Sheds Direct Ireland Sustainability Statement

April 2023

Purpose

Sheds Direct Ireland is implementing sustainable practices across the company in 2023 to help Ireland achieve its
commitments to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. As a company, We are committed to ensuring the needs
of future generations, focusing on sustainable environmental practice. We have a responsibility as a company as
well as individuals to protecting the environment and minimizing the impact of our daily decisions. Our aim and
goal as a company is to reduce our environmental impact and ensuring environmental sustainability. The Sheds
Direct Ireland Sustainability Statement promotes innovative approaches to environmental action among staff and
supports our commitment to policy priorities at the National and European levels. This policy aims to promote
environmentally responsible behaviours in the workplace and beyond, setting out key principles to guide the
activity of employees and contractors. We want to have a positive impact on the world around us and be a
responsible business. This means continuously learning and adopting new approaches to sustainability and
environmental issues as our business evolves.

Objective

• Establish an environmental management system to measure, manage and monitor our environmental
impact for continual improvement.
• Continuously review and improve our environmental performance and to integrate environmental
management best practice into our strategy and operations
• Set ambitious objectives and targets for managing our environmental performance in line with the latest
climate science.
• Comply, as a minimum, with all relevant environmental legislation
• Integrate environmental considerations into business decisions in line with our commitment to
environmental sustainability, Providing oversight and review of our environmental performance at
Executive level.
• Raise our employees’ awareness of environmental issues, encouraging environmentally responsible
behaviour and providing appropriate training. Communicate our environmental aims and objectives to
internal and external stakeholders.
• Raise awareness about environmental issues and this policy through effective communication channels
such as the intranet, events, campaigns, and staff training.
• Review and report on our performance annually, internally.
• Integrate sustainable and circular procurement and sourcing into our processes, relevant functions, and
use our buying power to select products and services with appropriate environmental credentials.
• Ensure environmental criteria are considered in the procurement of goods and services.
• Avail of supports which can bring in external expertise to map out the business’s sustainability priorities.
We strive to improve the environmental performance of our daily business operations in Sheds Direct Ireland and
aim to demonstrate leadership in environmental sustainability and the global fight against climate change. Now
that we understand our baseline, we can introduce policies and solutions to address and reduce our
environmental impact, whilst also improving the overall sustainability

Sustainability Education

We encourage all our staff to prioritise and champion environmental sustainability in their work and
representation of Sheds Direct Ireland. We are committed to building awareness of sustainable practice
throughout the company and into our customers / suppliers where we will share tips / ways for all around
sustainability. We will review our own performance around the Sustainable Development Goals yearly. We have
established ways to encourage and innovate awareness activities to support staff to become integrated drivers of
sustainability
Management and a nominated member of staff will liaise with all relevant stakeholders to ascertain their actions
and approach to Sustainability.
We aim to align with the Government / AIBF / Guaranteed Irish on important agendas regarding Climate Change
and Sustainability and will promote the adoption of sustainable practices to support sustainability strategies for
achieving Net Zero by 2050.
This cooperation will help us to ensure that customers and staff are aware of the ways that they should address
and deliver sustainability in their projects.

Policy

Recycling: Office Staff will conserve and recycle whenever possible through the adoption of simple practices.
Recycling bins are positioned throughout the office and canteen for paper, plastic, and other recyclables. Any
recycling products can be placed in these clear recyclable bags. Food waste can be placed in the compost bin in
the kitchen. We must make every effort to recycle office equipment, supplies, and other recyclable products.
Water:
All Staff must make every effort to conserve water daily. Whenever possible, staff will promote and provide tap
water and avoid the use of bottled water during meetings, we encourage staff to use refillable bottles rather than
plastic bottles for water. We have provided free Britta filter jugs with water to fill staff bottles. We can provide
staff with reusable bottles free of charge.
Waste Management: Staff will conserve, reuse and recycle whenever possible through the adoption of simple
practices and the waste hierarchy which identifies ways to be more environmentally friendly, in priority order.
1. Eliminate – Avoid producing waste in the first place.
2. Reduce – Minimise the amount of waste you do produce.
3. Re-Use – Use items as many times as possible.
4. Use only FSC wood in production
5. Recycle – Recycle what you can only after you have re-used it.
6. Dispose – Dispose of what’s left in a responsible way.

Paper Use

Our aim is to digitise workflows as much as possible, and our move to DocUSign Signatures for contract signing has
significantly reduced the consumption of paper resources.
Staff will conserve and recycle paper through the adoption of digital practices and other simple actions:
• Consider digital alternatives for documentation and signing options as appropriate.
• Change all bank statements to be paperless
• Encourage all correspondence from staff, customers and suppliers to be digital.
• Change to online filing documents with ROS rather than paper
• Use Dropbox to send files digitally to accountants rather than in paper form
• Use Sage for all invoicing / Sales orders and encourage customers to receive them digitally rather than in
paper form
• Ask customers would like they a copy of their visa slip on purchase rather than printing the customer slip.
Encourage customers to receive it digitally using the Clover app on visa terminals
• Encourage customers to download our brochure using the QR code or from our website, email or text
service to send the the brochure as an alternative to taking a printed one.
• Consider the use of digital tools for meetings and digital meeting packs.
• Using the recycle bins located throughout the office and kitchen.
• Reduce printing and copying and enable default settings to double-sided printing, Especially on brochures.
• Edit documents using word processing tools (as opposed to printing).

Shed Packaging

All metal shed boxes will be made from 100% recycled cardboard boxes. Our goal is to use the correct box size for
each order. The result? We’ve removed the requirement to overuse paper/packing material. We also reuse boxes
that we receive from suppliers whenever possible. This extends the life cycle of this box, reducing the volume of
waste sent to landfill. Recycling boxes also reduces processing pollution by 95%. We will remove all packaging on
our metal sheds when we supply and fit for customers and return them to our factory to recycle using City Bin Co.

Digital Footprint

While minimising paper use is valuable, data storage has its own significant environmental impact, therefore we
will consider and review digital practices with a view to the following:
• Training and support for staff on the impact of digital activity, File Management and Retention and File Sharing
and also consider when video calls are needed vs voice calls in the knowledge that video calls use significant
bandwidth.
• Minimise carbon footprint at the back end of our website by looking for eco-friendly web hosting, optimise data
transfers and compressing large video or images. We will also conserve energy by continuously monitoring and
removing any unused plugins.
Energy Conservation
As a company we must conserve energy through the adoption of several easy-to-use strategies which we have
implemented.
• Only energy efficient with A/ B rating in purchasing electronic equipment.
• Enable and set to default the eco-friendly options on all copiers, printers and scanners
• Enable timers for all office copiers, computers and printers that will automatically turn off unused
equipment/use energy-saving modes after periods of inactivity being 30 mins.
• Ban the use of fluorescent light bulbs and replace all lights with LED alternatives.
• Arrange for cleaning staff to turn off lights left on after hours.
• Use bio-degradable and non-harmful cleaning products wherever we can
• Adopt “lights on only if needed” approach and ensure lights and equipment are switched off out of office
hours.
• Program all computer monitors to turn off automatically after periods of inactivity being 30 mins
• Use water efficiently.
• Source locally produced products and services wherever possible
• Promoting improved building efficiency by insulating offices and installation of a Wood Pellet store for
heating. Only use A band storage heaters in areas that can not be heated by the pellet stove.
Purchasing
Staff will consider environmental protection and conservation when purchasing office supplies and other
materials. We will
• Ask all our current and future suppliers for their environmental policies, for evidence of implementation of
such policies and indicate that such performance will be used as criteria for supplier selection.
• Prioritise fair trade and equality in selecting products. Source local Irish companies as a first choice / Irish
companies for materials and supplies.
• Establish procurement contracts with companies offering environmentally preferable purchasing options.
• Refrain where possible from purchasing those items which cannot be recycled or repurposed.
• Make every effort to avoid products containing plastics.
• Purchase office paper that uses 30% or more post-consumer waste.
• Remain committed to purchasing recycled/biodegradable products, including, paper towels, refuse bags
and other kitchen supplies.
• Prioritise options for locally grown foods that require minimal energy for transport and production for
catering at meetings. If possible, aim for minimum 30% vegetarian options, considering sustainability and
locally produced products in mind
Meeting & Events
All Staff will make every effort to conduct meetings with minimal environmental impacts and promote
environmental conservation. Whenever possible, we will:
• Conduct online meetings as a sustainable option using Teams or Zoom where suitable
• Review the work of meetings to reduce committee sizes and frequency of meetings and use online
meeting facilities as appropriate.
• Determine attendance at meetings on every occasion.
• Minimize carbon emissions from travel by promoting non-motorised travel, public transport, shuttle
services taxi shares and where necessary private car /transport.
• Eliminate bottled water, in favour of tap or filtered water.
• Eliminate disposable products and encourage the use of biodegradable and reusable products, including
dining items.
• Make sure recycling bins are easily accessible at meals and breaks if there will be recyclable materials
present.
• Consider public transportation options, the city or region’s conservation projects or “walkability,” when
selecting a location.
• Support facilities with recycling programs, efficient water use equipment, and other green initiatives
• Limit hard copy handouts and make programs and itineraries available online.
• Print double-sided on any necessary hard copy materials.

Transportation

A significant component of the environmental sustainability initiative in Sheds Direct Ireland will focus on
transportation; we aim to reduce our carbon footprint by using low-impact methods of transportation whenever
possible. This enables us to do our part in supporting Ireland to achieve its target of a 50% reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. As road transport was responsible for 94% of all transport emissions in 2020,
staff are encouraged to reduce their individual and collective carbon footprint when travelling to work. Research
has shown that opting for public transport improves air quality, promotes community health, and decreases
carbon dioxide emissions significantly.
Therefore, the following alternative modes of transport are encouraged:
• We support the purchase scheme of annual tickets for public transport for staff. We also support the
Cycle to work scheme.
• Do our own deliveries to customers where possible to eliminate the use of 3rd party courier services. This
will reduce not only our carbon footprint but unnecessary extra vehicles on the road.
• When travelling by plane which is necessary given our island status, non-stop flights will be prioritised,
these take the most direct route to the destination.
• We encourage the use of transportation options with minimal carbon emissions, promoting non-
motorised travel, public transport, shuttle services taxi shares and where necessary private car /transport.
• Staff are encouraged to opt for environmentally sustainable taxi services.
• Consider the effectiveness of online meetings and reduce unnecessary travel.
• We will have 1 company car available as a pool vehicle which is 100% electric. Every aim on future
company vehicles purchased will be with the intent of going to electric vehicles.

Offsetting

As an island and as a company which supports the benefits of intercultural and international exchange, we
acknowledge the necessity of Air Travel and its high carbon impact. We commit in 2023 onwards to exploring the
options available to responsibly offset this impact, considering our scale, structure, and resourcing. We will follow
the AIBF scheme to plant a tree throughout 2023 – 2025