Senator heads sustainability drive

The Senator Group has joined the Design Council to promote best practice in sustainability among its national network of design specialists, staff and former clients.

Based in Accrington, Senator is the UK’s largest manufacturer of office furniture and the leading investor in R&D and design, providing office furniture to businesses around the world.

Its environmental management division, Sustain, enforces sustainable measures throughout the business and offers innovative recycling solutions to its clients and competitors.

Sustainability manager Oli Clarke said: “Much has been done in recent years to promote sustainability and its benefits. However, the danger is that it becomes nothing more than a buzzword or box ticking exercise. The UK design industry has an enormous opportunity to really drive the sustainability agenda - not least because waste continues to result in enormous costs for British businesses.

“Britain is known for its excellence in manufacturing. It would be fantastic to show the world that we are also leading the way in meeting global standards in creating fantastic products at no cost to the environment.”

Senator recycles 92 per cent of its waste, with zero output going into landfill sites. It is the only business in the manufacturing sector to run its own recycling division, which is spread across three sites.

The company presented key actions that the design and property sector can take to meet these increasingly stringent targets in a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) presentation to the largest network of policymakers, designers and educators in the country at the Senator Group’s Lancashire headquarters.

Design Council shares Senator’s views on the importance of sustainability in the design of products, systems and services. It encourages the ongoing professional development of all its design specialists, known as Design Associates, and is fully committed to providing them with the best training in this area.

Head of design for the Design Leadership Programme, Sonja Dahl said: “We thoroughly enjoyed our experience with The Senator Group yesterday; it was fantastic to explore how one of the UK’s biggest manufacturers of furniture has capitalised on sustainability and made it an integral part of their service offer. Lessons can be learnt for all UK manufacturers.” The session looked at the importance of achieving accreditation such as the ISO 14001 waste reduction and environmental commitment certificate, in addition to BREEAM accreditations, Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) and the Ska sustainable fit-out certification.