Macdonald Sporrans takes ethical issues very seriously. For easy reference, we have broken down our ethical policy into sections.
Animal Welfare
Many of our products contain leather and other animal hides. At present we only sell products containing seal skin, bovine hide or goat skin. We are proud to work with manufacturers that only use skins which are by-products of other industries. Unfortunately this is not the case with all our suppliers, and it is something that we are working towards in the future. We do not sell any products containing rabbit, fox, musquash or similar skins.
The proposed EU ban on products containing seal skin is discussed in more depth here.
Recycling
We recycle nearly all paper, cardboard and plastic which comes into our warehouse and office. We create less than half a bin bag of rubbish per week - everything else is recycled. We aim to supply our products in easily recyclable materials.
Office
For an average order, we use only 1 piece of chemical free, recycled A4 paper to print our invoice/packing slip. This also applies to most orders sent directly from the manufacturers. By cutting down the amount of printed paper needed per order, we can drastically reduce our overall paper consumption.
We are proud to work with Aquaid who source their water locally, and work closely with organisations such as Pump Aid. Pump Aid install water pumps in remote areas around the developing world to bring clean, safe water to school children.
Packaging
We package our goods in either cardboard boxes, or padded envelopes. Our cardboard boxes are custom made from recycled cardboard to our exact dimensions (down to the millimetre) to ensure that our goods fit neatly inside without the need for void-fill (which creates significant extra waste). On rare occasions we may use recycled void-fill if we are shipping an abnormal order which does not fit our boxes. All our cardboard boxes are easily recyclable.
We stock Jiffy padded envelopes in a number of sizes to ensure that we are always able to use the smallest size possible. We use this brand because they are strong and durable, and are entirely made from recycled paper and are fully recyclable.
Shipping
Fundamentally, we believe that online businesses create less waste than traditional high street stores. We work with a number of manufacturers to provide products which are sent directly from the manufacturer to the customer, eliminating all the steps in the middle. All our packages are sent via Royal Mail, or one of our couriers, and by utilising this mass-distribution method, we greatly reduce the carbon footprint a single product creates in its journey from creation to customer.
Banking
We are proud to bank with The Co-Operative Bank, which is an ethical bank. We use online bank transfers to pay all of our bills, eliminating waste created from cheques, covering letters, envelopes and the carbon footprint of sending them.
Our ethical policy, and eco-awareness, is something we take very seriously. We are interested to hear your views on our policy, and ethics in general, and welcome your comments on ethics@macdonald-sporrans.com.
