Diamond Isle Sculptured Glass

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Running a business such as a glassworks clearly uses a lot of natural resources and I am dedicated to reducing the effect my business has on the environment. I would like my customers to feel happy that their sculpture is created in an environmentally friendly way as is possible. Our popular recycled glass awards, means no glass goes to waste!

EFFICIENT FURNACE
      The furnace funs on natural gas and I designed it to be very efficient. It is insulated with the most up to date materials and powered by a modern burner designed and supplied by MRJ Furnaces .
      Unlike most glassworks I generally use the furnace and not a glory hole to reheat the piece. This saves a great deal of energy and stops the studio from cooking! The furnace is on all the time, day and night – to turn it off at the end of the day and then fire it up in the morning would not only waste large amounts of gas, it would also stress the structure of the furnace through all the sudden shrinking & expanding. Every night I turn the furnace down a little and between me and two assistants we aim to use it every day of the week.
      In the Summer of 2008 I had a stainless steel heat exchanger fitted to the flue to preheat the air before it goes into the burner. This has resulted in the furnace using about 25% less gass!

GALLERY HEATED BY FLUE!
With the help of my father in law we built a heat exchanger off the main flue and this recycles the final waste heat from the furnace to power a large six foot radiator which we sourced from a scrap yard. This helps to keep the gallery end of the studio good and hot during the winter!

LEAD FREE GLASS
The glass I use is soda based and does not contain any lead. I am therefore not releasing any lead into the air during melting and into the water system during the grinding processes.

RECYCLING ALL THE GLASS
I also recycle all the left over glass called cullet. Many glassworks throw their coloured cullet away. We carefully separate all the colours, tub them up and twice a year, melt all green bits left over, then all the blue etc. These mixes create unique colours that are perfect for the recycled glass awards and cast fossils.

PACKAGING
Luckily working on a large site like this, some packaging materials can be recycled. This includes boxes, bubble wrap, flowpack and polystyrene sheets. The gift boxes I buy are made from a cardboard which is made from sustainable forests that are replanted to replace trees that are cut down. We are now placing the majority of purchases in paper bags and only using plastic for heavier items. Some of our packaging is now sourced from Green Island Supplies.

Supporting Charities - OVER Ł1750 RAISED SO FAR!
Instead of a demonstration fee, we suggest people make a small donation to one of two charities:
Ł1106.36 has been donated to GIFT TO NATURE which helps Island conservation projects. Visit their website to see what work they do - gifttonature.org.uk
Our KIDS ARC FOUNDATION donation box has now collected Ł659.72. The money will help this international charity help orphaned young children from Tailand.

Lighting:
We have now changed nearly all of our bulbs over to energy efficient LED types. Our evening display lights and cabinets are also on timers.

Fuel for Vehicles:
50% of the fuel for my van is now supplied by Wight Made Diesel, a local company that recycles old cooking oil and turns it into diesel. Contact info soon to follow.