Sustainability
Here at Ravens’ Way Metalworks we work hard on our sustainability.
We design and make all our metalwork by hand, with love, and with 100% renewable energy in our own workshops using the best equipment, and materials from local and independent suppliers.
We routinely monitor and review every aspect of our business in the light of environmental and sustainability principles. This helps us improve our resource use, environmental protection, ethics, equality, equity, and our cultural and social responsibilities to our local, national and global communities.
• Sustainability is our DNA •
For the People
Happy You – Happy Us!
Whether you’re one of our customers, visitors or suppliers, we want to make sure you’re happy. We aim to provide a personal service, and be the friendliest, most approachable metalworkers you’ve ever met. We’d love to hear how you think we’re doing!
Occasionally we might not get it quite right. If you’d like extra help with our products or service please let us know. We’ll do our best to sort things out and make sure you’re happy – this also makes us happy!
Our Communities
We actively support our local, regional and global communities. We’re Welsh learners and love the chance to practice our Welsh. We wholeheartedly engage with community strengthening and building activities such as volunteering and voting.
We use open source software in our everyday business activities including for our computers, phones, IT networks and building management systems. We are also contributing members to many open source communities.
We think global and act local. We take grassroots action as well as campaigning on issues at a higher level. Ravens’ Way is proud to be an active member of the Federation of Small Businesses, and we support several charities.
We’re staunch advocates of equality and equity, and stand up for all human rights. We treat everyone with respect and dignity. Whoever you are, you’re welcome to become part of the Ravens’ Way flock.
Our Suppliers
We prefer local, independent, sustainable and ethical suppliers, even if we pay a little more or wait a little longer for what we need. We look carefully at every business we buy products and services from, and measure them against our own high standards of sustainability.
Health and Safety
We pursue the highest standards of health and safety, often going above and beyond what the legislation demands. We know that a business which looks after health and safety is a healthy business.
A lot of the work we do on health and safety is closely linked with looking after the environment, which is also extremely important to us. With two health and safety reps on the team and the Federation of Small Businesses at our back, we always have access to expert knowledge.
For the Planet
We Cut Metal with Sunshine!
Metalworking uses lots of energy. To make sure we minimise the impact of our business on the planet we’ve invested in lots of solar PV and a battery storage system and we carefully manage our electricity usage to best coincide with sunny days. Any surplus we don’t use we export to the grid, and buy back 100% renewable electricity when we need it.
This means that we always use low carbon electricity, and any we don’t use “greens” the grid. Our newest PV expansion means we are now net carbon neutral to carbon negative over any given year.
Metal
We source high quality metals from local and UK suppliers which have high quantities of recycled metal in them.
We carefully separate, grade and store all usable off cuts until we can use them again in other projects or products. We put any unusable pieces in storage crates, one for each type of metal. When they are full we take them to our local metal recycling centre.
ColourED and other metal finishes
Instead of using paint to protect and beautify our products we usually use baked colour powder coats and zinc-rich primers. Our investment in our powder coating facility means that we do not routinely produce any paint solvent fumes or waste solvent.
Powder coat protects metal and provides an attractive finish, but it is not always essential. It has an environmental impact so we only powder coat items when necessary. We encourage our customers to explore low environmental impact surface finishes like oiling, satin brushing, and natural patination.
On the rare occasions when we need paint we avoid aerosol cans which have lots of packaging and solvents. Instead we use high solids paints and apply them with a spray system that minimises solvent use, paint wastage and packaging.
Paper and Packaging
We run a minimalist office. We use electronic purchase orders, invoices, payments and receipts, and prefer using phone calls, emails, video calls and messaging services over letters and visits.
We always buy recycled paper and every scrap of paper is used on both sides before we recycle it. Our business cards and flyers are printed on recycled stock using water-based eco-inks by printers who have high sustainability standards.
As well as reusing all the packaging we receive, we also reuse packaging collected from other local businesses to send our lovely products to our lovely customers. We make sure that any packaging we buy is recycled or from certified sources such as FSC.
Heat and Light
Our office and workshops are in beautiful old buildings. They were inefficient so we have installed lots of insulation, draught-proofing and energy efficient LED lighting. To keep us cosy we use biomass heating.
This means we use as little energy as possible to heat and light our buildings, and its all low carbon.
Transport
We think carefully about every journey. This means we can choose the most suitable transport and be fuel efficient by always looking for public transport options, combining journeys, sharing lifts, and driving carefully.
We ask our visitors, suppliers and couriers to do the same. We check new suppliers’ and couriers’ transport operations carefully and we provide detailed information on public transport for our visitors. We also have an electric car charging point for visitors to use which supplies 100% renewable electricity.
Water
We collect rain water for washing, loo flushing, cleaning, and cooling the machines. We use rain water for our organic food growing beds too.
Greening our Habitat
We’ve planted over 400 native trees at the Ravens’ Way roost. We also look after a small stream and many other areas that encourage and support wildlife including brash piles, nettle patches and bird feeders.
We’ve transformed our barren patch of land into thriving ecosystems that provide homes, food and refreshment for wildlife, and a beautiful haven for us to find inspiration as we nurture the vibrancy of life.
For Our Charities
We currently support two charities, The Red Cross in Ukraine and Snowdonia Donkeys.
The Red Cross in Ukraine
The Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) is helping people maintain their livelihoods as well as providing psychological support. In areas where access to healthcare services is limited, volunteers and staff provide first aid training, operate mobile health teams, and raise awareness of health risks in communities.
They have also been supporting small businesses with cash grants or equipment and vocational training, as well as raising awareness of mines through training and educational sessions run by the Ukraine Red Cross Society.
We’re donating all profits and labour costs from our “Croeso” Welsh welcome signs to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. With each purchase we can donate essential humanitarian funds. If you’d like to help us help people in desperate need in Ukraine, please consider buying one of these heartwarming signs.
Snowdonia Donkeys
Snowdonia Donkeys promotes health and well-being through working and walking with donkeys in the local environment of North Wales. Their mission is to be a centre of excellence for the promotion of the health and well-being of people and donkeys.
They not only offer a refuge for donkeys, they offer a safe space for people to escape their worries, build their confidence and re-imagine a new future for themselves.
Every year we support them by donating items from our range of metalwork products to their Christmas auction.
For Ravens’ Way
There’s no doubt about it, sustainability makes good business sense. By looking after our resources, our local and global environment, our customers, suppliers, communities and ourselves, we also make sure that our business thrives.
We aim to make our lovely products and our lovely business completely environmentally and socially responsible. If there’s something you think we can improve, let us know, we’d love to hear from you!
Rydym yn falch iawn o allu cefnogi busnes lleol gyda egwyddorion cynaliadwy.
We are very pleased to be able to support a local business with sustainable principles.