Founded in 1983, Boss Design is a market leader in the UK seating industry and a major player on the international scene. Through our commitment to innovation and new product design, we have enjoyed a constantly evolving product portfolio and year-on-year success within the design led sector.
Today’s market demands quality, reliability, service and above all product choice. We have built our company on these four foundations and they are now intrinsic to our business philosophy.
The Boss Design product range sports a variety of upholstered seating, task chairs and meeting furniture and extends to include breakout seating, contemporary tables through to bespoke product design.
Our extensive manufacturing experience and capability is reflected by our prestigious portfolio of international blue chip clients.
Boss Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is at the heart of how we do business. At Boss Design we are completely aware of our social and environmental responsibility and the impact of our global business operation.
We have always tried to do the right thing by our people, our clients and the environment and have implemented a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy to ensure that our contribution is always a positive one.
Our CSR policy has three main focus areas: sustainable business practices, society and the environment. Our CSR policy is supported by our corporate values and the culture of our business.
We acknowledge that business today does not exist to simply make a profit. Remaining a sustainable business entity is our key priority. Added to this, we want our business to set an example and to pass on a positive legacy to future generations.
Being a manufacturing-based business, conserving the environment and behaving responsibly are business necessities, as well as a human one. Our ‘cradle-to-grave’ philosophy ensures our entire business, wherever we operate in the world adheres to stringent guidelines in this very important area.
Our CSR committee and sub-groups are constantly investigating ways to become even more responsible and "earth-friendly". Reducing the impact of our business on the environment and encouraging other to act the same are just two examples of this focus. We are also actively engage with the community and investigating ways that Boss Design can enhance the lives of the less fortunate as well our local community.
For example, we pass on best practice ideas to our employees for them to implement at home; we hold stakeholder seminars on sustainable business practice and environmental issues. We work pro-actively with the community and local schools and we regularly present our philosophy and best practice suggestions to clients, suppliers and partners
We are a significant local employer, a leading UK supplier and increasingly a major global player in our field. We always consider the welfare of our employees and by the very nature of our business, the wellbeing of our client’s employees. On this note, we are at the forefront of our industry in the field of ergonomics. We do our utmost to ensure that our clients experience maximum support and comfort from our chairs.
As an equal opportunities employer, our social policy starts with our people. The welfare of our employees is very important to us and we value diversity and encourage personal development.
We work proactively to ensure that our impact on the local community is a positive one. We actively engage with local schools to raise the profile of manufacturing. We operate open days at Boss Design so that local school children can visit our 'walks and talk' sessions. Children learn about product design, production engineering and manufacturing.
Year-on-year the team at Boss Design continues to raise thousands of pounds for local good causes. However, our actions are not restricted to just fundraising. Every year we work in-depth with several organisations to ensure that our actions make a real difference.
Over the years we have helped to furnish facilities at several local centres, sponsored fundraising events, designed bespoke chairs for charities such as Children in Need and produced and donated pet beds from surplus fabric. We realise that as our business grows that our social responsibility grows too.
To ensure that our positive actions reach some of the most vulnerable sectors of society we work with the Green Standards organisation. We contribute to the 'Waste to Wonder' initiative which is dedicated to improving the lives of individuals through the reduction of waste to landfill. Boss products that are fit for reuse are redistributed through two main channels:
Channel 1 School in a Box project - schools in developing nations are furnished with redistributed Boss seating.
Channel 2 Waste to Wonder Warehouse project - local and national schools and charities are furnished with redistributed Boss seating.
We have also developed a relationship with the Greenworks organisation for the redistribution and recycling of client end of life seating products. This partnership has enabled even more Boss Design seating to be donated to local good causes.
We have earned a reputation for quality products that more than satisfy the needs of our clients. We are aware that the greatest cause of back pain results from people spending long periods of time seated in the same position.
Our product design considers this issue throughout the entire design process.
We have earned a reputation for quality products that more than satisfy the needs of our clients. We are aware that the greatest cause of back pain results from people spending long periods of time seated in the same position. Our product design considers this issue throughout the entire design process.
Boss seating not only exceed all current legislation requirements but our seating is also ergonomically engineered to ensure that the user's physical wellbeing, mental alertness and capacity to work efficiently is maximised. All of our products undergo rigorous posture and comfort testing. We regard ergonomic excellence as an important aspect of our social responsibility policy.
To find out more about our social credentials contact Paula Hampton on phampton@boss-design.co.uk
Download the Boss Design Ergonomics Excellence pdf
We continue to minimise any negative impact on the environment through our companywide practice of reducing, reusing and recycling.
In 2007 we worked with the Carbon Neutral Company and the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management to become a fully accredited carbon neutral company.
This was a significant milestone for our business.
We are proud to have achieved this feat through positive environmental actions and a small amount of carbon offsetting. We always design, build and distribute our products and services with the environment in mind. Our Environmental Management System (EMS) more than satisfies all elements of ISO 14000:2004. This has helped us to better understand and measure our impact on the environment. Today we continually measure and monitor our activities. We are pioneers of environmental management in our field and have successfully delivered the following improvements:
1) We have an active environmental sub-group with representation from each department. They meet on a regular basis and report directly to the board on the following issues: energy consumption, office waste, excess fabric and leather, local exhaust ventilation, heating, vehicle fuel usage and supplier waste management.
2) At each stage of our design and manufacturing process we consider the environment. We actively work with our clients, partners and suppliers to ensure that our products and production processes remain efficient and have minimal negative effect on the environment.
3) Our suppliers understand our strong environmental stance and our commitment to using innovative and sustainable materials to further enhance our environmental credentials. We prefer to work with like-minded suppliers who seek to minimise adverse environmental effects.
4) We are pioneering reusable packaging for many of our products and where this is not possible we ensure that packaging is compacted and recycled in the most efficient way.
5) We consider the whole life impact of our products and believe that we have a responsibility to ensure that such chairs do not go to landfill. We have introduced our 'end of life' management program which aims to put these chairs to better use to support our charitable activities. Any chairs that are not fit for purpose are broken down to component form and recycled components arriving at Boss Design.
6) We are also in the process of offsetting the carbon emission of individual chairs. This involves measuring the processes related to obtaining raw materials, manufacturing the component parts and all peripheral activities involved prior to.
7) Through a schedule of planned energy management steps we have significantly reduced the amount of energy we consume throughout our business. Simply turning down heating thermostats by one degree has reduced our gas usage by 8%.
8) We monitor our use of internal and external transportation to eliminate unnecessary travel and ensure efficient vehicle utilisation. We have a policy of using low emissions vehicles and effectively schedule deliveries. We have started a program of driver fuel efficiency courses and we monitor the use of company owned vehicles on a monthly basis. This has encouraged reduced business travel and facilitated the introduction of video conferencing.
9) To significantly reduce waste to landfill to a minimum in just over a year has been a phenomenal achievement for our company. This has been achieved through a carefully designed programme of waste management activities implemented over a dedicated period of time.
Equally remarkable is the progress that we have made to reduce our carbon emissions. A series of proactive measures mean that we are well on target to reduce our emissions by over one hundred and fifty tonnes by the end of 2010
We continue to improve our operational performance and we are working with our supply chain to further reduce pollution, waste and the use of non-renewable resources in the whole life production of our products
It would be very easy for us to become complacent about our achievements. However, we see this work as merely the start of even more positive environmental initiatives from Boss Design. The future will see us build on our energy management, minimal waste and low carbon emissions credentials. We will also be addressing greener transportation throughout the business and further enhancing our supplier environmental relationships.
