Going Green

Here at Sworders, our environmental impact has long been a priority. The very building that is home to our Head Office and auction rooms was specifically designed with sustainability in mind, built from green oak, straw bales, lime render, and a cedar shingle roof, winning us an award from the RICS in 2008.  As auctioneers, we naturally support the global objective to reduce waste and the impact of landfill by passing unwanted items to new owners who will treasure them. We are in many ways the ultimate recyclers!

However, we also know that many of our business practices contribute heavily to our carbon footprint, and areas that have proven particularly challenging include the printing and dispatching of marketing materials, and shipping and logistics.

^{Emma Pickup appointed Head of Sustainability in the summer of 2021}

Sworders takes its responsibility for improved sustainability very seriously and appointed Emma Pickup (née McCann) in the summer of 2021 to steer an on-going commitment to reduce the business’ ecological impact. Since Emma’s appointment, we have partnered with Carbon Footprint Ltd, an award-winning independent emissions auditor, to analyse our Scope 1 and 2 emissions for a baseline year of 2021, to track and reduce 'at source' wherever possible, and to compensate for unavoidable emissions via carbon offsetting. Details of this analysis and targets will be released in shortly.

Working with our publishing partner Park Communications Ltd and ClimatePartner, we are delighted to have launched carbon neutral print catalogues and marketing brochures, commencing with our 2021 Annual Review. Our auction catalogues and brochures are already printed on sustainably sourced FSC certified paper using vegetable based inks, and you will now find a QR code printed on the inside back cover of printed materials which, when scanned, will provide information on our support of international carbon offset projects.

For catalogues and brochures produced in 2022 to date, we have been supporting a truly commendable innovative project called 'Clean Oceans Plastic Bank'. We have off-set a total of 1.3 tonnes of carbon so far and helped to collect 13kg of plastic waste from the world’s oceans – reducing pollution whilst improving the lives of those who are most affected by it. In countries such as Haiti, Brazil, and Indonesia, people collect plastic waste and take it to local collection points where it can be exchanged for money, food, drinking water, and even school fees. The plastic collected is recycled to produce raw material for new products and packaging.

These are not token gestures for Sworders. We will continue to invest in our fight against climate change over the coming years, striving to operate as sustainably as possible, with aims to be carbon neutral by 2035.

We will be publishing further updates and developments around our work on sustainability in the coming weeks. Should you have any questions or feedback for us, please contact:

Emma Pickup

emmapickup@sworder.co.uk | 01279 817778