Manningtree: Business hands out carbon receipts to customers

Woodfashioners, based in Manningtree, is a family-run, event fabrication company, which makes bespoke exhibition stands, events, retail displays and furniture.

JJ Ryan - a director from the company - said it was offering the receipts as "it's the right thing to do".

An example of a carbon receipt. (Image: Woodfashioners)

Thirty-six-year-old JJ, who runs the company alongside fellow director and founder Alphonse Ryan, said: "As a company have voluntarily signed up to the SME Climate Commitment, to halve our GHG emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero before 2040.

"As a bespoke fabricator, the only way we can do that is by measuring our impact and then engaging with clients to improve design and installation of the events, exhibitions, retail displays that we fabricate.

"We thought the best way to do this is to show clients the carbon impact of the projects they work with us on, and by seeing that, together we can start to set targets and change how we work to reduce carbon emissions moving forward.

"Before I joined my brother and invested in woodfashioners, I was a sustainability consultant in the Middle East for 10 years, so it's something I am passionate about."

Mr Ryan hopes that the initiative will help make everyone involved in the business become more conscious of their carbon footprint.

He added: "It will make us, our customers and the brands they work with think about the impact of the work they commission - by not only getting a financial bill for work, but a carbon bill as well.

"In the short term, it will allow us to offset emissions from these projects and contribute to reforesting around the world.

"In the long term, as a company, together with our clients, we can make better decisions on how events, exhibition stands and activations are designed, the materials they use and how they are installed so as to reduce their impact as much as possible."