Action

We are passionate about the environment and making sure we can do all we can to make a change. So, we are asking our customers to join us and take one action and make a difference to climate change!

No matter how big or small, we can all do something. We’ve come up with a range of ideas to help get you started:

• Conserve Water, you can do this easily by purchasing a water butt! Based on previous Summers our climate is continuing to rise and we may face another hosepipe ban. Why not be ahead of the game and collect the rain water to feed the plants on those dry days!
• Plant a tree, as part of the Queens Jubilee, every member of the Polhill team joined together last year to plant a tree for the Queen’s Canopy Project! Trees provide oxygen to the environment as well as cleaning the air too, so it won’t only be a great addition to your garden but you’re doing a lot of good too.
• Plant for Wildlife, habitats and plants for vital insects such as bees and butterflies have declined dramatically. If we can all plant something that attracts these insects back to our gardens we will be one step closer to bringing back bio-diversity.

Recycling

Where we can, we recycle! Which includes our carrier bags, we recycle all of our food waste and cooking oil, plus we recycle cardboard, glass, paper and ink cartridges.

Our food waste goes through a unique process with ReFood https://refood.co.uk/ , once collected from our Polhill site it is transported to the Doncaster/London plant. It’s here where the food is transformed into reusable energy, this is done through a natural process of ‘Anaerobic Digestion’. The food is biologically broken down into large amounts of biogas, due to the lack of oxygen in the plant they can capture the biogas rather than lose it into the atmosphere.

The biogas is stored in tanks until it’s required, it is then used to fuel large industrial-scaled combined heat and power engines, the electricity generated is then sent to the National Grid. This produces enough energy to power 10,000 homes per year!

Better still, the liquid produced by the biogas process is transformed into bio-fertiliser for local farming and agricultural use.

Our cooking oil is also recycled and made into biodiesel.

Donations & Charity

For our most recent Christmas Jumper Day the team at Polhill rummaged through their cupboards and donated non-perishable goods to the local Food Bank! This day is usually an opportunity to raise money for a charity, however, we decided to give back to the local community and help them out where they needed it most. With the cost of living continuing to increase everyone needs a little helping hand and food waste is one thing that we can all reduce.

When the news broke of the war in Ukraine, we know we had to do something. We selected a whole host of products from all around the store, highlighted with a blue and yellow heart. 10% of the profits from these products went directly to the Red Cross to help those affected by the war.

Eco-Friendly Suppliers

We’re proud to work with many suppliers who are also passionate about sustainability and are always coming up with new ideas to become more eco-friendly.

These include:

Elho: Made with nature in mind, all Elho planters and pots are created using recycled plastic, produced with wind energy and they are all fully recyclable. You can find their entire range plus their new ocean range, made from marine waste including fishing nets and ropes!

Scrunch: Fold them, roll them, scrunch them! This fun kids range includes buckets and watering cans which are made from 100% silicone. This silicone is derived from sand, making them completely recyclable and reusable!

Tom Chambers: Our Furniture range of Tom Chambers, which includes the Hetton Companion Seat, Hetton Bench and Hetton Rectangular Dining Set with 4 chairs. These are all FSC certified, helping towards responsible management if the world’s forest.

Lifestyle Garden: Lifestyle Garden is one of our Furniture brands and their DuraOcean bistro set is manufactured from 100% recycled plastics. The raw materials are taken from recycled marine plastic, but the chairs and table can be dismantled and recycled once again at the end of its lifecycle! This set is also FSC Certified Brazilian Eucalyptus Wood, combining both nature and plastic into a beautiful design.

Sustainability

Finally, being more sustainable is something we are always aiming to achieve. But what does it mean to be sustainable? These need to be Environmental and Social factors.

Environmental

What can we do to reduce our environmental impact on the planet. Be more energy efficient – throughout the store we only use LED lighting. As well as recently switching our forklifts and lawnmowers from diesel to electric.  All company cars are electric or hybrid too, with an electric charging point available for customers in our main car park.

Reducing our waste, through our collaborations with ReFood we are able to effectively recycle our food waste and cooking oil to good causes.

Social

We offer an equal employment opportunity to everyone and all of our staff enjoy employee benefits including discount off products and pension contributions. For those that require it, staff are offered Health and Safety courses to ensure they are using the correct equipment safely and effectively.