When Light Owl was first founded, we wanted to create a business which minimised its impact on both our local environment & our planet. This has remained as one of our core principles, and we always consider how any changes we make to our business may affect our planet.

Some of our key commitments are as follows:

• Eliminating, as much as possible, the use of single-use plastics.
  
  
• Minimising our packaging. We have managed to significantly reduce the amount of packaging needed by using higher quality boxes. Rather than using cheap boxes & lots of bubble wrap, we buy extra-strong cardboard boxes specifically tailored to be a snug fit around the lampshade. This ensures that the lampshade doesn’t move around inside the box where it could damage itself, but also means most orders don’t require any additional packaging. The box itself is fully reusable or recyclable. Overall, this means virtually all of our items arrive safely whilst producing no excess waste. If we do feel it is necessary to use additional internal packaging, we try to use recyclable materials such as packaging paper or re-use bubble wrap we have received on our deliveries.
  
  
• Using materials from reliable & trustworthy UK based suppliers as much as possible. Not only does this ensure our materials are of high quality which ensures the longevity of our products, it also reduces our carbon footprint with delivery to us.
  
  
• Use couriers with strong environmental policies of their own. Our primary UK courier, Royal Mail, has made strong commitments to the environment including transitioning to electric post vans amongst many other things.
  
  
• Offering lampshade recovering. If our customers have pre-existing lampshades, we try to recover them. This allows us to recover the original metal frames in fresh fabric & PVC. By doing so, we reduce the amount of new frames we need, but also reduce the amount of materials ending up in landfills.
  
  
• Reusing “scrap” fabric & PVC. In the course of creating our lampshades, we inevitably produce scraps of materials that cannot be used to make future lampshades. However, rather than simply throwing it in the rubbish, we reuse as much as possible to create the samples we send to customers.
  
  
• Offering excess fabric to local crafters, both adult & children. Whenever we discontinue a design or have more than we need for samples, we regularly offer this fabric to local crafters who can use it to create products of their own. We’ve seen people create everything from rag rugs to clothing for their teddies.