Sustainability

Made from Waste

Foresso is made from a minimum of 65% waste wood content, all sourced from within the UK.

Our Ethos

Sustainability isn't just about recycling. We take our commitment through the entire business.

Waste Negative

Our aim is to consume more waste than we produce, a challenging goal for any manufacturer.

Materials

What is Foresso made from and why?

Offcut Timber

Wood is a renewable material that naturally captures carbon, as well as being beautiful and practical. We use every last bit, including all the interesting knots and burr that you find in non-commercial timber.

Our timber is sourced as offcuts and left-overs created as part of city development and maintenance. Usually this material is burned but we aim to find value in the pieces that were previously overlooked.

Wood Waste

We use large amounts of planing waste and wood dust in our sheets to add a gentle speckle and pleasant warmth; essential for the timber terrazzo aesthetic.

Both of these are huge waste streams from the timber industry that is currently impractical for small businesses to recycle. Our focus has been to find ways to use waste that does not currently have an associated circular economy.

Mineral Powders

We developed our mineral content mix in house to give our binder exceptional durability and a fine matt finish. It comes from a variety of sources including cement and plaster waste from foundries.


We also reuse our own sanding dust in our material, creating a circular process within our production.

0% VOC Bio-Resin

VOC stands for “Volatile Organic Compound”, these are harmful substances that are released over the lifespan of a material and are commonly found in plastics and composite materials such as solid surfaces.

The carbon footprint of our resin is at least 40% lower than the equivalent petroleum based systems, based on its Climate Change Global Warming Potential (GWP).

FSC Birch Plywood

Our plywood is made entirely from FSC Birch from renewable stocks and is of exceptional durability and quality.


This exceeds the requirements for structural plywood and UFH, making it perfect for furniture building and other demanding projects.

Company Policies

What else do we do?

Plastic Free

We don't use single use plastics and the only disposable items we have are essential protective equipment for our staff.

All of our packaging is recyclable and plastic free, with most also being made from recycled materials.

Waste Management

Less than 5% of our waste goes to landfill. All the rest is either recycled or used for energy reclamation at a facility less than 5 miles from our factory.

Our aim is to become "Waste Negative" - to consume more waste than we produce. To this end we keep close track of every kilogram of waste we produce and consume, reviewing it monthly to constantly improve our strategy.

Supply Chain

Every aspect of our supply chain is thoroughly audited to ensure that we are as sustainable as possible. This involves reducing travel distances, choosing more sustainable materials, and reducing incoming plastics.

You can find a full breakdown of our incoming supply chain here.

End of Life

Although not (yet) widely recyclable Foresso can be returned to us for re-use and recycling, every piece of material no longer needed can be ground up and used in future batches so that none goes to waste.

We are happy to arrange shipping back to our Birmingham factory for old material and waste material from projects.

Future Goals

Without clear goals we can't improve.

Total Circularity

Our overall aim is to be waste negative - consuming more waste than we product - but we also want to have complete circularity within our own production. This means finding uses for any waste we produce.

On Site Energy Generation

We are actively investing in technology to generate electricity on site. This will be a combination of new generation and reclamation from our existing processes.

Electric Delivery Fleet

Shipping is notoriously complex and carbon intensive, so we want to bring it under control by investing in our own electric delivery fleet.

More Accessible

We want to make ethically and sustainably made products more widely available in terms of supply and price. We are actively developing new materials with the support of InnovateUK to meet this goal.

0% Landfill

Although only 5% of our waste goes to landfill, we want to make this zero. This last bit is very challenging as it is mostly used PPE.

100% Recycled and Renewable

The last hurdle for our products is to be made 100% from renewable waste material. We've made a lot of progress over the past years and there are some exciting new technologies to help us with this.

Got Questions?

We're always happy to talk about why and how we do things. If you have any specific questions or would just like to talk about the challenges of sustainability please do get in touch.

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