Environmental Policy

Timber Purchasing Policy

Norfolk Oak have ambitious but rigid environmental policies deliberately designed to set us apart from the crowd. Having travelled across the world searching for the finest timbers, we have witnessed some truly shocking and surprising practices which we would never have believed if we hadn't seen them with our own eyes. These offences are not just against nature, but against the human and animal inhabitants as well.

In the USA, we use three Amish saw mills, who supply us with some of the finest hardwoods on the planet. Their ethics and code of conduct need no introduction or certification. As far as sustainability goes, replanting outstripped cutting by 15% between 1997 and 2007. The US Forestry Service estimates that further increases of 15 - 20 % are expected in hardwood stock through to 2030. Last year 2.3 billion trees were planted in the States, and there are 483 million acres of commercial forest alone, plus 350 million acres of privately owned forest. Sustainability is therefore not an issue, nor are environmental or social problems.

Africa, however, is a whole different ball game, hence our completely inflexible attitude to certification. The same is true for South America, although there are many more mills with certification than there are in Africa. Any other speciality timbers, like teak for example, must again have certification. For any timber which is not from either France, Germany or the USA, we will only purchase certified timber. There is no wiggle room here.

Packaging

Having crafted organic, sustainably sourced furniture, the last thing we want to do is wrap it up in tonnes of plastic. Not only does this completely go against how we run our company, it also has a negative effect on our oiled worktops. We believe using simple and traditional, large blankets to wrap up our furniture protects them just as well as its plastic counterpart, but more importantly, it means that there is less waste produced by us. Using blankets also means our customers don’t have a load of plastic left over to bin!

With our own brand new delivery vans, our furniture only ever leaves the workshop to be delivered to our customers. We have no depots in other countries either, keeping our carbon footprint as small as possible.