Sarah Hartland, Head of Marketing at Draper Tools, highlights some of the company’s commitments to long-term sustainability.

We know that simply by being here and going about our business we affect the environment. However, we work hard to minimise that impact and strive to make a positive difference where we can.

Sustainability at Draper is not about one single environmental initiative. It’s about all areas of the business coming together and being accountable. From reducing plastics and carbon emissions to recycling, right through to supporting communities locally and internationally – we’re committed to continuous progress in all these areas and more.

Powered by the sun

We have two sites in the UK and we’re proud to say that they are fitted out with a total of over 1,000 solar panels. The large solar installation at our warehouse site was one of the most ambitious private solar installations in the region, saving over 100 tonnes of equivalent CO2 each year. Together with our recently completed second solar installation at our head office building, we’ll be preventing more than 150 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year.

Heritage and green innovation

As a fourth-generation family business we’re committed to protecting tomorrow’s environment. We may be over 100 years old – but our continued investments into sustainability demonstrates how heritage and green innovation can go hand in hand. Our recently completed warehouse was built from the ground up with environmental efficiency in mind. Some of the key features include:

• 58% of our 2025 energy demand met by our solar panels
• Energy saving LED motion sensor lighting throughout the site
• A drainage strategy accounting for 100 years of expected rainfall
• Run-off water collection in a holding pond bringing environmental diversification

Driving change

We’re moving away from traditional fuels by increasing the percentage of electric/hybrid cars within our sales fleet and by transporting inter-site deliveries using a newly purchased electric van. We’re also working with freight forwarders delivering Draper consignments using electric vehicles and renewable fuels.

Responsible waste management

 Ongoing recycling efforts have seen the amount we dispose to landfill reduce significantly. In the last 15 years, we’ve reduced general waste by more than half. As a business, more than 80% of our waste is recycled.

For the past 24 years, we’ve been certified under the rigorous ISO 14001 environmental management standard. We happily meet the UK’s regulatory requirements to minimise the disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) to landfill and to achieve high levels of collection of WEEE for environmentally sound treatment.

Any materials we can recycle we do – including everything from green waste to cardboard, batteries to oil, aerosols to wood waste and more.

One initiative that makes a huge difference is shredding cardboard boxes to recycle and using this as protective packing material in our dispatch cartons.

Slashing single use plastic

We have a dedicated sustainable packaging taskforce, including a Sustainable Packaging Coordinator to oversee our ongoing mission to reduce plastic from the packaging of over 10,000 product lines in the Draper range. For us, packaging needs to be efficient, sustainable and competitive, without compromising product protection and customer safety – a particular concern considering the types of products in our range.

We’re continuously analysing packaging data and sales trends across our entire range, identifying opportunities to make an impact in plastic usage. Once these opportunities have been identified, we open the conversation to review the alternative packaging options available and seek to reduce plastic weight, with a preference for plastic-free packaging and FSC-certified card. Where plastic remains in packaging, we focus on using recyclable plastics, containing at least 30% recycled material.

By redesigning packaging to remove and reduce plastic, we’ve reduced our plastic packaging output by between 10% and 20% year on year since 2023, amounting to a real-terms total reduction of 21% over that time.

Our mission continues as we consider every aspect of sustainable packaging and shipping and working hard to reduce pack weight with better packaging design. As an example, we ship wheelbarrows as stacked components and build them when they arrive – meaning we aren’t shipping empty air around the world. This level of consideration is constantly being applied to our product lines.

Committed to the future

 We know that true sustainability demands continuous improvement of both policy and implementation, and that’s something we’re committed to across the business, from supply chain to employee engagement and the community partnerships we forge.

While we are proud of the strides we’ve made in reducing emissions and waste, we know there is more that we can do. We’re setting ambitious targets, investing in green innovation and sharing our progress. This is a long-term journey, and we are in it for the long haul.

For more on this topic, click here

Catch up on previous ‘Soapbox’ articles here