A World of Furniture - Blog

A world of furniture prides itself on looking after our customers, giving them the best value on a wide range of products but this is not where we stop – as we also feel a we have a responsibility to the world outside A world of furniture, to try and give back to the local community (e.g the Naomi House, Salisbury Hospital) to get involved as much as we can with national charities (e.g Help 4 Heroes, Trussell Trust) but also to further our efforts when it comes to the environment.

We cover many areas with regards to the environment and are always looking at ways to improve our processes to ensure that we are doing as much as we can to protect the environment at home and abroad.

Tree Planting.

The biggest thing that A world of furniture do is to “Plant a Tree for every item we sell”, as a company we obviously rely heavily on products made from a natural resource that has a huge impact on the environment and we feel that it is our responsibility to lessen this impact in fact to try and neutralise it.  The team at A world of furniture have done everything  to make sure that all products come from sustainable sources but to really make sure that we are putting back into the system as much as we are taking out we have also been sponsoring the Forestry Commission and have been doing this since 2008.

By doing this we have helped in the planting of some 60,000 trees which have been a mix of hard woods and soft, evergreen and deciduous in our local forests, usually New Forest , Savernake Forest and further afield.

Recycling.

A world of furniture gets through an enormous amount of packaging and it is in our best interests to remove this in the best way possible, not just for reasons of the environment but it does make a bit of a mess in the warehouse! Part of the reason we will unpack everything on delivery (other than being very helpful!) is to make sure that we recycle as much of this packaging as possible and to that end we recycle at least 22 tonnes of cardboard and paper every year.

Bee Keepers

There are many facets to the environment and it is not always the obvious ones that need attention – trees for instance are the usual target for most but it is also the smallest of interactions in nature that need attention too and there is no bigger (…. or smaller !) example than that of the humble Bee which has been in rapid decline over the last decade or so.

The bee is a great contributor to the pollination of many species of flora, indeed many garden plants and agricultural/ horticultural crops (These include most tree and soft fruits, also many vegetable crops rely on this pollination) also need bees to bring about pollination by transferring pollen from the flowers anthers to the stigmas.

It is needless to say that if this pollination was slowed, its impact lessened by the smaller area a reduced population of bees could pollinate, it would obviously effect the abundance of plant life but it could in turn have a massive impact on our wildlife who rely on this flora for food, shelter or even mating, many insect species and butterflies are already in massive decline because of disappearing habitats, obviously there are many other factors that will contribute to this but on of the biggest proportion is attributed to the lack of pollination.

So to this end we sponsor the local Salisbury and District Bee Keeping Association to help them in increasing hives and bee numbers across the south.

Vehicle Management.

We now have several service and delivery vehicles on the road and as you can imagine there is quite a large fuel bill to met every year so again it is in our interests to have the most efficient vehicles on the road ….. that’s it job done. Well not quite, it is all very well having efficient vehicles that in their own right are friendly to the environment and on paper will no doubt save us money on the fuel bill but if we do not use them in a efficient manner then these numbers are meaningless and so we we introduced vehicle tracking systems.

These allow us to not only give good indication of how deliveries are going but to plan our routes more precisely, to monitor and reduce our fuel usage and even check the mileages to make sure that we not only run each of the vehicles as productively as possible but with as little environmental impact as we can.

Sustainable Sourcing.

New EU regulations have come into force this year with regards the importation of timber and any products that are made outside the EU, A world of furniture has for many years been very proactive in this area and has always made sure that we have purchased furniture from reliable manufacturers across the globe that have come from sustainable sources , to this end we have worked hard over the last couple of years to make sure that all of our suppliers have the correct FSC Certifications for their products.

This is just a summary of the things that we get up to as a business and I am sure that other ideas will come to us over the next few years  as there will always be ways to improve our efforts and you can rest assured that this will be like everything that we do in that we will always strive to better ourselves and the ways we go about our business.

Well it has been a busy few weeks here at A world of furniture, quite a few last minute deliveries as everyone is rushing around to get those last minute bits and pieces trying to prepare for when the relatives descend at Christmas and the cooking marathon begins in earnest to feed all of those expectant mouths with fine festive goodies!

But this year has been hard on us all with the financial crisis, companies going to the wall left, right and centre, food prices soaring, everyone has had to tighten their belts just a little more than normal this year, but still presents have to be bought, food stocked up and no doubt a few bottles of something to keep the merriment flowing!

But it is easy to forget whilst in this festive flurry that their are lots of folk out there that have already tightened those belts as far as they can, they may have lost their job recently or have just not been able to make ends meet with the income being stretched beyond breaking point and this is where the Trussell Trust come in.

The Trussell Trust has been going for several years now, collecting food and many other items at various food banks across the country and then distributing it to those who need the support all year round, but for the Trussell Trust this becomes even more poignant as we near Christmas, who likes to hear of kids starving at any time but more so at the festive season and especially in this modern age and indeed in the UK!

The Trussell Trust has been superbly supported this year by an overwhelming amount of generous donations from the public and a great deal of media coverage too, this has meant that they have been able to help out so many more families with food parcels and gifts, but this also meant that there were quite a few more deliveries to do too!

A world of furniture has had the privilege of helping the Trussell Trust at Christmas for the past couple of years delivering these parcels and it is always a very humbling experience, those of us that were delivering on Friday were greeted by people from all walks of life, young or old, mums, dads and families who were all so appreciative of these small boxes of food that I felt a little guilty that we were not able to give them more. One little boy was so made up when he saw a big box with a Turkey in it that he started running around his dads kitchen with such joy, whooping and a hollering, it was great to see.

I thank the Trussell Trust and all of their hard work, which has allowed us here at A world of furniture to be a small part of such a wonderful organisation,  not only does it make me appreciate more the things that I have,  but also a better understanding of those less fortunate and a great reminder of exactly what Christmas is all about.

Merry Christmas and a very prosperous happy New Year to you all!

OK so I was a bit of a cynic and I am sure that there are quite a few of us out there, lets face it the Olympics is one huge black hole down which we will tip a vast sum of money that makes the NHS green with envy (as it would probably cater for their budget 3 or 4 times over for one year), and make the average tax payer curse under their breath when more cut backs are mentioned just beneath the header “Olympics £56 million security contract  farce…”.

But I must be catching Olympic fever as already I have found myself loitering in Salisbury’s  Hudson’s field a little over a week ago watching the Olympic torch being whisked into the arena to much whooping and hollering from the crowd and slowly but surely my opinion has softened a little to it all.

The cynical stance can be taken that of all the money being spent we will see very little in the way of financial return or that the building works for the Olympic village, stadium, pools, velodrome will result in a collection of buildings no use to anyone to stand idly by collecting dust.

However it is not necessarily the monetary return that comes from this Olympics but the feel good factor that is equally as important and no more so than right now, in times when money is tight and the future for many is uncertain and in some cases downright bleak, then it is events like this where everybody can forget, just for the moment, their woes and come together as a nation, making everyone feel that bit happier and creating a bit of self belief and it the creation of this positive attitude that will help draw the UK out of the doldrums, a happy work force is a more productive one……

So yes, Olympic fever I to have succumbed, I now look forward to a bit of flag waving, shouting encouragement to the mens 4 by 4 relay, commenting on the way ol Wiggo has conquered all in the cycling, maybe even showing an interest in Synchronised Swimming….. well maybe thats stretching it a little bit…..