We are proudly Toitū net carbonzero certified

Our journey to Toitū accreditation

Initially becoming a net carbonzero certified company seemed daunting and confusing. How could we successfully run a furniture business in these challenging times, while also considering the environmental impacts?

We first met with Toitū Envirocare in October 2020. We realised that becoming net carbonzero certified would mean assessing the current business model and changing our strategy and perspective. We needed to determine how to convert our activities into a unit of measurement that could be used by Toitū's program to measure carbon emissions.

As a small niche furniture company we questioned whether going net carbonzero was financially viable. We were in uncharted territory. Where and how would we begin? As a company, we would have to learn new terminology and change our thought processes.

But we decided to commit to the Toitū process. We created a new role and employed a new staff member, Caroline Screen, who was solely dedicated to overseeing this task. She worked closely with our Operations Manager, Pei Tian Leong to pull all of the data and complete the process required to get certified. In the furniture industry, the manufacturing and moving of furniture make up a large percentage of carbon emissions. The Toitū online reporting programme and spreadsheets were valuable tools. The team became information gatherers, delving into old invoices, freight, waste and power bills, as well as getting data from suppliers.

To begin with, figuring out accurate carbon emissions was complex and clumsy. After much trial and error, along with guidance and support from the Toitū team, we were able to calculate our carbon emissions based on the weight of individual furniture items, their volume, and the distance travelled. An eye-opening moment was finally seeing our carbon footprint. From that calculation, we were then able to establish and integrate solutions and goals to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. The current long-term goal is to reduce greenhouse emissions by 30% by 2030.

The knock-on personal effect

Becoming certified has been a group effort. As a team, we are excited and proud of our accomplishments. Much of what we’ve learnt will be filtered into our personal lives, helping to reduce our individual carbon footprints.

This is just the beginning

The Toitū net carbonzero certification is an ongoing and evolving process of authenticity and transparency. Each year we will measure our progress. We are required to continually measure, manage and reduce emissions to Toitū standards.It’s a work in progress, constantly being reviewed, updated, modified and shared with Toitū and our team.

Sustainability is good for the SmartSpace brand and good for the planet!

SmartSpace is committed to creating a positive reputation of environmental transparency and accountability. We hope to inspire others and attract clients that want to be part of the solution - believing that their small changes can make a big difference and at the same time yield positive financial returns.

A momentum of collective change

We hope that our actions will have a knock-on effect and may encourage our clients, suppliers and other companies to follow suit.

We believe business and the environment can win. Getting to this point takes effort and commitment, but the long-term results are going to be very rewarding.