TabbyandTweed - Sustainability is a key consideration for us

Sustainability lies at the heart of the practice of weaving your own fabric, making your own clothes and creating your own gifts and it is our mission to be a sustainable and reflective business.

We do our best to be sustainable in all aspects of our business. Designing and making high quality products to support people to learn and enjoy weaving is the focus of our work. We often make our decisions based on our ethos of working in a sustainable way. If we are able to do this we believe it will be of benefit of our planet and future generations. We continue to reflect and look to where improvements to our work can be made. We use British wool in our kits and source the majority of our materials from UK businesses. Our aim is to be transparent with our business activities and to be continually aware of where we might be able to develop and improve our practice. We hope that going forward we will be able to get even better with respect to the sustainability of our working practices and products. Below are some aspects of our work which reflect our focus on sustainability.

Wool and Yarn

Most of the yarn in our kits is British Wool limiting transport and supporting other UK businesses. We use West Yorkshire Spinners yarn which is derived from British sheep and processed in the UK.

Wood

Our weaving looms are made from FSC and PEFC Birch Plywood. FSC-certified wood is a type of sustainably-sourced wood that has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Wood with FSC certification have gone through a rigorous set of environmental, social, and economic requirements in order to be considered sustainable. Whilst the wood we use is imported into the UK we purchase it from a local supplier limiting additional transport miles.

Postage

We use Royal Mail for the majority of our postage requirements. Royal Mail claim to be the greenest delivery option for letters and parcels based on average carbon dioxide emissions per parcel delivered by UK parcel operators. The majority of our products are shipped with the UK.

Packaging

We have moved recently to predominantly recyclable packaging. We now package our small weaving kits in paper bags without the need for plastic packaging. Boxes are made of brown recyclable cardboard.

Loom Manufacture

We have designed all of our looms ourself and we hand sand and construct the looms ourselves. The frame looms and combs are 100% wood. Our rigid heddle looms have no plastic parts being made of wood and screws/bolts. Our plastic threading hooks are made by us using a 3D printer and PLA filament which is a more environmental choice than traditional plastics.

Energy Usage

We cut the wood ourselves using solar powered energy (on the sunnier days). We aim to cut most of the wood during the sunnier months to ensure that as much of our energy usage is sustainable.