Setting up a co-operative is a philosophical and political statement. In so doing we have set out our stall as a social enterprise; radically diverging from the prevailing profit motive in search of something truer, more fulfilling, more authentic.
The key idea in co-operation is the belief in the collective genius of your peers; the sense that together we are more than the sum of our parts. We are seeking through co-operation to generate a fair, respectful and dynamic working environment, where all voices are heard and knowledge is pooled for our mutual aid and the greater social good.
Since the Time-and-Motion Men of the early 20th century, efficiency has been a watch word for businesses. Though the original ideas behind a push towards efficiency were about increased profitability and productivity, for us this drive has taken on a different cast. In a world of ever increasing population and diminishing resources we cannot afford to be wasteful.
We strive to output efficiencies for round timber that are industry beating, squeezing every last piece of wood from the log. In this way we demonstrate our respect for the material with which we are working and acknowledge the many years that it has taken for our raw material, trees, to grow to a usable size.
Working with a natural material, like timber, is a continual reminder to think of the environment from which it came. We are acutely aware of the pressures on local and global forests to be productive to our demands and this awareness has led us to make informed choices about the timber we source and products we produce.
We have committed to only buying round wood from within Wales (and this almost always from North Wales), in so doing we decrease our timbers’ transport miles. We select species that are suitable for our climate and are multifunctional; timber like larch and douglas fir, which are durable in the damp conditions prevalent in western Britain and can be used for cladding, building and furniture making.
Where it is unnecessary we do not kiln dry wood (fencing, sawn cladding, large dimension timbers), as up to 30% of the energy stored within a given piece of timber can be used to dry it, significantly contributing to carbon emissions to atmosphere. We never treat wood, partly this is based on the science of how treatment works and partly because the meagre benefits of timber treatment simply do not outweigh environmental costs.