At Giant Deckchairs we’re committed to making informed decisions about our impact on the environment. We see the beauty of our surroundings every day, which reinforces our desire that everything we do should be as sustainable as possible.
We know we’re not perfect (who is?) but we strive to be better as we learn and grow as a company. We take as many steps as we can to ensure that we tread lightly on our fragile planet.
Our chairs are built to last. Our build process is more complex than our competitors. Our Giant Deckchair frames are treated with preservative once the individual wooden components have been machined and prepared. This ensures any wood cuts are sealed and enables a longer life span. The fixings we use on our deckchairs are made with stainless steel so they don’t corrode or need replacing as quickly as alternatives. With every purchase we provide product care advice, which if followed, can mean your frame lasts for up to 10 years.
4% of our turnover is donated to plant trees, help us plant more!
We recycle all our waste. Our timber arrives untreated which means that all of our offcuts can be used to keep us warm in the winter if they are unable to be turned into other products. We separate all our waste to ensure it doesn't end up in landfill. We have also designed our slings to maximise the space when printing, so there is less wastage. We're still working hard to find a way to recycle damaged slings but haven't found a solution yet. We've still got all our discarded fabric scraps as we're determined there is a use for it.
Replacement chair fabric. We have designed our chairs to allow you to easily swap out the material once it has reached the end of its life, or sooner if you fancy a change. Recycle your old material by sending it back to us* and receive 10% off your next order**. We keep a small stock of printed material from our collection and top these up by adding them on the end of bespoke print runs. This ensures we only print what we need and reduces our waste.
Efficient printing We only turn our printers on a maximum of twice a week to create longer and more effective print runs which significantly helps to reduce our energy usage. Our electricity supplier provides us with 100% renewable power.
We source our timber from a local, family-owned company, ensuring the wood has the highest of sustainable certificates, PEFC. This ensures that forest-based products reaching the marketplace have been sourced from sustainably managed forests.
Our deckchairs are packaged in 100% recyclable materials. All our deckchairs and fabrics are packaged in cardboard boxes that are made from at least 75% recycled material, and we don’t buy unnecessary polystyrene filling, plastic air pillows or bubble wrap. You will receive assembly instructions (printed on recycled paper), and a polypropylene strap to hold the chair together during transport. This means that 100% of the packaging is widely recycled in household collection schemes and at recycling points.
We love trees! We are committed to do our bit to combat climate change by donating 4% of our turnover to plant trees! We have partnered with TreeSisters who not only plant trees but their movement also focuses on education, empowering women and behavioural change. This is a new initiative for 2021 but we will be back dating it to the very beginning of Giant Deckchairs in 2012 by planting 1 tree for every Giant Deckchair we've sold before 2021. We've got a lot of catching up to do as that's over 3000 trees!
We opt to ‘Go Green’ with our couriers as standard when we book our deliveries. The ‘Go Green’ environmental protection program aims to reduce and/or avoid emissions of greenhouse gases and local air pollutants. Our couriers aim to reduce all logistics-related emissions to zero by the year 2050 - a great aim!
Cycle of Good. We are now an official drop off point for bicycle inner tubes! We are working with the charity Cycle of Good, who train tailors in Malawi to make quality goods handcrafted from your old bicycle inner tubes. This enables the tailors to earn a decent living and support their families. All the money made from the sale of the items they make is used for childcare and non-profit social enterprise in Malawi. That’s why it’s called the Cycle of Good!
Our warehouse on Marsh Barton is open Monday to Friday for you to drop off your inner tubes, or at the weekend you can leave them outside on the hook.
*Customers are required to pay the postage for returning their deckchair material to be recycled.
**10% off you next order code will expire 2 months after we receive your old sling.