Our Sustainable Journey - Planet
From Clay to Plate, sustainability is intrinsic to every step in the manufacturing process of our British made ceramics. Starting with our responsibly sourced clay materials, through striving towards a circular economy within our manufacturing processes, to the 4500 solar panels on the roof of our UK manufacturing base.
Churchill are a responsible organisation and as we look towards a sustainable future, we continue to invest in and research more environmentally friendly processes.
Materials
We source our clay locally from within the UK, thereby reducing the miles our raw materials need to travel to us in Stoke-on-Trent. Our raw materials suppliers are responsible and share our values of continuous improvement, transparency and a commitment to reducing environmental impact.
At Churchill we are committed to longevity, and geologically there is over 100 years supply at our clay source, ensuring the consistency and performance of our products. We continue to invest in our supply chain and in 2019 fully purchased Furlong Mills, our ceramic materials supplier thereby enabling further material, process and product innovation.
Our raw materials are a precious resource, so we maximise their use by eliminating waste through our manufacturing processes.
Waste
We are striving towards a circular economy and are continuously improving our manufacturing processes using the reduce, reuse, recycle model. For example, 100% of dry waste clay is recycled and any fired pieces that fail quality control recycled into building materials.
Our Eco Glaze system is especially formulated so that any over-sprayed or spilled glaze goes through a lengthy cleaning process and is reused in our factory, thereby minimising both waste glaze and waste water to reduce our environmental impact. A centrifuge system also separates clay and waste water, allowing the water to be reused.
So that we don’t pass on any non-recyclable waste to our customers, 100% of our core packaging is recyclable.
Continuous improvement is deeply ingrained in our Churchill company ethos, therefore we constantly review and improve our processes to reduce our environmental impact. Our Manufacturing Masterclass program empowers our team to improve manufacturing processes within their own departments, reducing energy usage and waste.
Energy
At Churchill we are continuously reviewing our processes in order to reduce the energy intensity of our business, we’re also staying ahead of the latest technological advances in order to build a more sustainable future.
In 2019 we bought 240 solar panels for the roof of our Stoke on Trent manufacturing site, since we have continued to invest in solar energy and now have 4500 panels on site. Through investment in our solar panels, our UK warehouse is now net-zero. Infact 100% of electricity used across our manufacturing base and head office is from 100% renewable energy.
A further move to renewable energy in 2023 has been the replacement of our gas fuelled fork lift trucks with a new electric fleet.
Through investment in our firing process we have increase the efficiency of our kilns, improved insulation, VSD compressors and low gas switches on our glaze lines prevents gas being wasted unnecessarily.
As a business committed to a sustainable future we’re actively trialling alternative fuel sources and are working alongside our colleagues in the British Ceramics Confederation to achieve a net zero industry by 2050.