Does it make a difference to you whether your Picture Frames (including mounts, any printing paper, backing back boards etc – anything timber based.) are made from FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council®) certified wood?

Well, I can’t say for sure what you would be getting otherwise, only what you’re definitely not getting with the certification:

• Slave labour used in production
• Destruction of habitat for endangered species
• Destruction of indigenous peoples’ traditional way of life
• Pollution of Forest regions
• Over-harvesting of Forestry adding to climate change

Many years ago, Hope Elletson, Founder of Pictureframes, read Natural Capitalism a title considered the 1999 environmental bible:  published by the Rocky Mountain Institute.

Hope knew that he was in an industry which cut down a lot of trees but he could not be sure of any significant measures to ensure that harvesting would be done in the right way.

So, 10 years ago, Pictureframes started to change direction, intent on establishing a more responsible and moral manufacturing process, and achieved its first major success when it earned a Certification from the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) in 2013:  the only bespoke picture framing & printing company in the world to hold such an award.

Important

We know that responsibly sourced timber is a very environmentally friendly construction material, unfortunately, it’s not always responsibly sourced. The Amazon Forest alone is still vanishing at a rate of 10,000 square kilometres a year, and it’s still getting worse.

The World Wildlife Fund says: By choosing FSC certified forest products, you can be sure where they’ve come from. They won’t have been harvested in a way that causes irreversible damage to forests, people and wildlife“.

…that PictureFrames promotes face-to-face is now FSC certified. 100% of the frames on our website meet the FSC regulations .

We do have some legacy customers for whom it has not yet been possible to source FSC certified materials. The materials we buy for these customers are not promoted to other customers and we are intent on moving established customers over to FSC alternatives

As a result of our sustainability efforts, we won an important customer. World famous wildlife artist, Gary Hodges chose us to frame all the work for his new exhibition. Heart and Soul, a successful show which raised over £160,000 for two charities – The Born Free Foundation and the Environmental Investigation Agency.  Here’s what Gary had to say about PictureFrames:

‘When planning my recent solo exhibition in aid of elephants, of course we wanted everything to be as environmentally friendly as possible. After some research online, we found  the perfect match for our goal with the frames… pictureframes.co.uk  Amazingly, they are the only fully FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council®) certified framer in the whole of Europe, meaning everything they use, from frames to backing board, comes from sustainably managed forests. On top of all this, the frames were beautifully crafted, with seamless corners and in the exact colour white we wanted. It was a huge exhibition, but the 174 framed pictures were all delivered without fuss on the dates requested. We will definitely be using this friendly company again for my next exhibition!’

• The FSC certification helped us get the job to frame Gary Hodges’ exhibition.
• The Blackmore Vale selected us as finalists for the Media Green Award.

We know that the certification has a great resonance with many artists and many customers are supportive of the motivation behind it. We are hoping that we will shortly get a job to frame 1,000 pictures for a charity, and to frame an exhibition in Berlin later in the year as the FSC certification will be a major factor for the both the charity and the artist.