Etikora Green Policy

Etikora has partnered with Ecologi, who work with effective organisations and projects around the world. Ecologi have verified and certified reforestation projects and with every order over USD25 or £20, a tree is planted. 

We want to make a positive contribution to the planet and support ethical and forward- thinking businesses. We know that delivering products can have a negative impact on our climate, and we want to try and restore the balance as much as we can. This is a daunting challenge, yet we feel we can make a difference together with your tree planting. 

Recycled Packaging 
We strive to make sure that all our products are wrapped and shipped in recycled or recyclable materials, whether it be paper, cardboard, straw or
any other natural packaging that our enterprising suppliers can find. We have seen purchases wrapped in newspaper, protected with popped corn
and corrugated brown paper, wrapped in tissue paper or packed in sturdy boxes. We only work with suppliers that care about the planet which is  reflected in their products and the way they are packed. We encourage our suppliers to minimise the packaging they use.

We will never use single-use plastic or bubble wrap in our packaging. We acknowledge that certain courier companies do occasionally have to protect the address labels with Sellotape or similar, but we do our best to avoid this and we are constantly searching for alternative solutions. Occasionally a product made from fabric will need to be protected by plastic to avoid water damage. This is unavoidable. exception.

Product Delivery
Product delivery could potentially have a huge impact on the environment, and we want to reduce this to an absolute minimum. This is applicable to
both UK and overseas suppliers. We have two ways of reducing postage and packaging. 

With our delivery, your purchase comes straight from the supplier, reducing transportation costs and packaging. This is our most popular delivery
method. If you love products from one supplier, we also make sure that are put into one shipment to minimise packaging. 

Some of our overseas suppliers are working closely with us whereby a shipment of multiple products is sent to us in the UK and we at Etikora split
the consignment and send the individual products on to you the customer. These are products that work out being too expensive to ship solo due to
shipping costs or import tax. 

Our Green Code 
There are also practical things we can all do to help keep green. At Etikora we try to follow a code of business and personal conduct to do our bit to
help, albeit small. We know it can be hard to remember to do everything listed  below every day, but as a team, we are committed to doing our very best. 

• Where possible we work from home and do our best to reduce our carbon footprint.
• We try to keep to remote team meetings via Zoom and Skype.
• When face-to-face meetings are required, we encourage car sharing between participants.
• We enable sleep mode and energy saving features on computers and other equipment when not in use.
• We use energy efficient lights and bulbs, especially LEDs, where possible. LEDs save both energy and money.
• We turn lights or power off when not in use and place laptops in sleep mode.
• We unplug devices from the wall when not in use as we understand that electronic devices can still use energy when they are plugged in and aren’t being used.
• We ensure devices are in the most eco-friendly setting, i.e., turn the screen brightness down to save energy.

Making our Supply Chain Greener
We are committed to making our business purchases as sustainable as we can. Where possible we use local suppliers to help keep money circulating
within the local economy.  We seek out the most eco-friendly options such as using recycled paper for
our business cards and stationery. We are also committed to using suppliers, when available, that practice functional green policies.

Reduce Waste
We try to reduce our waste in a number of ways:

• Set printers to print on both sides of paper as a default. Not only does this cut paper costs it also saves money and resources.
• Recycle paper for printing and notes. 
• Go paperless whenever possible. Documents are shared, edited and passed on using cloud-based services like Google Drive and One Drive. This helps reduce the need for printing.
• Where paper is required, we encourage the use of recycled paper.
• We promote the use of recycling – from general waste, glass, paper, and plastic. 
• Recycle printer cartridges.

A Green Home
Water is a valuable commodity and getting scarcer; we try to take shorter showers and not to leave the tap running whilst cleaning our teeth. We only
boil as much hot water as needed for that cup of tea or coffee. Our team use biodegradable products such as washing liquid, shampoo and soap as we are sensitive to the environmental impact that other less caring products cause.

Climate Neutral Aim for Etikora Holidays
Sense Earth, our sister company that runs Etikora Holidays, provides an option for guests to offset the emissions produced by taking holidays.
Offsetting is not about being carbon neutral but being carbon positive. Please see Sense Earth’s Green Policy.

Sense Earth and Etikora will absorb the cost of carbon offset and invest in projects that promote clean energy technologies, conservation, forest management and other environmental efforts that combat the effects of climate change by reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.