Introduction to the ‘Ten Steps’ Initiative

The recent COP 26 conference in Glasgow, uniting world leaders to find immediate solutions to the runaway climate change problem, yielded mixed results. At Made by the Forge, we feel that we each have a responsibility to do our bit to offset carbon emissions both at home and at our business. We started our own offset efforts 13 years ago, aware that making our products requires energy that produces carbon, something unavoidable in fashioning ironwork. Since 2009, we have stood by our pledge of planting a tree for each order received. In the early days, we did this by hand by ourselves and as the business grew, we relied on the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and teams of volunteers to plant thousands of trees. We have now formed a relationship with Houghton Hall Estate and contribute to the extraordinary environmental work that’s an ongoing project in Norfolk, planting trees for hedgerows and creating specific areas for wildlife.

With all the media coverage of global warming issues reporting on so many floods and fires that just over three decades ago were rare, we have reached a tipping point. We now want to step up a gear and aim at the holy grail of environmental responsibility –  emissions as low as possible before a set date. But what exactly is a carbon footprint? Well, you’re adding to it right now by just breathing out. But industry and manufacturing companies emit a great amount of CO₂ and that’s where the principal problem lies. To this end, we have made a commitment to the SME Climate Hub (Small and Medium Enterprises) to follow the ‘Ten Steps To Net-Zero’ plan. We thought that a series of blogs explaining these steps might help people to understand the importance of what the individual is capable of. Add those people up and making a huge difference together is possible and to be frank, urgently needed.

You may think that some environmental initiatives by food companies and manufacturing firms are ‘green washing’, paying lip service to needed changes by providing money to soothe consciences and then just carrying on business as usual. But at Made by the Forge we want Net-Zero (in a few years) to actually be business as usual. It’s going to be challenging, a word we use when we want to put a positive face on ‘hard work’ but in the 21^st century, we want to be a company that takes its responsibilities to our customers as seriously as we need to take our responsibilities to the planet. Join us on the journey.