Sustainability
We firmly believe we have a duty of care to leave as little impact on our environment as possible at Thornton & France. Approaching every facet of our business not only to deliver the finest hand-packed gifts & service possible, but with the intention of minimising our carbon footprint.
Every business faces different opportunities when it comes to reducing their impact on the environment. Here are just a few ways in which we look to improve on our carbon footprint and sustainability…
Solar & Wind
Over 5.5 million kilowatt hours of clean, renewable electricity are produced each year by our four wind turbines. Only a portion of this energy is required to run operations throughout the Greencroft estate.
Here you can find Greencroft Bottling, our sister company that houses most of the fantastic wine that we use in our luxury gifts & hampers. The remaining green energy is fed into the National Grid & is enough to power 800 three-bedroom homes. The day-to-day use of electricity at our head office complex is covered by the 41-kilowatt solar array that can be found of the roof.
Our Buildings
Throughout the group, over £10,000,000 has been invested into generating renewable energy throughout our sites.
State of the art Electric Vehicle charging points have been installed at our Gateshead office, providing a solution for all employees that are considering, or have moved to electric vehicles.Hi-tech glass has been installed throughout our offices to help control temperatures both in the summer & winter, to reduce the reliance on air conditioning & heating systems.
Automatic lighting can be found throughout the warehouse & office space, conserving energy by only switching on when the space is in use. Our warehouse roofs are all double or triple skinned, depending on the individual property, reducing the reliance on heating & cooling during extreme weather.
We operate out of Gateshead in the North East of the United Kingdom, with a large on-site customer service team ready to help you with any and all queries.
Our Packaging
You’ll only find FSC, Forest Stewardship Council approved, cardboard throughout the Thornton & France gift packaging. In short, for every tree used to create our packaging, at least one tree is planted in its place.
The packing material we use to protect the products in our hampers during shipping is a product called “EcoFlo”.
It is made from starch and is completely odourless and dust-free. EcoFlo is biodegradable, compostable and reusable. Either re-use it yourself for your next parcel, or watch it dissolve in water.
To reduce the impact on the environment we are phasing out wicker baskets from our gifts & hampers range. Moving to recyclable materials, including card, paper & cardboard.
Transport
Filling our hampers with so many British-born food & drink products has ensured that the carbon footprint of our imports are kept to a minimum, while also supporting local business.
Year on year we are adding hybrid & electric vehicles to the business to replace both petrol & diesel automobiles.
We carefully select our shipping agents, ensuring they have the same drive to care for the planet as we do. With over 1,500 vehicles operating across the United Kingdom, our shippers are quickly becoming the largest all-electric fleet in the U.K. In addition to a hub fixed with over 6,000 solar panels, & 0% of their waste reaching landfill, this is the kind of approach to our environment we love to be associated with at Thornton & France