Our commitment

We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint as part of our pledge to help the environment and impact positively on climate change.

The causes and potential effects of climate change.

Climate change is caused by a build up of greenhouse gases - a mixture of nitrous oxide, methane and most importantly carbon dioxide, commonly known as CO2 . Climate change may lead us to face increased habitat destruction, major species extinction, crop failures and higher mortality rates from disease, heat waves, rising sea levels and severe storms and droughts.

Who is responsible for this?

We all are. Research has shown that that human activity is largely responsible for the build up of the greenhouse gases which cause climate change. 80% of gas emissions from industrialised countries are in the form of carbon dioxide. The gas is released into the atmosphere primarily from burning fossil fuels: oil, petrol and natural gas. A growing population coupled with increasing demands on transport and energy has led to these emissions increasing at dramatic rates.

How are carbon emissions generated?

Every day, we all do countless tasks which contribute to generating carbon emissions - driving our children to school, making a cup of tea, turning on the computer, having a shower or charging our phones are just some of many ways we generate carbon emissions.

It is estimated that each of us in the UK; man, woman and child, generates nearly 11 tons of carbon each per year. That equates to 30kgs of carbon per day.

Here are a number of typical daily activities and the associated carbon emissions for each:

What is a carbon footprint?

A carbon footprint is a measure of our impact on the environment. Basically it is an estimation of how much CO2 we emit through the burning of fossil fuels for activities such as household energy consumption and transportation.

Why should we be trying to reduce our carbon footprint?

Reductions in the amount of carbon emissions we produce will have an impact on climate change.

Our carbon footprint

Working with downwithcarbon.org, we drew up a map of the key stages in our supply chain, from the manufacture of raw materials to the typical disposal of our product at the end of its working life. Working to the Carbon Trust’s carbon labelling guidelines at carbon-label.co.uk we calculated the carbon emissions in each of these stages to give us a total carbon footprint for each of our products. These are as follows:

Here’s how each product’s carbon footprint breaks down.

This calculation is based on available data for our current operations. As new information comes to light and we improve our supply chain we will update this information accordingly.

Reducing our carbon footprint and yours too

We’re making efforts to reduce our carbon footprint by investing in our supply chain and making efficiencies where we can, but it is impossible for a company which is producing products for consumption to have zero emissions.

However, we ensure that we do something which will have a positive effect on global warming – carbon offsetting.

What is carbon offsetting?

Take our bowl as an example, which has a footprint of 436 grams of carbon. For every bowl we sell, we take some of the profit and invest this in projects which will prevent or remove at least 436 grams of carbon from being emitted into the atmosphere. In fact, by working with downwithcarbon.org we invest at a rate of twice our emissions. So, for every 436 grams of carbon we emit we offset 872 grams. This means that when you buy a Salmon Luke product you are in fact reducing your daily emissions and not adding to them.

What if every company did this?

If every company did this then the UK would not be carbon positive but carbon negative to the tune of 648 million tons per year, at a cost of £5 billion. It seems like a tall order, but with every company making a small sacrifice in profits, the government’s target to reduce daily emissions to by 60% by 2050 will seem like a walk in the park (for as long as we’ve got them anyway)