increase efficiency and reduce emissions even further.

We also believe that thorough training will help our drivers reach our goals in lowering C02 emissions by seven per cent before 2023. As a result, we combine daily debriefs, where driver behaviour is assessed against energy-efficiency and safety targets, with a reward scheme for those who reach the highest standard to help is achieve this.
In recent years, we have also invested in training our own drivers, via driving apprenticeships, creating new opportunities for the communities we serve.