What is Fountain Timber Doing to Help the Environment

In an age of increased environmental awareness, when the issues affecting our planet can no longer be brushed under the proverbial carpet, Fountain Timber are proud to be a company that takes these concerns seriously.

Indeed, we have always been an ecologically-minded organisation. Not only do we look to create a high-quality product for our customers, we also understand that we have a responsibility to ensure that our practices have as little impact on the environment as possible.

Responsibly managed timber sources

Fountain Timber will always strive to obtain our raw log material from local, responsibly managed sources whenever possible. We are a proud supporter of the Forest Stewardship Council®  - FSC® (our license code FSC-C012202). Indeed, all the logs we purchase to create square sawn timber within our own sawmill have a FSC® certified chain of custody - every link between the forest and the consumer is certified to make it clearly identifiable which wood is FSC® certified and which is not. 

No need for heating oil!

Another measure we’ve taken to reduce our carbon footprint is to stop using fossil fuels for heating our premises. A few years ago we invested in three Hargassner biomass boilers. These eco-friendly units not only provide heat and water for our offices and store—but also run our timber drying kiln. This is a major step forward for us as a company and will help us maintain our ISO 14001 environmental accreditation. 

Additional advantage of using biomass boilers is that we can use timber chip produced on site to power the unit. 

Meanwhile, we also use all sawmill offcuts to produce firewood, timber chips to help maintain pathways as well as the playgrade chips for playgrounds. Nothing goes to waste. Even the sawdust is used by a local company to produce animal bedding for poultry and dairy farms.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

There are plenty more initiatives we’ve launched over the last few years to help reduce our carbon footprint. For one, we compost cuttings, bark and clean green waste in our yard to turn them into mulches and soil conditioners.  

Elsewhere, Fountain Timber have also installed solar panels throughout the yard and all the lights on the premises are gradually being replaced by LEDs to save energy. 

We recycle ALL our waste. There are recycling containers for cardboard and treated wood in our yard and recycling boxes in the kitchen. Very little is left for general waste. We also reuse paper and folders as much as we can. 

Last year we reduced the number of pages in our product catalogue and had it printed on recycled paper using vegetable based ink. We have now decided that all our promotional materials will be printed in this way. 

On the move!

Transport is a vital component of our company and another area in which we have looked to mitigate our environmental impact. Our fleet has been given a dramatic ‘green’ makeover with all our trucks now being ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) compliant. We also have in our fleet three large 11 tonne vehicles which makes deliveries considerably more efficient. The more it can transport, the less wasted journeys!

Also, instead of using plastic bags, we are reusing cardboard boxes from our stock deliveries to pack small items that need to be delivered to our customers.   

We take our environmental responsibilities seriously but we can always do more and we are constantly trying to think of new ways to improve our green credentials.

Find out more...

If there’s anything you like to discuss about our practices, or want to find out more about the sustainability or provenance of a certain product, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’d be happy to chat!