FelinFach is Carbon Neutral

January 16, 2021 3 min read

FelinFach Becomes a Carbon Neutral Company

Trying to be Greener...

We have always aimed to operate our business as sustainably as we can. In January 2021, we became carbon neutral neutral company!

The fundamental part of almost all our products is wool and wool is one of the most sustainable products there is. Most of our products are handmade, and hence we have no carbon emissions from manufacturing or other similar high carbon emission activities.

9th February 2021 - News

All electricity consumed by FelinFach is now from 100% renewable energy, from UK windfarms - powered supplied by Scottish Power. Firstly, let's say it up front - no carbon emissions are better than buying carbon offsets to cover whatever emissions a company has. Going 100% renewable reduces our carbon emissions and also reduces our need to buy offsets.

Zero Carbon Footprint

We have assessed our carbon footprint throughout 2020. Whilst our footprint has never been high, we have taken steps to reduce it. For example, we have moved to recyclable and biodegradable packing products, consolidated deliveries receivable, reduced and consolidated our vehicle and other journeys, and improved lighting and heating in our Dye Studio.

The single largest part of our footprint is shipping/delivering our products to customers in the UK and worldwide. We have become carbon neutral (a zero carbon footprint) by offsetting all carbon produced from our activities.

For each parcel shipped, detailed calculations have been made of the distance travelled, the method of delivery and the weight of our parcels to arrive at the carbon produced by our commercial activities. Where estimates have been made, the most prudent assumptions have been used.
All our customers shipments have been largely offset in 2020 and from January 2021, 100% of customer shipments are offset.
We have made prudent assessments an wed, yes estimates of our carbon footprint which will be refined over the months and years to come.
All FelinFach activities are offset from January 2021 onwards.

Carbon Offsets

Pachama - Restoring nature to solve climate change

Firstly, let's say it up front - no carbon emissions are better than buying carbon offsets to cover whatever emissions a company has. We agree with this but that is a longer term goal for us and whilst we and many other companies are working out how to achieve that, buying carbon offsets is a reasonable way to proceed.

We knew we needed to work with a carbon offset company that satisfied as many of our goals as possible, but first and foremost, we knew they needed to take a few key principles into consideration:

Additionality: The carbon offset needs to lead to a reduction of CO2 emissions that would not have happened otherwise. For example, that means no investments in national parks that are already protected.
Permanence: This can’t be a short-term solution. Carbon captured and represented in offsets needs to be stored forever, or for a very, very long time.
No double-counting: Offsets are a one-and-done thing. Their impact cannot be recorded twice.
Monitoring and verification: Good offsets need to actually do the thing they are meant to be doing, and that thing needs to be able to be verified.
Scalability: We wanted to invest in projects that have the ability to scale and receive results quickly, without relying on manual processes that take up a lot of time and resources.

We used these criteria to evaluate many different companies doing good work. We’re still looking at a lot of them, but in the end, we chose Pachama to purchase our carbon offsets and we make our contributions to them on a monthly basis. (more on Carbon Offsets, Pachama and Shopify)

Current Projects Supported by our Offsets

The Jara Pará Project is a forest conservation project. It reduces potential greenhouse gas emissions by protecting a large swath of forest (almost twice the size of Luxembourg) that otherwise would have been destroyed. It is a REDD+ project that is at the front lines of deforestation in the Amazon today trying to stop clear-cutting practices that are causing the loss of so much rainforest today.

We are investigating the proposals to grow more forests in Wales and, if we can, we would like to be part of any such plans.

About FelinFach

Our company, FelinFach Natural Textiles is located in the heart of the Preseli area of Pembrokeshire near to Boncath. We design Welsh blankets and the iconic Welsh Tapestry blankets which are traditionally woven at Welsh mills. We also design and make natural hand dyed yarn, cotton, silk and wool scarves and other handmade products. We also offer Welsh tartans, Sheepskin Rugs, Gift Cards and tools and books for crafters and knitters - Cocoknits, Laine, Amirisu and Making to name a few!. We are a proud supporter of the Campaign for Wool and Global Welsh.

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Last update 9th February 2021

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