Environmental Policy

Our Environmental Commitment (2020 update)

Here at Play to Z, the importance of environmental sustainability and ethical choices has always been a central design principle alongside our products' safety and play value.

We see the climate crisis as a call for action to do our bit to ensure that future generations can appreciate the wonders of the world’s plant and animal kingdoms.

Many animal species, including Orangutans, who share 97% of their DNA with humans, are moving ever-closer to extinction or getting displaced as a direct result of human activities and our global demand for cheap consumer goods. The worlds rainforests and their abundant biodiversity are being destroyed at an alarming rate to meet the global demand for palm oil and other cash crops and with this, the potential loss of ecosystems supporting thousands of species of insects, reptiles, plant, fungi and animals.

As Primary rainforest is lost to palm oil plantations, its value as a carbon sink is reduced at exactly the time when human-caused Carbon Dioxide emissions are rising faster than ever.

We care about the children, families and schools that we support and we care about the planet upon which we all depend.

Like all responsible businesses we want to make sure that our impact on the planet is a positive one, so from design and product selection to distribution, packaging and training, sustainability lies at the core of everything we do. Of course, there’s always more that can be done to limit our carbon footprint, but here’s what we are doing together with our plans for the future.

Sustainable and Ethical Awareness Raising

• Our products are designed to educate and raise awareness of sustainability, spreading the message among children, families and schools about our amazing planet, our impacts, and what we can do to protect it.

Sustainable design and purchasing

• Where possible our products are ethically and sustainably made in the UK, reducing air miles and ensuring a transparent and short supply chain.
• All the products that we design have sustainability and positive life cycle analysis built in to ensure that they maximise play and learning value without compromising the environment.
• All our products are built to last and designed to meet a child’s ongoing needs rather than toys to be quickly discarded and add to landfill.
• Where possible natural resources are favoured, e.g wooden toys in preference to plastic.
• All the fleece used in our fabric products are azo-free.
• All the felt used in our Stacking Hoops and Mini Stacking Hoops are made from environmentally friendly chemical free sources.
• The wooden hoops used on Stacking Hoops and in our other products are forestry stewardship approved, avoiding depleting the rainforest.
• We work with local centres for adults with physical and learning difficulties to support ethical businesses and work experience.
• Many of our handmade products use materials which would otherwise go to landfill, such as the chamois leather used to make the distinctive hoops on Stacking Hoops.
• We have phased out and replaced items which we no longer deem to be ethical or sustainable, such as the silk cocoons in our Caravan Sensory Tales.
• All the sensory toys that we carefully select offer maximum play value and durability to avoid single use plastics.
• Where possible, all the selected sensory toys are made from recycled/recyclable materials.
• No chemicals are used to create our handmade products. We even use sunflower oil to remove unwanted labels.

Packaging

• None of our products are supplied in unnecessary packaging. Packaging materials are only used to ensure safe transit of the goods.
• Approximately 80% of all boxes used for dispatching goods are reused, to minimise our footprint.
• We do not use any plastic tags on our products and all bags, leaflets and catalogues provided at exhibitions are made from recycled/forestry stewardship paper.
• Where point of sale materials are required at exhibitions these are made from cardboard and recyclable.

Future Plans

• We are developing a range of new resources which raise awareness of endangered habitats and species and work in partnership with charitable groups to make a difference.
• We are phasing out our range of Treasure Baskets to further minimise our carbon footprint.
• We are reviewing our range of carefully selected Sensory Toys to ensure these provide maximum environmental value for money.