Environment Statement

We may be a small company, but we are trying to minimise and mitigate our environmental impact. 

We want to let you know what we do (and sometimes more importantly, don't do) to limit the impact we have on our environment here at Sportology.  We try to act responsibly as any good citizen or business should.  There is no need to "shout from the rooftops" about what we do, as much of it should be taken for granted; but you might find it helpful to know what measures we take where we can.

All aspects of the environment are important, so, in no particular order, here is a bit about some of what we do:

Plants - There are lots of reasons to have some plants outside our shop.  We try to have a Summer and a Winter display to provide some colour, fragrance and joy to passers-by.  Having plants means that when it rains, a little bit of water gets slowed on its journey back to the water table and so in a tiny way we are reducing the level of flash floods on the street.  We have added to our flower display by upcycling used pallets from our lovely neighbour, Aquarius Bathrooms & Kitchens, and turned these into more planters. We also put some pots on the top of our security bollards and we hope the pretty pots and flowers help the drivers as they park their cars neatly on our car park. 

Compost - Liz has constructed a small compost box behind the shop.  In it we compost the decayed flowers, leaves and annuals from our planters and plant pots.  We also compost our tea leaves and filter coffee grounds.  In time we will use the compost to top up our planters.

Water - We have a water meter, so this makes sure that we are not profligate with our water use.  Though to be honest, we really can't drink that much tea and coffee each day!

Bags - We have now phased out our use of plastic bags for our instore customers.  We have been using our distinctive lime green paper bags for some years and will continue to do so.  We don't have our logo etc printed onto the bags, which makes the bags easier to recycle later.  Mind you, we usually ask our customers to consider whether they need to use a bag at all and many are happy carrying their purchases without a bag at all.  Sometimes we receive deliveries in bags rather than boxes (see Recycling Cardboard).  We open these carefully, so that we can reuse suitable bags when sending out orders to our customers.  Not only does this extend the lifespan of the plastic bag, but it helps keep our postage charges low.

Recycling Cardboard - As you can imagine, we have a fair number of deliveries each week and so we find ourselves in possession of a lot of cardboard boxes.  From time to time, people ask to have boxes eg if they're moving house and we are happy to accommodate such requests when we can.  We retain and reuse some of the boxes as they are useful when we need to post items.  This year we've reused some boxes which proved particularly useful for displaying cricket pads.  If none of these actions are feasible, then we make every effort to recycle the boxes.

Recycling Paper - We have a couple of paper collection points in the shop and office areas where we place all our recyclable paper.  Obviously anything confidential is torn up/shredded first.  If we make mistakes when using the printer, we keep hold of it to use as scrap paper for notes etc, before adding it to the paper to be recycled.

Recycling Plastics etc - This is an area we'd like to be better at.  We recycle any plastic bottles and tubs and suchlike (glass coffee jars etc) we use for staff food and drinks  - as well as some of those we find abandoned in our car park!  Although much of the plastic wrapping on the clothes we buy in is recyclable, we haven't yet found anywhere to take this for us.  However, we do our best by keeping hold of it to use as padding when displaying the cricket and hockey bags in particular.

Electricity - Each year we review our utilities contracts and we're please to say that our latest contract with Scottish Power means that our electricity will be 100% from renewable sources.  Since practically all of our lights in the shop are LED, we are able to keep our use down really low.